Did you know that she’s played at least 300 hours of The Legend Of Zelda?
BY GINA BEVAN, IMAGE BY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Grammy-winning Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) dropped her highly anticipated seventh (!) studio album, All Born Screaming, earlier this year and in June played the iconic Royal Albert Hall. Recording her own albums aside, this multifaceted artist has fingers in all the pies!
From working with Olivia Rodrigo and Willow, to writing and starring in her own film, Annie has even created her ownsignature guitar. In another bold move, she has recently announced that she has launched her own record label Total Pleasure Records (of which you need to Google the logo asap!).
While this queer icon largely keeps her private life, uh, private, in the past she has been a popular fixture in tabloid publications after her high-profile relationships with supermodel Cara Delevingne (to whom she was engaged) and Love Lies Bleeding star Kristen Stewart.
Here are six facts you might not know about this genre-defying guitar goddess.
She’s a gamer
Like many of us, Annie Clark became obsessed with The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild on Nintendo Switch. Speaking to Variety, she revealed that she probably put around “300 hours” into the game, although elsewhere added that her lack of cooking skills also made a virtual appearance: “Even playing Zelda, I would make dubious food.”
Does this make anyone else want to play BotW immediately?
Her uncle is a pretty big deal
Annie’s uncle is jazz guitarist Tuck Andress who is also one-half of the husband-and-wife duo, Tuck & Patti. The duo has worked on songs that appear on Clark’s fifth album, Masseduction, and joined their niece on her North American stretch of the Fear The Future tour in 2018. In the same year, and still in her Masseduction era, Annie even carved out time to produce a children’s album with Tuck & Patti.
She doesn’t have any tattoos or piercings
In an interview with AnOther Magazine in May this year, Annie disclosed that she doesn’t have a single tattoo or piercing. “I don’t even have my ears pierced.”
Two of her close friends are musicians Carrie Brownstein and Cate Le Bon
Annie is friends with other women in music and names queer icon Carrie Brownstein and Welsh singer Cate Le Bon as two of her closest friends. Brownstein, who is a member of the iconic riot grrrl band Sleater Kinney and starred in the witty comedy Portlandia, co-wrote and starred alongside Annie in the mockumentary The Nowhere Inn (2020) in a satirical and often surreal commentary on Annie’s life as an artist. Annie also mentions Carrie Brownstein alongside Cate Le Bon as the people who make her laugh the most, and Le Bon has appeared on S. Vincent’s latest album, All Born Screaming.
She has anxiety
Annie has been open about her struggles with anxiety, revealing that her anxiety disorder began when she was eight years old. To help manage the disorder, Annie has credited the use of medication for help during particularly difficult periods, and when offering advice to a fan on how to manage anxiety stated, “If you don’t have confidence, pretend to be a person who does, and eventually you will have confidence ’cause you’ll see the fruits of your reaching out to people”.
She wrote and played guitar on Taylor Swift’s mega-hit Cruel Summer
Annie wrote the hit song Cruel Summer with Jack Antonoff. While the song, which appears on Swift’s album Lover (2019), wasn’t initially released as a single, the power of Swift’s fans led to it reaching number one four years later in 2023. However, I get the sense that Annie is tired of being asked about this in what seems like every interview in recent months!
DIVA magazine celebrates 30 years in print in 2024. If you like what we do, then get behind LGBTQIA media and keep us going for another generation. Your support is invaluable.