St. Vincent

St. Vincent is one of the most well-known US female musicians on an indie-rock and indie-pop scene. Multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter released two solo albums, and also has been a member of The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens' touring band. During her career, she has performed on the same stage with such acts as The National, Television, Arcade Fire, Briertone, Jolie Holland, John Vanderslice, Midlake, Tracy + The Plastics, Tuck & Patti, Xiu Xiu, Death Cab For Cutie and many more.

St. Vincent, whose real name is Annie Clark, was born in 1982 in Tulsa, small town in Oklahoma. She recorded her first single Ratsliveonnoevilstar at the age of 21 – the composition was performed together with her fellow students from Berklee College of Music, which she was attending at that time. During her studies, she learned to play guitar, bass and keyboards. After graduating from college in 2006, St. Vincent joined touring band of indi-musician Sufjan Stevens. At that time, Stevens was experimenting with folk-rock and pop genres, which has affected St. Vincent’s music. Later this year, Clark released her second single. It featured three songs – Paris Is Burning, What Me Worry and a cover of Jackson Browne’s composition These Days, all performed in an experimental way. In 2007 Annie Clark became the guitar player for American symphonic rock band The Polyphonic Spree (the band which generally consists of a 10-person choir and a number of musicians with an exotic instruments such as theremin). Clark appears on their 2007 album The Fragile Army.

While working with The Polyphonic Spree, St. Vincent was also recording her first solo album named Marry Me. It featured a number of musicians from The Polyphonic Spree and Mike Garson, David Bowie's longtime pianist (he wrote one of the tracks for the album, named We Put A Pearl In The Ground). Marry Me was released in July 10, 2007 through Beggars Banquet Records, and recieved generally good marks, being described as «good and solid indie pop album, quite exotic, quite serious, quite light-minded». According to St. Vincent’s words, she choose the name for the album after watching episode of an American television sitcom Arrested Development (TV series about one US family, presented in a pseudo-documentary format, incorporating hand-held camera work, archival photos, and historical footage). Later in 2007 Annie Clark also recorded an acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon – an independent filmmaker from Paris mainly known for his field work music videos of indie and rock musicians, including Tom Jones, R.E.M. and Arcade Fire. St. Vincent’s performance was included in his series of Take-Away Shows video releases.

In 2008 St. Vincent was presented in a several nominations for a PLUG Independent Music Awards, which are given during Independent Music Conference (it takes place in Philadelphia) by a jury consisting of DJs, managers and indie retailers. St. Vincent was honored as Female Artist Of The Year, while she was also nominated for New Artist Of The Year and Music Video Of The Year for Jesus Saves, I Spend (a lead single from Marry Me). That year, St. Vincent also collaborated with The Dresden Dolls’ lead singer Amanda Palmer on her debut solo album Who Killed Amanda Palmer. Together they recorded track What's The Use of Wond'rin, a composition from Oscar Hammerstein’s and Richard Rodgers’ musical Carousel. 2009 saw the release of St. Vincent’s new album Actor, produced by John Congleton, who previously worked with legendary alternative band Modest Mouse. According to the singer herself, this record was inspired by Prince. Actor was released in April 2009 and featured more aggressive and rock-influenced style than St. Vincent’s previous records, although she stood by her delicate vocal performance. The album was generally well recieved by both critics and singers’ fans.