Exclaim!/2015/Interview

*By Cam Lindsay*
Published Oct 19, 2015

The last time Claire Boucher released a Grimes album, she was still considered a rising artist coming up in the ranks of Montreal's fertile DIY scene. That was almost four years ago, and a lot has happened to the BC native since then outside of releasing music. But finally, we will be getting new music soon, as well as a tour. While Grimes says the album will drop imminently, she doesn't consider it a "surprise release" in the same manner as Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus. But there was a reason for holding off on rolling out promotion for the yet-to-be-named album.

"The main reason I wanted to not give an exact release date is because when you announce an album then there's three months before you put it out," Boucher tells Exclaim! "And then when you put it out you don't care anymore. We actually just finished mastering the album. I just want the flexibility to be working on it until the last minute because that's my vibe."

Boucher understands it's been a long wait for her fourth official album, which she has been calling her first "proper" full-length. As reported last year, she already had enough material to release an album in 2014; however, it didn't live up to the high standards or the musical direction she has now set for herself.

"I could've put out an album a year ago, but it wouldn't have been the one I wanted to make," she admits. "I felt I could've done better. And then there was all of this pressure. Everyone was reminding me of the hype and saying, 'Don't fall for it!' So I just took my time and tried not to worry about it. I tried to make it really, really good."

With this album, Boucher finally feels she has proven herself as a producer. While *Visions* transformed her into a magazine cover star, gave her nearly 300,000 Twitter followers and caught the attention of Jay Z, who signed her to the management arm of Roc Nation, she feels that album represents the early stages of her career, when she was still learning how to become a musician and producer.

"Honestly, my first three albums were normally, for musicians, something most people wouldn't hear," Boucher says. "Like [2010's] *Geidi Primes* was the first music I ever made. So with those three albums, I think there is some beauty to the naïveté, but they are an example of someone trying to become a professional. I don't want to put too much cachet into professionalism. I'm definitely not about that. But *Visions* wasn't very finished. I made it in about two or three weeks. A lot of the songs I just made a beat for and then improvised some vocals over top.

"With this album I felt it was more important to actually write lyrics. I was hoping to take it to the next level with regards to skill and creativity. With each record I try and do something different, and with this one I wanted people to listen to it and say, 'Whoa, she totally improved her craft.' I think that was really important. It's like [Nine Inch Nails'] *The Downward Spiral* compared to *Pretty Hate Machine*. It's so incredible to be a fan of an artist that can take these huge creative leaps."

One thing the new album offers that we haven't heard before is the blatant sound of guitars. Grimes' music has always been confused for "synth-pop" or considered electronic (*Visions* took home a Juno for Electronic Album of the Year in 2013), but Boucher says time allowed her to learn how to play the instrument and even open new doors for her music. As a professed fan of acts like Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins and Marilyn Manson, who have all integrated guitars and synthesizers, this shouldn't really come as a surprise. And the result, when you hear them, won't be as jarring as you might imagine.

"I think after *Visions*, I was trying to make new stuff using the same tools, and after a while, I wanted to shake it up a bit," she explains. "I didn't want to make another synth-pop record. But it was more about hanging out at my stepdad's house where he has all of these guitars and I was trying to learn how to play watching YouTube tutorials. It was pretty fun, and musically and melodically, it gave me a whole new realm of possibilities. There are lots of songs without guitar, but I was more excited by the songs with them. It felt more like a new world, which is why a lot of those made the new record. For me the guitar has always been kind of a mystery. I guess it's a pretty normal instrument, but for me it's a very foreign thing."

**Grimes**

Free to Fly

*By Cam Lindsay*

*Published Nov 04, 2015*

For the last three years, a new album by Vancouver born-and-bred producer/artist Grimes (aka Claire Boucher) has been included in every "most anticipated albums of the year" list published. Finally, with the release of *Art Angels*, that tradition should end in 2015. Following up her career-making breakthrough album, 2012's *Visions*, Grimes could have ended all of that anticipation last year, but she just wasn't satisfied with the results.

"I could've put out an album a year ago, but it wouldn't have been the one I wanted to make," says Boucher. "I felt I could've done better. And then there was all of this pressure. Everyone was reminding me of the hype and saying, 'Don't fall for it!' So I just took my time and tried not to worry about it. I tried to make it really, really good."

Boucher had every reason to try harder. This time around, she has the whole world watching her. Back in February 2012, Grimes was a little known underground artist living in Montreal, newly signed to legendary indie label 4AD. With two albums and a split EP released via Arbutus Records (which released *Visions* in Canada), Boucher curbed any expectations she had for the album. "With *Visions*, I signed with 4AD after it was done. I made the record sure that not even 200 people would hear it."

Once released, however, *Visions* needed very little time to establish Grimes as one of independent music's brightest new stars. Amongst all of the glowing reviews and year-end list dominance, the album was also shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize and won Electronic Album of the Year at the 2013 Juno Awards. Over the next three years, Grimes would become ubiquitous in popular culture, appearing on countless magazine covers, co-hosting the MTV VMA red carpet, attending the Met Gala, modeling for Alexander Wang and touring with both Lana Del Rey and Skrillex. Boucher knows the expectations for *Art Angels* have intensified.

"This is definitely the first record where I knew that a lot of people might hear it," she says. "At this point, there is the weird pressure knowing that you employ people. We have a record that is properly mixed and mastered, so there is a lot more on the line in a way because we're investing more in it. It's one of those things that makes me want to do a better job. If people are going to pay ten bucks for this, it has to be really fucking good."

Feel free to part with that last ten bucks in your wallet, because I can assure you that *Art Angels* is "really fucking good." Grimes has entered a new chapter with her fourth album. Whereas *Visions* benefitted from her attempt to write pop singles using wide-eyed ambition and humble production, this album finds her working with a whole new spectrum of styles that demonstrate the confidence and proficiency she has gained over the last three years.

"Honestly, my first three albums were normally, for musicians, something most people wouldn't hear," Boucher admits. "I think there is some beauty to the naïveté, but they are an example of someone trying to become a professional. I was hoping to take it to the next level with regards to skill and creativity. I didn't want to put out this record until I felt like I could walk into a room with any producer and have them respect me as an equal. With each record I try and do something different, and with this one I wanted people to listen to it and say, 'Whoa, she totally improved her craft.' I think that was really important. It's like *The Downward Spiral* compared to *Pretty Hate Machine*. It's so incredible to be a fan of an artist that can take these huge creative leaps."

Boucher would be far too modest to accept a comparison to Nine Inch Nails, but her development as a producer, songwriter and lyricist — even her artistic vision — is as obvious as Reznor's was with his second album. She even took cues from Reznor, as well as other alternative rock favourites like Marilyn Manson and Smashing Pumpkins, by incorporating the guitar, which she had to learn to play. The instrument provides the driving force behind some songs, notably aggressive bangers like "Flesh Without Blood" and "Kill V Maim," and the sun-kissed "California."

"I wanted to shake it up a bit," she explains. "I didn't want to make another synth-pop record. But it was more about hanging out at my stepdad's house where he has all of these guitars, and I was trying to learn how to play watching YouTube tutorials. It was pretty fun, and musically and melodically it gave me a whole new realm of possibilities. There are lots of songs without guitar, but I was more excited by the songs with them. It felt more like a new world, which is why a lot of those made the new record."

*Art Angels* seems destined to make Grimes the pop star she nearly became on the back of the "amateurish" *Visions*. It's big, bold and brimming with anthems designed for a mainstream that has opened its arms to fellow misfits like Lana Del Rey and Lorde. And with Jay Z's Roc Nation managing her career, it seems like the only person who can possibly interfere is perhaps Boucher herself.

"Just because there are hooks and music videos doesn't mean it has anything to do with the Top 40 or anything like that," she says. "I believe very strongly in creative freedom and doing what I want. That's my number one priority. If I was on a major label and the record totally failed, it would be a huge fucking disaster. I just feel very strongly about being independent. And Roc Nation is great because I don't have to figure out my visas and it lets me streamline and focus on art. Everyone says I am [a pop star] all the time. But I'm an independent artist on an independent label. I just don't think Grimes is a pop star."

1. ↑ https://exclaim.ca/music/article/grimes\_sheds\_light\_on\_mysterious\_new\_album
2. ↑ https://exclaim.ca/music/article/grimes-free\_to\_fly