The Boston Globe/Interview

===Interviewhttps://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2012/03/24/breakout-star-grimes-creates-pop-darker-hue/0pA1WHPCQhZZd85tgCLW1O/story.html===
Breakout star Grimes creates pop of a darker hue
By James Reed Globe Staff,March 24, 2012, 11:00 p.m.
AUSTIN, Texas - Claire Boucher shows up for an interview clutching three vinyl records under her arm. The selection is so telling, they almost seem like a prop.
She’s holding an album of Mariah Carey remixes and two more by Skinny Puppy, who were pioneers of electro-industrial music. She says the LPs were a gift from Canadian TV personality Nardwuar.
As Grimes, Boucher makes music that splits the difference between those two artists. Her latest songs are catchy, sticky as toffee and meant to make you dance. But they’re also heavy with dense, pulsating beats that carry a tinge of doom and gloom.
“Sometimes people get the wrong idea that it’s just pop,’’ says Boucher, who brings Grimes to Great Scott on Monday for a sold-out show. “It is pop music, but I think there’s a whole other ethical level to Grimes.’’
It’s the tail end of South by Southwest, the sprawling music festival that took over this Texas town last week. Today happens to be Boucher’s birthday, and she has a lot to celebrate. With multiple shows over the past few days, Grimes has emerged as one of SXSW’s breakthrough artists.
Her new album, “Visions,’’ is the toast of the indie blogosphere, and it brought her to Austin in a swirl of hype. Not bad for someone who just turned 24 and never expected her music to be heard beyond her bedroom.
In the posh bar of the Driskill Hotel, amid the wood interior and old-world elegance, the Montreal-based Boucher cuts quite a figure. She’s in an oversize T-shirt by fellow electronic musician Pictureplane. Her face sparkles with a few gemstones affixed around her eyes. Her hair has a slightly mossy green tint to it, and her hands are covered in colored skull rings. She bites her nails.
This is her idea of an underground pop star, and Boucher is keenly aware that image is paramount in her line of work.
“Everything is so context-specific,’’ she says, citing an unlikely example. “If Enya had a shaved head, she would have a totally different market. The way things are presented is as much a part of the art as the music itself.’’ (She loves Enya, by the way, and she’s not being ironic.)
Grimes has played at SXSW before, but she has gotten a wildly different reception this time.
“People didn’t know about me last time,’’ Boucher says. “I’m here with a better record, and it’s more accessible. It’s not really lo-fi, ambient, and drone-y like my previous ones. That’s kind of the point. I wanted to make something that everyone could like, but deep listening makes you understand it’s something more than pop music.’’
Not that there’s anything wrong with pop music. Quite the opposite.
“For me, pop music is the most essentially gratifying music,’’ she says. “I feel like the goal of pop, more than anything else, is to hit the sweet spot. And I want to make music that feels really good.’’
She also wants it to provoke and make you think beyond the infectious beats. The video for “Oblivion,’’ the new album’s standout track, is a lesson in uncomfortable contrasts. Boucher filmed it on location at a football game, but she didn’t let anyone in on the premise.
It’s unscripted, a mix of stylized scenes (muscled men lifting weights in the locker room) and candid moments with spectators. The various reactions to Boucher, rocking pink hair and glittery outfits you don’t associate with diehard sports fans, capture the song’s undercurrent of isolation.
“That song is dark and about feeling vulnerable physically as a female,’’ she says. “I really wanted to deal with aggression and masculinity and male physicality in a voyeuristic kind of way. The aesthetics of sports is so different from making art.’’
The video includes a scene with Boucher in a crowded room of shirtless young men violently pushing one another. Boucher eventually gets shoved, too - and it really hurt, she says.
“All the guys at the end were my brother’s friends. In high school, my brother started this rumor that I was a Satanist,’’ she says, amused by the prospect. “Those guys were my enemies.’’
“Oblivion’’ is the climax of her live act. At one of Grimes’s SXSW performances, Boucher plays keyboard, looping and layering the melodies, and sings in a girlish voice. Her eyes scan the crowd, staring at individual faces for a hint that everyone else is having as much fun as she is. She’s a natural but insists it’s still a struggle.
“It’s my worst fear. I’m so afraid of performing. It’s so stressful for me,’’ she says. “I like it because it scares the [expletive] out of me. It’s an exercise.’’
That’s partly because Boucher usually works alone. Making music is intensely personal for her, enough so that it feels odd to finally share it once it’s done.
“It’s embarrassing to put it out there,’’ Boucher says. “It feels risky, but what else can you do? I think life should be risky.’’Category:Interview
Category:2012