St Vincent shares “gnarly” ‘Broken Man’ with Dave Grohl and tells us about “agony and ecstasy” of new album ‘All Born Screaming’

St Vincent has returned with the “gnarly” comeback single ‘Broken Man’, and announced details of new album ‘All Born Screaming’. Check it all out below, as Annie Clark tells NME about the “agony and ecstasy” of her seventh record.

‘All Born Screaming’, the follow-up to 2021’s acclaimed ‘Daddy’s Home‘, will arrive on April 26. After news recently emerged that Cate Le Bon and Dave Grohl featured on the record – the latter lending drums to ‘Broken Man’ – now it’s been revealed that the self-produced album also features an eclectic line-up of Rachel Eckroth, Devo and Foo Fighters‘ Josh Freese, Mark Guiliana, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Warpaint‘s Stella Mogzawa and David Ralicke.

Lead single ‘Broken Man’ is an industrial menacing rock beast that sees Clark give an ominous intro to her new era as she prowls and warns: “On the street, I’m a king-sized killer – I can make your kingdom come”.

That line, and the track as a whole, Clarke told NME, is representative of the mood of ‘All Born Screaming’ with “that lustre and swagger that you feel right before things go terribly wrong!”

Hello Annie. You often adopt characters for your records. Who are you playing on ‘Broken Man’ and ‘All Born Screaming’? 

Annie Clark: “In general on this record, there’s no character – it’s just me. It’s just the sound of the inside of my head. I produced it so my hand is on every moment. I think this idea of the brokenness that you feel has a lot of layers to it. On the one hand, I can walk in this room and anyone who sees me, man, they want me! I’m on it! I could rule this world. Then the second that is punctured, you see the grizzly meat underneath of rage and fear and loathing and brokenness. That’s just the gnarliness of existence.”

And having Dave Grohl on drums is certainly one way to add to the ‘gnarl’…

“From the beginning of the song, it’s a slow-burn. The shape of the song is climbing the mountain, because it just grows and grows. There are essentially three drummers on the track: the first part is my programming, the second part Mark Guiliana comes in, and then at the very end of the track – just when you think it can’t get any higher – Grohl comes in with this absolute reckless spirit and just takes it to the edge.”

Each St Vincent album comes with its own narrative and universe. What does this video tell us about this new world and era? 

“The video is the album cover come to life. It’s an exploration of brokenness, shot in a black void – a violent dance with the camera. It’s a finding and then an acceptance of being absolutely on fire.”

You’ve got Alex Da Corte as your visual collaborator. What does he bring to the table?

“Alex created the visual side of the record. We’ve worked together before – particularly on my ‘New York’ music video – and he’s one of my absolute favourite modern artists. He’s everything. We first started talking about what this record was and the visual component of it in Madrid this summer. We went to the [Museo Nacional del] Prado and saw Goya’s Black Paintings.

“You see Saturn eating his sons, the witch’s mask. We walked into this claustrophobic room and saw the paintings that Goya made at the end of his life. He didn’t necessarily want them seen, but these were paintings that he had in his house. This is what he had surrounded himself with. Alex and I looked at each other and it was electric. We took a lot of inspiration from the feeling of those Goya Black Paintings.”

So it’s a pretty dark album, eh?

“For me, the record is black, white and all the colours in the fire, because it’s about life and death. Life and death is pretty binary – you’re alive or you’re dead. The record’s about what is to be alive and to embrace that agony and ecstasy.”

When we spoke before ‘Daddy’s Home’, you said that record was “blues for 2021”. Does ‘Broken Man’ tell us something of the metallic nature of the record, or does it go everywhere? Blissful highs and devastating lows? 

“It goes to hell. On the record, you have to go through hell to get to some semblance of heaven. The record to me is structured that way.”

Do you feel closer to the songs having acted as sole producer for the first time?

“I’ve co-produced every one of my records and seen it through, but with this one I needed to go places I hadn’t gone sonically before. I needed to understand sound – scientifically and also as intention. I needed to say, ‘I am physically moving electricity around, I’m playing with currents, I’m gonna be fucking Thor’. My fingerprints are on everything. I feel closer in a certain way, because it’s genuinely the inside of my head without any filter.”

What will that sense of electric and merciless destruction mean for the live show this time around? 

“I’m gonna fuck ‘em up. I’m gonna fuck ‘em up.”

We’re looking forward to it. Thank you, Annie. Looking forward to seeing you in some godforsaken festival field this summer. 

“Me too! I hope it smells of cow manure and a little bit of human piss. It always does!”

St Vincent releases ‘All Born Screaming’ on April 26 via Virgin Music/Fiction Records. Check out the tracklist below.

‘Hell is Near’
‘Reckless’
‘Broken Man’
‘Flea’
‘Big Time Nothing’
‘Violent Times’
‘The Power’s Out’
‘Sweetest Fruit’
‘So Many Planets ‘
‘All Born Screaming’ (featuring Cate Le Bon)

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