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Interview
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===Interviewhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2ycCV3GfFn8qCtR185pLcc2/diy-life-grimes-plays-us-new-music-and-talks-to-annie-mac-about-writing-performing-and-directing-everything-herself===
DIY life: Grimes plays us new music - and talks to Annie Mac about writing, performing and directing everything herself
Grimes: Flesh Without Blood, Realiti, and... Ave Maria (!) live at Maida Vale studios
Canadian multi-instrumentalist Grimes plays live for Annie Mac.
Canadian singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and video director Claire Boucher, aka Grimes, stopped by the Maida Vale studios to chat to Annie Mac about her work - and to play a few select cuts live. For her most recent album, last year's Art Angels, Grimes said she tried to reinvent her sound again.
"I thought, ooh, this could be my downfall - but I also felt really proud of it, and that's the main thing."
Whereas her previous album, Visions, was written in a short and intense period of time, with Grimes fasting and avoiding daylight, for Art Angels she took the opposite approach.
"It can be artistically helpful but there's definitely a limit to how productive that kind of thing can be. I was like, alright, I'm going to go back in, and then I was like...I'm really hungry and tired. So I took an entire year to write it, I tried to be reasonable and keep snacks in the studio."
Grimes said that her DIY approach to all aspects of her art - she recorded everything, produced everything and played every instrument on Art Angels - was in fact an "extended form of laziness".
She joked that getting a stranger in seemed about 10 times as difficult, and that "the reality is, my nerves are too bad to have other people record my vocals."
Still, this route has its own difficulties - such as when she's tried to both direct and star in her own videos. "When I'm getting my make-up on and directing people, it's kind of stressful. I usually resort to doing my own make up and hair before I get there!"
After performing "Flesh Without Blood" and "Realiti" from Art Angels, Grimes talked about what she aims for in a live experience. "We mostly try to make it as absurd as possible. One of my favourite live acts is Mindless Self Indulgence - screamo, headbanging, insane costumes - and we try to do a mix of that with Beyoncé."
The UK has thrown some unexpected obstacles in the way, though. "We normally have a wind machine, but we don't have one in the UK because apparently you guys have a fan shortage!"
There was also time for a special cover version. Grimes chose the Austrian composer Franz Schubert's Ave Maria, from 1825 - a Latin prayer that she used to sing in her Catholic school. Her sparse, haunting rendition sent her fans into raptures.
Category:InterviewCategory:2016