Montreal Mirror/Interview

===Interviewhttps://grimes-claireboucher.tumblr.com/post/20123123053/mirror===
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The big picture
Grimes keeps Mile End's music scene on the map by striking the perfect fringe-pop chord on her third LP, Visions, and remaining in charge of a rocketing career
by ERIK LEIJON
As far as coming out parties go, "Oblivion" is an unassuming victory lap for an in demand It Girl to take. Don't misconstrue that as a denigration of the deceptively simple and frugal clip, which finds the fast-rising 24-year-old Mile End-based singer and producer, née Claire Boucher, enthusiastically swaying and lip-synching at a pair of under-attended local sporting events before finding herself in the middle of a mosh pit comprised of shirtless dudes. Wisely, the "Obliv- ion" video somewhat contradicts the fervid attention her third album Visions has been receiving among musical tastemakers abroad, and despite the video's lack of razzmatazz, in one month it has already garnered nearly a quarter- of-a-million YouTube views.
But pop stars like Rihanna- whom Grimes would love to write songs for-don't land on stadium stages fully formed; they require cultivation and a team of professionals to iron out any imperfections. In the hands of said experts, Grimes's atypical approach to vocal-based electronic pop music, along with her affable, effortlessly cool presence, could be the ideal clay needed to mould a de facto pop icon for tumblr-curating dilettantes.
Boucher's approaches to music and image, however, remain entirely solo endeavours. Granted, Visions is being released outside of Canada on the influential British label 4AD, but even that alliance was made with trepidation. "We ended up talking to a lot of labels actually, and the first thing a lot of them talked about was getting a 'real' producer," says Boucher, "which is the antithesis of what I'm doing." One important provision in the 4AD deal was that Visions be released in Canada on local imprint Arbutus Records. "The Grimes team is the Arbutus crew," she says, "so it needs to stay together."
Although Boucher does have a strong affinity for pop stars-audibly evident in Visions' plundering of a wide array of vocal styles from 80s new jack swing R&B to 60s girl groups to their fizzy K- and J-pop equivalents, not to mention unconventional influences such as medieval-based organum chanting-she's keen to sidestep the cookie-cutter pop template whenever possible. "Pop music is at least part of the equation, but I want it to be more than that, too. I don't want to be confined to any ideas of what pop is."
In what ways might Boucher envision herself getting boxed in if she decides to hide within a meticulously built Grimes character? "There are expectations for female pop stars to be sexual-that's not something I'm interested in. Or to have to make pop music, because I also want to make lots of other music. Or how pop stars tend to not produce their own shit or not have that much to do with their own image I want to retain control over that. I really hate the idea of having an alter ego."
LAB GESTATION
When a wide-eyed Boucher first arrived in Montreal in 2006 from British Columbia to study at McGill, she had a taste for music but not the skills for creating it. Enter now-defunct loft space Lab Synthèse and its close-knit cadre of artists, led by Arbutus Records head honcho Sebastian Cowan- where Boucher was given the space to grow into the dexterous singer- producer responsible for Visions.
"I started picking it up because all my friends were musicians," she recalls. "In the back of my head, I always figured I could make music, but I had to learn how to use software, and I think it was also important to be around musicians constantly. By watching them, it became a bit more clear to me how it worked; it broke down the mystique." She credits a pair of local soundsmiths, Flow Child and Majical Cloudz (aka Devon Welsh, formerly of Pop Winds, who guests on Visions), for showing her the ropes of music-producing software. "I'd be hanging at Lab Synthèse, and people would be jamming in the main room most of the day. My first live show was there, too-it was with Alex Cowan [Sebastian's brother], who's in Blue Hawaii. We wrote some songs together and he electronified them."
It may sound like eons ago, but that first foray into live music was in early 2010. She quickly followed it up with her first self-released album, Geidi Primes, a collection of all that was presentable from her earliest creations. Not long after came Halfaxa, a much more concerted attempt at creating a cohesive album that went a long way to solidifying Grimes's musical language: unconventionally structured pop songs built on ghostly, atmospheric soundscapes, angelic, reverb-drenched vocals, and cold, robotic synths. She closed out 2011 with Darkbloom, a split- EP with fellow local D'Eon that she disavows ("it's emotionally empty," she says). But it did produce "Vanessa," a relatively straightfor- ward R&B number, sluiced through her omnivorous pop-culture filter, that significantly raised her profile. For Visions, Boucher sequestered herself in her Mile End apartment for three weeks, not leaving and sleeping little, sticking to her pattern of working non-stop until a song is over. "I usually write and produce a song in about 14-16 hours, and I'll do it straight," she says. "I wanted Visions to be sharp, but kinda fluttery and beautiful, and kinda scary. I wanted it to be a dance album and I wanted it to be experimental, but clear and filled with songwriting as a big part of it." She adds that she didn't want the songs to meander, as she feels some of her earlier work does.
PAST IMPERFECT
Boucher is a bit cagey surrounding a few subjects, most notably her abbreviated time at McGill (which figured prominently in a recent piece about her on Billboard's website). Her increased visibility has burned her once already, thanks to a particularly unflattering story that appeared in the Minnesota Star Tribune in 2009, chronicling her illfated voyage down the Mississippi River on a boat she built with a friend. The story resurfaced upon the release of Visions, and along with it a slew of questions Boucher wasn't all that keen on fielding.
"It really sucks, and by the way that article was not in any way factually correct," she says, admitting that she is defensive about the subject. "We had a motor, everything was fine, and I don't give a shit about Huck Finn. It wasn't a nostalgia thing, it was us trying to do something and then the cops destroyed our boat, arrested us, took my passport and left us broke and homeless in the States. What you read online is not correct, but it sucks there's this story out there that's not true and you constantly have to defend your situation."
In terms of the expedition itself, prior to police intervention, Boucherlooks back upon it with a chuckle. "It was something I did. It seemed like a good idea at the time."■
ALBUM LAUNCH WITH BORN GOLD AND MOZART'S SISTER AT CABARET MILE-END ON SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 8 P.M., SOLD OUT
Category:Interview
Category:2012