Chatting to Annie Clark, what is noticeable is how much she differs from her artistic alter ego. The music she creates as St. Vincent — ambitious art-rock that blends avant-garde sound with melodic richness — has been refined to the point that now, four albums in, she is an artist working entirely in her own sphere. Her songs drip with anxiety, vulnerability and sexual intrigue.
By contrast Clark, a Texas-raised, New York-dwelling 31-year-old, is the polar opposite: softly-spoken, thoughtful, eloquent. You wonder the extent of the gap between her true self and the perfectly constructed moniker.
"It's all genuinely me," she says on the phone from Dallas. "It's just a matter of projecting a certain aspect of your personality. I was reading Miles Davis' autobiography and he says the best thing you can do is sound like yourself and create a world that isn't for anyone else. I felt like I achieved that on this record."
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