ST VINCENT FOR GQ.CO.UK

When Rick Moody, the verbose author of The Ice Storm, interviewed the singer Annie Clark, his questions included, "Am I wrong to think that there's a tendency of a modular approach to song construction?" It's fair to say Clark's recent conversation with GQ, held in the lobby of the K West hotel in London's Shepherd's Bush, was a little more lowbrow.

Clark has recently been dazzling audiences and critics alike with her performances as St Vincent, and is currently touring her fourth (self-titled) album. To mark her headlining set at the End Of The Road Festival, here she offers her thoughts on David Byrne's jumpsuits, Janelle Monae's style and walking in on Phillip Seymour Hoffman masturbating.

GQ: Which lyric are you most proud of?
St Vincent: "Remember the time we went and snorted / That piece of the Berlin Wall that you'd exhorted." I particularly like that rhyme because both of those words are so ugly: it's a fun challenge to see if you can make them mellifluous.

You toured and recorded Love This Giant with David Byrne, a style icon - what have you learned about menswear from him?
David's very stylish. He is very fond of the male onesie: the airplane mechanic/car mechanic uniform. He's definitely one of the few men that I think can pull off a jumpsuit and look amazing in it. That's Varsity level fashion; I wouldn't suggest that to amateurs.

Describe the outfit you're currently wearing.
This is what I would consider part of my uniform: just a littleMargiela trench coat. It's great for airplanes: it's navy so it very rarely looks dirty. I love fashion, but all the fashion I have to wear has to be able to be bled in and fallen in. I have to be able to able to wear dresses on stage where I can end up upside down and have them still protect my modesty. I picked this [top up] at Zara and I found these [trousers] in a thrift store in Australia. The sunglasses? Celine.

What's the key to stage diving successfully?
You can't be afraid of it. You have to surrender to it. You have to let that total abandon come in. There's nothing else like it, apart from literally surfing. I'm not doing that on this tour because I didn't want it to be a gimmick. I didn't want it to be, "OK here comes this part".

When did you first do it?
In New York, it was a very tame one. I thought, "I'm just going to fall backwards as if I'm falling into a swimming pool and see where it takes me." It was placid and sweet. But then flash forward six months and it was crazy.

What's the purchase on tour you've regretted the most?
Maybe the clothes you buy on the days where you have no clean clothes. It's always stuff that falls apart after two wears and you might as well just have not been so lazy and just done laundry.

Have you picked up a particularly terrible souvenir?
There was this vintage guitar store in the Southwest. It was one of those places where you think, "Oh my god I could buy everything in the store, this is so cool." And then you just scratch the surface a little bit: the tubes are corroded and nothing works. I made the mistake of buying this old rare Fender Solid State Amplifier that was basically a Frankenstein of an amp in the first place. It broke down in the middle of the stage: I found out that the guy who runs that store is a snake oil salesman. I also brought a Fender Jaguar from there and again it looked like someone with a real serious meth problem had taken it apart. It's not a terrible guitar, but its not anything that I needed to own.

Is there a line in your own work you regret?
It's not so much regret, but there's a line on my first record: "Let's do what Mary and Joseph did / Without the kid." That's a punchline essentially. The thing about a punchline in a song is that it's only maybe funny once. It's a little bit of a "jazz hands" moment. It's not a bad sentiment, but how do you put a punchline in a song and make it feel fresh every night?

Apparently you and Janelle Monae are in contact with each other. What do you email about?
That's funny, I emailed her yesterday! I feel a camaraderie with people in this business on the road: it's like a fun Vietnam. Even if people don't know each other very well I feel like sometimes we need to send a little support and say, "Hey, you're doing a great job. Hang in there." I saw her show with David - who was wearing a jumpsuit that night - at the Borgata in Atlantic City a couple of weeks ago: she was just phenomenal. We have a couple of mutual friends - Esperanza Spalding, this amazing bass player - and I just feel that there are people bouncing around who never really get the chance to see each other as they are always on the road. There are these really talented people who I want to give props to whenever I can. She's one of them. 

She's incredible live.
The level of detail and execution in the show was so impressive. She did the James Brown thing with the cape - it was just so well done. The whole thing was impeccable. There was no detail left unconsidered.

Can you recommend a good book?
I just read a book called Love Me Back by a woman from Dallas, Texas called Merritt Tierce. It's excellent. It's fiction but it seems to be cut pretty close to her life: she talks about her life in the food service industry (which sounds like it could be a very boring premise) but it's an awesome book. It's especially poignant for me reading it because I knew every restaurant she was talking about in Dallas: they remind me of a time in my life. I remember when you were 14 and you'd used to go to Chillis to hang out on a Friday night and think it was verywild. All the tchotchke Americana on the walls: amazing! 

What's your drink of choice?
Right now I'm on the road so much I have to be like a professional athlete; I have to be really in shape for the show and have my wits about me. So I'm not drinking too much - maybe a little glass of white wine, a Gruner or something with a bubble. After the show I have champagne or a sparkling French, let's say. It can be a Crémant as well which is pleasant. Someone was telling me recently, in a high end American restaurant it doesn't matter what French champagne you have, if there's Veuve on deck that's all people order. I'm not picky though…

English sparkling is also good as well…
Shut it: I don't believe that! [Laughs] It's the Queen's piss! I'll have to try it.

Which questions are you bored of answering already?
A few: it's a tricky one to answer. "Where did the name St Vincent come from?" That's been eight years in the making. Another funny one is when people ask me what I learned from David in making my record almost forgetting that I was half of Love This Giant. I learned a lot from David in an existential sense and I love him dearly - he's amazing and it was so fun playing music with him - but people act like there was this master/student relationship. That wasn't the case: partly because David wants to learn everything he can from everyone. That's what has kept him a creative vital force all this years: not presuming that he has all the answers.

When were you last star struck?
I had a moment not that long ago when I was in New York doing interviews in the hotel lobby and one of the characters from Orange Is The New Black walked in. It's an ensemble cast so there isn't a star per se but I had just watched it and I saw this woman in the lobby and did a big "Hey!" It was really embarrassing. She saw me and did a bee line out that door. It was the girl who is the Christian methhead [Taryn Manning]. She's so good on the show. She must be getting [recognised] so much these days.

What's your Prince track of choice?
That's too hard. "I Would Die 4 U" is a perfect pop song. Maybe one from Controversy. What would I like Prince to do next? I'd love him to take me on tour!

Do you get chatted up a lot?
I don't think so. I'm in my contained little bubble with my band on the road going city to city. I don't really get to go out or anything. Sometimes even if I am being hit on I don't understand that that is what's happening. It only occurs to me later: "Oh my god that's what was going on!"

What's the best date you've ever been on?
It was a funny one because it ended up in a 16 year friendship. When I was in high school I went with this guy to see the Todd Solondz movieHappiness. And we were late because we got lost: we walked in just asPhilip Seymour Hoffman was ejaculating! It did not go anywhere romantically but that cemented our friendship.

What's the worst thing a critic has ever said about you?
I will sometimes read reviews of shows because that's kinda helpful: something you can think about and react to. But with reviews of records: it's kinda done! I have this philosophy that if you don't like this music, it's totally fine because there is so much other music out there for you to like. You could have anything you want, for free! Shouldn't we just be celebrating that fact? 

What musical trend needs to die out?
It seems what's happening in music right now is that the mainstream is influencing the underground. Which is a bizarre through-the-looking-glass [situation]. I still think there are more mainstream people who scour the underground: Kanye always has up-and-comers collaborate with him and other cool stuff. I wish everyone the best of luck…

Apart from Robin Thicke presumably…
I don't like that song because it sounds like a justification for date rape. It's sleazy in a way that I don't think is interesting.

What's a St Vincent groupie like?
I don't think I have any groupies. I guess one time I was playing a show in the Midwest and there was a girl who got up on someone else's shoulders, then took her top off and flashed us. It wasn't off-putting or whatever, but it was so confusing! It was like she had seen in a movie that this is what people do at rock shows but she forgot about the context of 75 per cent filled room in the Midwest on a Tuesday. It was so bizarre - I didn't know what to make of it. And then she wandered up on stage during the encore: I think she was pretty high. But she was pretty young too: she seemed like 17/18 and I felt like saying, "No honey, leave your shirt on, it's fine. You can enjoy it just as well."

Have you ever been fired from a job?
I was working at a flower shop and it was on the first day. There were no visible prices on anything: the lady who ran the shop said, "Hey I've got to run out for about an hour. If anybody comes in just price it how you think it should be." As if I knew anything about inflation and the rising costs of supply and demand of flowers! I had no idea. She came back and I had sold two dozen roses for $10. The beautiful ones! The good ones! Not the corner store ones! So I got fired. I would still say that was her error, putting me in charge, but still.

What's the last pop song you loved?
I love that Beyoncé song "Blow" - because there's that Purple Rainmoment in the video, it's so funny. But I also really liked Yeezus: I think that may be my favourite of Kanye's records. I know a lot of people didn't like it. "On Sight" sounds like Kanye-does-Ministry: I like it a lot.

How would you like to be remembered?
I would like there to be a sense that I did more things with my time that created less human suffering than more human suffering.

What's the strangest gift you've got from a fan?
A leather purse with my face on it. I don't know a lot about leather making but I imagine in order to engrave into leather there had to be heat, like a soldering iron. It was very sweet, it was very well done… but it's a little Ed Gein.

I always feel it's a little cannibalistic when we ask on the red carpet: "Who are you wearing tonight"?
Exactly! "My mother!"

Originally published on GQ.co.uk. Read the original here.