Pitchfork/2011/Oct/Interview

===Interviewhttps://pitchfork.com/features/rising/8689-grimes/===
Grimes
Montreal's Claire Boucher makes featherlight GarageBand pop as Grimes.
by Carrie Battan
OCTOBER 17 2011
Claire Boucher, the 23-year-old singer and producer from Montreal who goes by Grimes, talks about making music the same way many people describe the effects of attention deficit disorder. Her easily distracted sound culls inspiration from scattered genres and themes that she grows obsessed with and then quickly sets aside-- Korean pop music, contemporary mainstream divas like Mariah Carey, and the work of Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, to name a recent few.
The constant in Boucher's music is her distinctive and girlish falsetto, which often soars above whatever references she's compiled. (On the phone, her comparatively low-pitched speaking voice is a little surprising.) All of it then gets filtered through GarageBand; each of her releases, including her forthcoming third full-length Visions-- out January 31-- has been recorded and produced using the consumer-friendly program.
After two LPs, Geidi Primes and Halfaxa, and Darkbloom, a split EP with D'Eon, Boucher says she's now comfortable enough with her voice to make it a more significant focal point on the upcoming album. And whereas her prior releases served as cobbled-together rough drafts, Boucher says Visions marks a genuine debut.
Pitchfork:Visions is your third album, but you've said it feels like your first. Why?
Grimes: Those other two albums were literally the first music I ever made. They were just practice. I don't hate them, but instead of actually making what I wanted to make, I was making what I was able to make. I wish I could have just put this out as my first album.
Pitchfork: Are you still going to school at McGill University in Montreal?
G: I was actually expelled for missing almost a year of class. It's their policy, but I wasn't aware of it because I was skipping at the time. [laughs] So I no longer attend McGill, which kind of sucks because I wish I had a degree after spending that much money and time working on something. But actually, no, it doesn't suck. I was done. Now, I'm working on music all the time. It's not like I really need a job, because everything is super cheap in Montreal.
Pitchfork: You played to some relatively big crowds opening for Lykke Li recently. What was that like?
G: It forced me to become a musician. Previously, I was playing shows for 30 people, and then it turned into 3,000 people. So I practiced a lot and made everything more coherent. Before that, it was kind of jammy-- I would improvise a lot. But that tour is one of the reasons why I started bringing my vocals up, because I would always [get a better reaction] if the vocals were higher in the mix.
Pitchfork: You co-directed your video for "Vanessa" from the Darkbloom EP. What was the inspiration for it?
G: That was a real K-pop-influenced video. The budget was $60, which all went to alcohol. We literally planned it the night before. I just got a bunch of my friends to drink a lot and was like, "We're going to do dance moves." We did it in a couple of hours. I almost didn't care what it looked like; I just wanted it to look like everyone's having a good time. I also wanted it to be kind of creepy, too, hence the backward stuff.
I want to make a video for every track on Visions, and right now I'm starting one on 35mm for "Oblivion". It's going to be sick. All my brother's friends play varsity sports and are buff, so we're going to have them spritzed in oil, working out with strobe lights in it.
Pitchfork: Are your siblings into your music?
G: I have two younger biological brothers and two stepbrothers, and they're all into it, kind of. My oldest stepbrother is a rapper. He's called Jay Worthy. He's pretty tough, pretty crazy. Like, you get in his car, and there's blood splattered in it, and you're like, "Oh." We want to collaborate.
Category:Interview Category:2011