St. Vincent explains why the meaning of songs should be a secret
Annie Clark is better known by the name St. Vincent, and the genre-bending, multi-instrumentalist musician has always had an air of mystery around her. In light of that mystery, it makes sense that Clark prefers songs that do not explicitly reveal their meanings.
“The thing about it is that, as a fan myself, I will listen to stuff, and it means so much to me if it’s inextractable [sic] from my life, from a period of time or from a major seismic event in my life,” she said. “And maybe this is just me being selfish, but I don’t really want to know what the artist was thinking. I kind of don’t care! And I mean that with all respect.”
It’s a fair point that a song often takes on its own meaning in the lives of the listener rather than being an explicit account of the artist’s biography. Clark continued: “I’m like, ‘oh, I’m too selfish – I love this for me, and what it means to me’.”
She added: “And for a long time, I think I didn’t want to talk too much about what the songs were personally about for me, because it felt like it was a little selfish to push all that into the way that somebody was interpreting or enjoying the song. It felt like micro-managing their experience.”
However, the fact remains that some songs seem so personal to their creator that we cannot help but wonder what kind of experience influenced them. It’s true with many forms of art that we, as audience members, ardently strive to get closer to our favourite creators.
Still, Clark is adamant that song meanings ought to remain secret, even if she has previously mentioned the kinds of things that inspired her own tracks. “You kind of have to trust that if you say something that resonates with you, then it’s going to resonate with other people,” she said. “I feel far enough away from [records] personally – and they’d existed in the world long enough – to where I feel kind of okay divulging certain things and hoping that it doesn’t interfere with anybody’s experience of just listening to it.”
Clark concluded: “Because it’s like not about me. You make the work so it cannot be about you, so it can just be for other people. I know that might sound kind of Pollyanna, but it’s true. That’s the best way I know how to communicate. You know, that and talk therapy.”
