Claire Boucher — better known as Grimes — is already in the thick of recording the follow-up to her 2012 breakout “Visions.”
In an interview prior to her performance at the 2013 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival last weekend, Boucher gave details on the upcoming album, which promises to push her musical project in an intriguing, hi-fi direction. ??”I’m probably like two-fifths done,” says Boucher of the album’s progress. “I know that’s a weird number. I’m more than one-third but less than two-thirds, but I’m not one-half but I’m more than one-quarter.”
??Aside from rattling off fractions, Boucher said that she plans to take her latest endeavor to the next level production-wise: “I feel like it’s a step up. I’m really trying to have it sound professional. As a producer, I’m trying to challenge myself to just make something that is of a professional quality – not necessarily pop music, but maybe in the sense that Nine Inch Nails is professional quality.”
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Grimes added that while prepping for the album, she’s been listening to a variety of artists in order to seek out inspiration. She cited Paramore and Enya as being her current influences and explained that – as always – she’s striving for a different sound on this next release. “The album is experimental in its own right,” she says, “but in terms of fidelity and stuff, it’s also very strong. So that’s where I’m trying to go.”
?Boucher treated her weekend-one Coachella audience to a new level of onstage energy. The experimental songstress stepped away from her usual spot behind her keyboard/synthesizer stand and danced around — with the help of a brand-new wireless mic.
??Boucher tells us that Coachella marks her final show that is “100 percent in support of ‘Visions.'” Following a few summer festivals, she plans to continue work on the album, which she would ideally like to release sometime this fall. Instead of heading into a studio, however, she plans to record at home.
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“I work in my bedroom but I’m making a studio,” says Boucher. “Honestly, it’s cheaper for me to build a studio than to rent a studio so I’m in the process. I just got really nice monitors and I just got a really nice vocal mic a couple of days ago, so I’m just building that.”??
The Montreal native will be producing the record entirely herself, but will bring in an outsider for help with the mixing process. She shot down rumors of possible collaborations on the new Grimes disc, but added that she’s extremely open to working with artists on their own projects. “When I’m making a song that’s very Grimes, it just feels very insular and it feels weird to have someone else do something on it,” she says.
