I'd listen to things that felt really good in the moment and realize they were clouded by enthusiasm or caffeine. And things that I was struggling to get out ended up being really compelling. It's an emotional roller coaster; there's exhilaration and there's shame.

Annie E. Clark

Categorized in : Struggle Emotional Being Real

What I did with my first records was, my writing process was that I didn't touch any instruments to write it, so I was making it all on the computer, and really the arrangements were coming first, the intricate thing.

Annie E. Clark

records writing firsts

Putting your ego aside and confronting your weaknesses and just letting things happen is hard. Not to use a Scientology term, but it's difficult to do an emotional or an artistic audit.

Annie E. Clark

ego weakness emotional

I don't even wanna say female guitar-players, just guitar-players, because music of all things doesn't need to be gendered and stratified, that's so boring.

Annie E. Clark

female guitar player

I'm first and foremost a guitar player. I've been playing since I was 12, which is over half of my life. I like the physicality of it; you can strangle it or make it sing. I wouldn't say I'm a very technical player, though. I'm more intuitive - it's always more about chasing an abstraction.

Annie E. Clark

guitar-player player

An mp3 is a compressed form of data. It's not the full spectrum. It's never going to sound as good as a record. I think one thing people forget is that every technological advance we fetishize had its place in time. CDs are usually an hour long because that's the amount a CD could hold - not because that's the optimal amount of time for any given musical expression. Side one and side two? That's a product of vinyl. But that's not necessarily dramatic form - you could argue that that was three acts.

Annie E. Clark

long people thinking

I had brief glimpses of emotional catharsis while writing. I remember reading something Philip Roth wrote about how he writes every single day, but it's almost as if he has amnesia every morning - he has almost zero confidence that anything will come but he just sits down and plugs away. And at the end of the day it feels like a miracle: "How did I do that?" I had a similar experience where it was just about putting in the hours and being present.

Annie E. Clark

reading writing morning

There's always something extremely personal in the songs, but I may change the point of view from what I actually experienced.

Annie E. Clark

views may song

The most important thing is setting up these directives for yourself. Like, "I'm only going to use these three colors - go!" That's why Einstein wore the same thing every day; you don't want to have to reinvent the wheel every morning.

Annie E. Clark

color important morning

Music is kind of a strange business, and it's too weird of a job to have mean, conniving people around.

Annie E. Clark

jobs mean people

I wouldn't say I'm a very technical [guitar] player. I'm more intuitive - it's always more about chasing an abstraction.

Annie E. Clark

chasing guitar player

I think anything that you can't poke fun at is a little too precious.

Annie E. Clark

littles fun thinking

I think cults are probably a little less scary. To me, it's scarier that 25 people would wear robes and jump up and down and try to convert everyone to happiness than a Kool-Aid suicide.

Annie E. Clark

suicide people thinking

It's pretty amazing, someone having that kind of charisma - and it still happens in micro and macro forms - to convince a whole gaggle of people to kill themselves. Or put on robes and jump up and down. That takes a very charismatic leader.

Annie E. Clark

kind leader people

I wanted to give the songs a run for their money, to see if they stood on their own without a lot of accoutrements. It made more sense - and it was easier, too - to go out alone and see if these songs could get in a couple of fistfights and still be standing.

Annie E. Clark

couple running song

I'm a bit of a vagabond - a person who loses time and space because you don't know where you are.

Annie E. Clark

vagabonds where-you-are space

I was a lusty kid who loved Tennessee Williams. Sexy plays. [For musicians] there are so many that it's hard just to say one. Certain things, like the first time you hear A Love Supreme, you're floored. It takes whatever you were listening to and blows a hole in it.

Annie E. Clark

sexy blow kids

Checking voicemail is like, "When's the other shoe going to drop?" I'm always afraid it's going to be terrible news I don't want to hear.

Annie E. Clark

news shoes want

I have a phobia of checking voicemail. I watched a lot of TV as a kid, and everything is, like, you're gonna get kidnapped, or somebody's gonna die, or killer bees are going to take you out. I'm a very anxious person.

Annie E. Clark

killers tvs kids

Everybody's got a dark side, but mine doesn't include being around people who are mean.

Annie E. Clark

dark mean people

I like to deal with my dark side in a creative way, and just sing about killing people instead of actually doing it.

Annie E. Clark

creative dark people