St. Vincent Talks New Album “All Born Screaming”, Cowriting 'Cruel Summer' and the Only Piece of Advice She'll Give (Exclusive)

St. Vincent's seventh album covers the agony and the ecstasy of what it means to be alive

Annie Clark, the singer, songwriter and producer better known to the world as St. Vincent, is as quick with a joke as she is with a slick beat.

The three-time Grammy winner is speaking with PEOPLE over the phone when she’s asked whether she believes in happy endings, a question pegged to a recent interview in which Clark said she’d found “the greatest love” of her life.

“Like getting jerked off at a massage parlor? I do believe in those,” the star quips, before getting serious. “Do I believe in happy endings? Sure. Why not? I consider myself a very measured optimist because I think it can be very overwhelming. It’s overwhelming to be alive. It’s impossible to be alive. But we get to do it.”

The agony and ecstasy that comes with merely existing is a topic Clark, 41, dives deep into on her seventh studio album All Born Screaming (out now). The record marks the first time in her career that she’s produced an album entirely herself, and over 10 tracks, she takes listeners on a fiery sonic journey that ranges from funky ‘70s grooves like “Flea” and “Big Time Nothing” to moodier, cinematic epics like “Reckless” and “Violent Times.”

Related: St. Vincent Praises Olivia Rodrigo as a 'Precious Baby Angel Muffin' at Variety's Hitmakers Event

“This record is 100% lived experience, so I’ve felt every lyric on it,” she says. “ [Music is] just the way I process everything in my life, and always has been.”

Clark says that during the creation of All Born Screaming, a followup to the Grammy-winning 2021 album Daddy’s Home, she was inspired by a variety of different influences, from Mary Karr’s memoir Lit and poems by Mary Oliver to second-wave ska bands like The Specials and dub pioneers King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry.

Here, the singer, who will hit the road on tour in May, August and September across North America, unpacks her bold new record, which features assists from musicians like Dave Grohl and Cate Le Bon, and talks friendships with stars like Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo.

This record is all about being alive and the highs and the lows that come with that. What inspired that concept, and where were you at in life during its inception?

I think I, like so many of us over the past few years, lost people I love. I think loss is very clarifying because you go, "This really matters, and then this doesn’t matter at all." All we have is love and the people we love, and it’s the only reason to do anything, and the only reason to be alive. So the first part of the record is a little bit of a season in hell, but you get to this place and the record ends with an ecstatic mantra of, "We’re all born screaming." This is the human condition, and life is so short, so we’ve got to really, really, really live it.

I’m sorry to hear you went through loss. Was writing this album a refuge for you during that time, or was it something you had to process without songwriting first?

Music is the place where I go, and I take all of the chaos and violence and madness and beauty of the external world and my internal world and hash it out and make something from it, and make something that makes sense to me. It’s like taking chaos and creating some order out of the chaos. That is what I’m compelled to do because it feels like it’s a profound act of hope.

You often embody characters on your albums, but this one is just you. Was that scary? Did it make you feel more vulnerable knowing there was no character to shield you?

Well, every record that I’ve ever made is incredibly personal. It’s a direct reflection of what I’m living through at the time and how I’m trying to make sense of any of it. In records past I was more interested with the idea of persona, with the idea of iconography and what is authenticity in a world where we are all asked to perform a version of ourselves as a digital avatar? On this record, I’m just not really interested in that idea. I used that idea in records past to liberate myself from certain circumstances. It’s all art. But on this one, I just wanted it to sound and genuinely be as raw as possible. Anything that felt ironic in a way that would create distance between me and a listener didn’t get to stay.

You’re a very private person. How does that play into how you write and release music?

Once the music is out in the world and people are hearing it, it’s not about me anymore. It’s really, really, really not. It’s about their experience. My favorite records, I don't care what the artist was going through. My favorite song, I’m like, "I love this song. This song is uniquely for me." I know that’s delusional, but that's the beauty of music fandom, where you’re like, "This thing that someone else made yesterday or 50 years ago means so much to me and my life and is exactly how I feel. I’m selfish, it’s mine." Once it’s in the world, it’s for you. It’s not for me. That’s not some highfalutin stance so that I can be reclusive. That’s genuinely how I feel.

You cowrote Taylor Swift's hit 2019 song “Cruel Summer,” which eventually topped the charts in 2023. What’s it been like to watch the climb that song has taken since its release?

She’s just so incredibly intelligent and so hardworking. That’s a given. I am so incredibly blown away and amazed by Taylor’s fans because they are just a force of nature. They took a song that was, what? Almost four records ago now, that was not a single off a record. They were like, "No, this song’s a hit.'" Then, by force of will, they made that song a worldwide hit.

Younger stars like Olivia Rodrigo have cited you as a mentor. Is that a role you enjoy?

I love Olivia, she’s just a wonderful person. But I don’t lead with advice. The only advice I have ever given Olivia was just to trust her instincts and to make exactly the record that she wants to make that’s in her heart. That’s it. What’s going to resonate with people is her authentic voice, and she did. She made a great record.

I love the line you said recently in an interview, that you’d rather people scratch their heads than yawn at your music.

Yeah, it’s like, I am lucky enough to be seven solo records in, and have more people interested now than I did when I started. That’s a very lucky career trajectory. I love that there are records where people go, "That’s my favorite. No, that. No, this one." I love that people would care enough and engage enough to argue over what’s the better record. I think listeners are smart.

You have some fun guest appearances on the record. What was it like working with Dave Grohl?

Dave I’ve known since I helped induct Nirvana into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. He’s just everything they say he is and more. He’s the coolest guy in rock, the nicest guy in rock. I sent him the song "Flea" and I was like, "You’re the only drummer in the world I can hear on this." And so he rolls over to my studio smoking Parliaments and drinking coffee. We’re trading war stories and having a laugh. Then he goes, "Alright, I’m ready." He goes in and he plays the song perfectly.

What do you want people to take from this album?

I think that’s the eternal quest as an artist, is to sound like yourself. You hear one note of Miles Davis and you go, "That’s Miles Davis." You just know when an artist is fully themselves. I think for me, that’s important as a singer and a guitar player, but also as a producer. "Yeah, that’s a St. Vincent production."

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.