ST. VINCENT

RESHAPING THE GUITAR IN BOTH FORM AND FUNCTION

Annie Clark is perhaps the most beguiling guitarist to emerge in the past 20 years. The artist known as St. Vincent makes music that is a collision of adept, otherworldly guitar arrangements and propulsive electronica, a mix that has made her a leading light of the alt-rock movement’s genre-subverting strain.

A Berklee grad inspired to learn guitar by grunge acts like Nirvana and Soundgarden, Clark debuted her genre-bending approach on 2007’s Marry Me, kicking off a career that has had its fair share of success and critical acclaim. Her eponymous 2014 record brought her a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album (the first won by a solo female artist in 20 years).

She seems poised to repeat that honour with her latest release, 2021’s Daddy’s Home. The nominated album was recorded partly during lockdown and made with no expectations. “It was truly just having so much fun playing music,” Clark says. “I’d go in and sing a song in my studio, just for fun, just, ‘Oh, I wonder how my voice is going to sound today,’ and the same with putting guitar parts down, just playing for fun and joy. That’s emblematic of the whole process.

“It’s not that any record is easy to make, because it’s not,” she adds. “But a lot of times the strife in the process is you getting in your own way and not some literal external force. It’s the ego games and self-loathing circus that gets in the way.”

That sort of effortlessness seems a hallmark of Clark’s career, including the creation of her Ernie Ball signature guitar. After visiting the company’s factory in spring 2015, she recalls, “I sat down with Sterling [Ball] and he said, ‘Why don’t you design a guitar?’ Really, the guitar that I drew up on that first day is very similar to what ended up making the final cut. There were definitely tweaks back and forth to make sure the ergonomics were correct — the balance was correct, to whittle down as much of the weight as possible without sacrificing the tone. I couldn’t believe that it was that easy. And with my vision and their skills combined, I think we made a really great guitar.”

TOP TRACK: ‘CHLOE IN THE AFTERNOON’