An Interview with Grimes

This interview was published on TheThousands (RIP) shortly after the release of Grimes’ 2012 album Visions and eight years before she had a baby with the heir to a Zimbabwean emerald mine.

Claire Boucher (a.k.a. Grimes) is so hot right now. When she isn’t crashing New York Fashion Week, sailing a homemade boat down the Mississippi or being turned into several hundred mesmerizing gifs, she can be found writing and producing ambient pop hits in her bedroom, some of which – the hits, I mean – appear on her new album, Visions.

I called Grimes on the phone and spoke to her about sport, getting high on Christmas and what it’s like to be punched in the face. And then I went back to sleep and she went back on the internet.

Chris Harrigan: Hi Grimes! I mean Claire. How are you?

Claire Boucher: Good, how are you?

CH: I’m not bad. You just finished your first proper American tour. How was it? I guess I’d get pretty tired with that kind of thing.

CB: It’s definitely super exhausting, but it’s really fun. This was definitely the funnest tour I’ve ever done.

CH: Does it feel different playing these kinds of international shows now, in contrast to the dance parties you’re used to playing around Montreal? 

CB: It really depends. Some gigs totally feel like a party. I think one of the biggest issues with playing a ‘normal’ gig is that you’re playing on a stage, and so you’re elevated above everybody else. And traditionally I’ve just been very used to playing on the floor and everyone is kind of like all around me, which feels a lot more like a party. It feels a lot less weird and a lot more communal and you can just get more intimate.

CH: Less of a hierarchy.

CB: When you’re standing up above everybody else and then there’s like this distance between you it’s, I don’t know like our shows in Montreal you can just play around on the floor and everyone’s just dancing all around you and you’re like in the dance party when you’re playing. It feels more real, or something.

But I mean people are still dancing, it’s definitely really fun. A different kind of show and way bigger audiences. You couldn’t play a show like that in a 600-person room, you know?

CH: I heard some crowds have been kind of condescending, heckling you about how cute you are on stage. Does that happen a lot?

CB: It doesn’t happen that much, but sometimes people yell stuff like that. I think it’s my bangs. I’m getting rid of my bangs. I’m growing them out. It’s too, like, little doll-look or something.

CH: There is this image of you that’s been cultivated though, this kind of chic aesthetic, that you must be aware of. I mean, Grimes functions on a visual plane as well as a sonic one, right?

CB: That’s definitely a huge part of it. I mean that’s a huge part of the way that people interact with music in general these days. And especially me, I’m super attached to the aesthetics of anything.

CH: Do you see yourself as a celebrity? I was at a party last night and this girl told me that her haircut was inspired by you. It looked nothing like any of your haircuts.

CB: Not really. I don’t really read the internet, I’m opposed to reading my own media. It just stresses me out. It almost feels the same except that now I get recognised on the street sometimes. But my friends are all the same, and that’s who I hang out with so, it just feels the same.

CH: You went to Japan recently, right?

CB: No but I’m going soon, in the summertime.

CH: Are you ever going to come to Melbourne? It’s only like half an hour from Japan. I think. I’ve never been.

CB: Yeah we’re going to Australia probably in the fall?

CH: Okay. Your fall, my spring.

CB: Like November.

CH: That clip for Oblivion is probably the best sports-related thing that’s not actually about sports I’ve seen since Friday Night Lights. Or Moneyball. Agree or disagree?

CB: Haha! I don’t know how great it is but we tried. I mean, I love the aesthetic of sports. They’re beautiful.

CH: You seem pretty scared in Oblivion, lyrically. But I also get the impression if we were walking down the street and got into trouble with a roving gang you’d be able to fly kick us out of the situation. So like, fight or flight, Grimes?

CB: Usually fight, but I definitely know when to run. I think.

CH: That’s useful.

CB: I actually love fighting a lot. I fight a lot with my friends. Sparring and wrestling and stuff.

CH: Do you ever get hurt?

CB: Yeah I usually lose. I’m not a very good fighter, I just like fighting.

CH: I think it’s all in the tricks, like wearing military boots has got to help. You need, like, armour.

CB: I don’t know. I have this one friend, Hannah, and she’s just not afraid to hit me and whenever we fight she just punches me straight in the face. And then I’m just out.

CH: Has anyone ever run up on stage and tried anything on you, where you felt like you might have to restrain them? Does that kind of madness actually go on?

CB: People come up on stage and dance but I’m super into that. I like it when people come up on stage and dance. One time someone stole my shoes.

CH: What, they took your shoes off you?

CB: Well I usually start my set with my shoes on and then I kick them off. I have this thing where I just tend to take my shoes off when I’m playing. And someone took them one time.

CH: Did you see that acoustic cover some guy on YouTube did? It’s really sweet!

CB: Yeah it’s incredibly well done! And it’s also really cool because I never thought of it (Oblivion) in that song-writey way, you know, he like figured it out. I am super impressed by that.

CH: Is it weird hearing people perform your own songs? It’s kind of impressive given how obtuse a lot of your lyrics are that someone can sing along with them.

CB: It’s really cool. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone cover one of my songs before, actually.

CH: Do you listen to a lot of the music people claim to hear influences of in your work? People drop Aphex Twin into reviews a lot. Kate Bush for some reason. But I feel that you’re coming from a different side. That the similarities are more coincidental.

CB: I think it’s easy to compare me to Kate Bush because we’re both experimental female pop artists who produce our own music. And I respect her a lot, but I’ve never really listened to her or been into her music that much.

CH: Right.

CB: Aphex Twin for sure is a pretty big influence on me. There are certain things that people say that are definite influences and certain things that aren’t. It’s just the way people talk about music. Reference points are a really easy way to discuss anything. And a lot of artists have similarities to other artists even if they don’t think they do, or if they don’t like the other artists.

My favourite Aphex Twin is Selected Ambient Works – the really early stuff. I’m just really into the texture of a lot of his beats and how sharp they are. I don’t know how well I actually executed that on the album.

CH: I think they’re pretty sharp, Claire.

CB: Haha!

CH: You’re a big Tool fan, right?

CB: Yeah I love Tool. That was one of my favourite bands in high school.

CH: Me too. I think it’s kind of funny because I still listen to them now when I want to get into a particular mood, but I find it really hard to imagine making that music now.

CB: Yeah, Tool has really dated, but I think that they were pretty special. They kind of existed in a vacuum. My parents banned me from going to the concerts when I was younger. I remember Tool and Marilyn Manson both came to Vancouver when I was a teenager and they just wouldn’t let me go. They would just ground me. It sucked. All my friends went and had life-changing experiences.

CH: Do you come from a musical family?

CB: Not really. My parents are really not super musical. I have a brother who’s like a rapper.

CH: I know. He’s scary.

CB: Well he’s into some stuff…

CH: The first track off his album, I listened to it, it’s just someone screaming. Do you think you might collaborate with him in the future?

CB: I produced a song for him, actually. It’s called The Christmas Song by Grimes and Jay Worthy. I should post it online.

CH: It’s the perfect time for a Christmas song.

CB: Haha! We made it at Christmas dinner. Our family was having Christmas dinner and it was super painful, so me and him and all my other brothers and my cousins just went outside and smoked a huge joint, and went to the basement because we knew our parents wouldn’t bother us because they’re like, ‘Oh the kids are bonding so we won’t bother them.’

So we got super baked downstairs and we were just producing this song and Jay just freestyled all the verses and I was just chopping them up. And my brother was like, ‘Put more bass!’ and like, ‘Put this here!’ and everyone was just yelling and we were all so fucked up and we just made this hilarious song.

CH: A typical Christmas.

CB: It was insanely fun and then we had to go upstairs and talk to everyone and pretend we weren’t stoned.

CH: Is it difficult to party when you’re touring around the world?

CB: I know a lot of people in a lot of cities. Usually I have at least one friend.

CH: North Americans tend to move around the continent I guess. We’re pretty parochial here.

CB: There’s also a lot of people, or bands that I like, I usually try to talk to them on Twitter or something and build a friendship.

CH: You and Skrillex are courting a kind of online friendship quite closely at the moment.

CB: Oh yeah Skrillex tweeted me, it’s like so cool. I’m so scared though because he’s so famous and cool.

CH: Well in certain circles.

CB: Ha.

CH: Is it odd how long it takes for you to put music out now that you’re signed, given that you used to just upload it straight to the net?

CB: It kind of sucks. I finished Visions in August, you know, and I have a lot of other stuff that I’ve been working on. But since I’m on a bigger label now I need to be a bit more, like, careful. But that’s just how it is. Either no one hears it and you make a tonne of it, or people will hear it but you’re only allowed to put out music once a year.

Um the next person that I’m supposed to do an interview with is Skyping me right now so I think maybe I have to go?

CH: Well thanks so much for talking to me.

CB: I’m so sorry.