Seven records and three Grammys in, St. Vincent decided it was time to take matters into her own hands. “All Born Screaming,” released in April, is Annie Clark’s first self-produced album and her first release on her own label, Total Pleasure Records. Clark has worked with some stellar collaborators over the years (David Byrne, anyone?), and “All Born Screaming” continues her upward trend as a powerful art rock nonconformist.
This time around, “the general philosophy was just work with your friends,” Clark explains. “Just make art with your friends.” She created space for creativity and brought together musicians who not only had aesthetics she liked but also those who could be honest with her: “People who you really trust, who will 100% be honest with you [because] you don’t necessarily need a hype man.”
The list of talented bandmates extends to the road with drummer Mark Guiliana, guitarist Jason Falkner, Rachel Eckroth on keys and bassist Charlotte Kemp Muhl. Still fairly fresh and touring behind the new release, “The show feels at that right, exciting place where it’s really tight but also not fully baked,” Clark tells. “New things happen every show, and you kind of never know what’s going to happen.”
Headlining Hayden Homes Amphitheater Aug. 8, St. Vincent shares the stage with indie rockers Spoon and electronic pop artist (and Bend native) Maiah Manser. Annie Clark spoke with the Source Weekly about her obsession with making dance music, hanging out with the world’s greatest drummers (two Foo Fighters appear behind the kit on the album!), and her “DIY ’till you die” ethos. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Source Weekly: We’re excited for you to be out here in Central Oregon soon.
Annie Clark: I know, me too! I’ve never been, and I know it’s so beautiful.
SW: “All Born Screaming” is your seventh studio record but the first one you’ve self-produced. That said, it’s not the first time you’ve produced a record, having helmed Sleater-Kinney’s 2019 album “The Center Won’t Hold,” among other production credits. Why did you decide to self-produce your own record now?
AC: I just knew that there were places I needed to go, as an artist, as a songwriter, that I couldn’t go unless I spent a lot of time in a room by myself, and found it — and found a new way and a deeper way to make music.
SW: Leading up to this album you spent a lot of time by yourself messing with modular synths and drum machines.
AC: Yeah, I’m still captive to them, unfortunately.
SW: Do you have a whole room full of synths now?
AC: Yeah, I’m in my studio right now and there’s [starts counting and trails off] 12; 12 synths and drum machines set up to make live electronic music [laughs], which I’m obsessed with doing. Which is funny because I never really went to clubs and I don’t listen to techno or house on the regular, but I’m just obsessed. [Laughs] It’s really fun. I love making electronic music. I love making dance music, and it’s a weird thing for me to love doing because I don’t know that much about the genre at all. I’m just exploring.
SW: You actually did a lot of drum programming on the new record, but then you also worked with some of the industry’s most incredible drummers, like Josh Freese, Dave Grohl, Mark Guiliana and Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint.
AC: It’s a who’s-who of drummers. It really is pretty staggering. It was wonderful. You know, Dave is Dave, and he plays on “Flea,” he plays on the end of “Broken Man,” and he just brings so much thunder and enthusiasm. And then Mark Guiliana, I got to watch him do a solo drum show last week, and Mark Guiliana is the only drummer I would ever want to watch for an hour and a half. He puts on an incredible show. And then Josh Freese, I had him come in and he plays on “Hell Is Near,” which is so restrained but so beautiful. And then also he plays on “So Many Planets,” which is basically like a messed-up reggae, but he plays it like a ballerina. I loved working with all of them. And then Stella crushing it on “All Born Screaming” and that circular groove — excellent.
SW: I read that you’ve wanted to make a record called “All Born Screaming” since you were 23. Why was now the right time?
AC: Well, I think I hadn’t earned [it]… I didn’t know everything that the title could mean until now. I think it would have been a very different record, because “All Born Screaming” is, it’s protest, it’s agony. It’s also the most wonderful thing in the world: The baby’s screaming, it’s alive and that’s a miracle—that’s a genuine miracle. I think the record touches on all of that: life and death and the urgency of all of it.
SW: “All Born Screaming” is also the first release on your own imprint, Total Pleasure Records. Why launch your own label at this point in your career?
AC: Well, pretty much it’s kind of just DIY ’till you die. That’s kind of my ethos. Basically, what I’ve always done is DIY, and, you know, in some cases, high-level DIY. [Laughs] At this point, you kind of know what you need from a label, and so you might as well just take some ownership of it because you end up doing a fair amount of the work anyway.
SW: What are your plans for the label?
AC: Maybe I’ll
put out other artists who I like. There’s certainly plenty of young, talented
artists, but at the end of the day, I don’t ever want to be “the man” to young talent. I don’t
want to be the person who’s like, “Sorry,
we don’t have a video budget.” I have no
interest in being a source of disappointment for someone who might want to sign
to my label based on their relationship to me or my music. I’m
not good at admin, right? That’s not where I’m trying to be. Probably it’s
just for me unless something radical changes.
SW: So for now, it’s just DIY ’till you die.
AC: DIY ’till you die, that’s
it.
SW: Are
you still rocking your Ernie Ball signature guitar?
AC: Oh yeah! I
think I’m only playing the Goldie the whole
show.
SW: What
was your reaction when you were approached to develop a signature guitar?
AC: There were
certainly so many ideas that I had. “Of
all the various guitars I played, this would be my perfect guitar.” I had that
idea in my head. A lot of times when artists make signature guitars, they take
an existing model and they just modify it. But this is like, “OK, what if we start from scratch
completely?” And so, this guitar gets to have a life of its own, without any
baggage of guitars past. It just gets to be its own thing, and people get to
make their own history with it.
SW: And
there are a lot of notable musicians who are playing it as well.
AC: Yeah.
Olivia Rodrigo is playing one. Jack White was ripping one for a while, a bunch
of people. Emily Roberts from The Last Dinner Party… there’s a lot of very cool players in
various genres playing it, which makes me so happy.[1]
SW: Of
all the collaborators you had on this record, is there a specific story that
you’d
like to share about how one contributed their talents to the record?
AC: I’d
written the song “All
Born Screaming” but I was struggling with the feel on the drums and the feeling
of the song. My friend Cate Le Bon was listening to it, and I was frustrated.
You know, the point of making a record where you’re done with yourself? And Cate heard
it and she’s like, “Cool.
Give me a beer, a bass and two hours.” [Laughs] And I did and I came back and
she had written that great bassline on fretless that just transformed, just
opened up the song.
St. Vincent – All Born Screaming Tour
With special guests Spoon and Maiah Manser
Thu., Aug. 8
Hayden Homes Amphitheater
344 SW Shevlin Hixon Dr., Bend
Doors 5pm; show 6:30pm; all ages
$62.70
Bendconcerts.com
This article appears in Source Weekly August 1, 2024.
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