MUSIC: ST. VINCENT AKA ANNIE CLARK

Foam: Your new album is called Actor. Were you thinking cinematically on this one?
Annie Clark: I wrote a lot of the music by watching films on mute and imagining what the scores would sound like. I was so fried from being on—it was a way to be working but also just be watching a movie. Laziness as work.

Foam: It certainly didn’t come out lackluster, though. There are all kinds of interesting sounds.
Annie Clark: I took the idea of casting and applied it to the instrumentation. The clarinet has an identity. It represents whimsy. And then I would think, okay, the guitar can be gross, distorted. It can be the monster. The whole thing was done with films in mind.

Foam: Your wardrobe is basically camera ready. What do you look for in clothes?
Annie Clark: I am really sad that Mayle closed down, because that line was everything I wanted in a fashion experience. But I’m trying to wear a lot more color because black is the default zone.

Foam: What’s wrong with black?
Annie Clark: Well. I end up wearing it a lot because I’ve bought a couple of white dresses before and I just ruin them. This United Bamboo dress was one of my favorites I’ve ever owned and then I shredded my finger on a guitar string and bled all over it. I looked like Carrie.

Foam: From the Stephen King movie? Fabulous! No, you always look great. Actually, you are somewhat of an indie-rock sex symbol. There must be a lot of dorky guys with desperate crushes on you.
Annie Clark: It’s true, I’m a dorky sex symbol for dorky people.

Foam: You sort of brought it on yourself with your first album cover, didn’t you? It’s a close-up picture of your face with the title, Marry Me, inscribed above it.
Annie Clark: Yeah, wasn’t that funny? But part of it is speaking to a sincere longing that people have in life and love. At the same time, it was totally ridiculous and self-effacing.

Foam: This new album opens with these ethereal choir-like vocal runs. We know you were in Polyphonic Spree, but did you ever sing in a choir in school?
Annie Clark: Two years in a row I tried out for choir and I was rejected.

Foam: Well, now you’ve showed them!
Annie Clark: Actually, wait, no. In junior high, I was in the choir, but everyone was in it. I was too scared to sing, so I would just lip-sync the whole time.

—Cristina Black