The FADER premieres the first of two cover stories for its 99th issue: Claire Boucher, the 27-year-old singer, songwriter and producer known as Grimes.
Read the full article here: thefader.com/2015/07/28/grimes-cover-story-interview
It was her 2012 breakout ‘Visions’ that labeled Boucher a standout by critics, and landed her on the brink of stardom with a Billboard-charting, multiple-year-end-list-topping album. After signing to Roc Nation in December 2013 and numerous fashion world collaborations, her fourth LP is now expected to be out this October via 4AD.
In this feature, written by The FADER’s deputy features editor Emilie Friedlander, Boucher opens up about the journey from her early career optimism, followed by years of nonstop festival play, a fanatical cult following, and her struggles in receiving recognition as a producer and songwriter from the music industry.
From The Issue:
“I didn’t want to be a pop star—I wanted to be like Phil Spector. I wanted to be the person behind the scenes who no one ever had to look at – who just could be crazy and be a genius and have a performer fulfill their creative wishes. But that wasn’t possible, so I just had to do it myself.” —On developing the fictional persona of Grimes to combat her shyness
“It’s just the constant, almost daily offers of people to produce your music for you…I was raised in a house with four brothers…I wasn’t raised as a boy, but I wasn’t raised as a girl. I don’t want to say I don’t identify as a girl, but I don’t give a fucking shit about gender. And the thing that I hate about the music industry is all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Grimes is a female musician’ and ‘Grimes has a girly voice.’ It’s like, yeah, but I’m a producer and I spend all day looking at fucking graphs and EQs and doing really technical work.” —On gender identity in the music industry
“Okay there’s Grimes, but there’s other ones too now—and they’re like a girl group. There’s Screechy Bat, who’s the metal one. There’s the one that’s super vampish and sexy now—I don’t know her name yet, but she’s like the Ginger Spice.” — On her new imaginary alter-egos
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