St Vincent: ‘My most cringeworthy celebrity run-in? I’m sweating right now telling you about it’

Can you describe the room you are in right now?

I am in my new makeshift studio, and I’m looking at seven drum machines and 10 synths. There’s a David Bowie Christmas ornament that Olivia Rodrigo gave me. There is a drawing that my friend Alex Da Corte made – he creative directed the All Born Screaming record, and it’s framed on the wall. And there’s a little figurine that Warren Ellis gave me after a long, lovely chat listening to a new Nick Cave album.

What is the most recent book you’ve read that had a huge impact on you?

I listened to it on audiobook, and it was Miranda July’s All Fours. Miranda’s so excellent at articulating thoughts we don’t know we think. The thought that we skate over to get to another thought. But she stays and really interrogates the thought, and then tells it to us, and we go, “Ah!”

Also, I think that she is one of the great erotic writers. Full disclosure, she is a friend, but that has no bearing on my love of the book. I would love it if I did not know her.

If you could change the size of any animal to keep it as a pet, what would it be?

A giraffe. If we’re talking about scale, that seems like the most impressive. Not that I want a giraffe as a pet, but you have to pick something really large, or else the answer is dull.

I would also choose giraffe because they’re plant eaters, so I’m thinking like – would a hippopotamus be really cute? No, it’d be a monster pig. [Editor’s note: this interview was conducted prior to the discovery of Moo Deng.] So I guess I’m going with disposition and also, what’s the largest thing you can make small?

How small would you go?

Like a midsized dog. The top of the head would have to come up just below the waist, so you could sort of do the dog thing where you pet right around where your hand already is. Any smaller and you worry about the neck; you see people with tiny poodles, tiny chihuahuas, and it’s just – I knew somebody who had a tiny dog and they accidentally sat on it and killed it. So you don’t want to do that.

What is the best lesson you have ever learned from another musician?

It wasn’t explicit, but it was implied, and it came from learning and working with David Byrne. He was so free in throwing out vocal ideas and didn’t feel precious like, “Oh, you have to have the lyrics all written in order to sing.” He was like, “You try this, you try that, you throw it out.”

And that there’s an instinct to the way you might be singing, where you’re gravitating towards a syllable that suggests the idea of a word – I learned to take that as sort of hidden intention.

Have you ever had a cringeworthy run-in with a celebrity?

Yes, absolutely. I met Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and during the pandemic, I rewatched Veep probably five times. Veep is my cozy place. And I did that horrible thing: one, I sort of accosted her, you know? And did the thing where I would quote lines of the show back to her, which was just so – what?! – that was hideous! I’m sweating right now telling you about it.

But I also did the thing that one must never do, which is try to be funny to a professionally funny person. Like, you’re not Kobe Bryant – it’s cute that you can dribble a basketball, but you’re not Kobe Bryant, so stay out of the lane.

Do you believe in ghosts?

No. And I don’t want to hear a ghost story. I don’t believe in ghosts but I’m also scared enough of ghosts to not want to hear a ghost story.

Is there a film that you could watch over and over again?

I could say something really highfalutin, or I could say Reality Bites. And I’m not saying Reality Bites is not highfalutin, but I’m not being like “Citizen Kane!” or whatever.

But I could watch Reality Bites over and over. It makes me cry every time … I think the rewrite of the movie is that Winona Ryder actually ends up with Janeane Garofalo.

What has been your biggest fashion regret?

I remember late 90s, early 00s, like, Roberto Cavalli – I remember an era where you would be like, “Oh, you’re wearing jeans? Why don’t you put a skirt over it?” And it’s funny, because I thought that it was universally agreed upon that was sort of the nadir of fashion, right? Like we were never going back there – but we’re all sort of back there now in a way that confuses me.

Anyway I had a pair of low-rise, looowwwww-rise, sort of 80s, almost-AC/DC plaid-ish pants and a cropped halter. What I’m describing doesn’t sound terrible now – but I can assure you, with glasses and short, curly hair, it was a tragedy.

Do you have a party trick?

I grew up playing sports, and I can, for example, do a rainbow – which is where you kick a soccer ball over your head. And put me on the basketball court and I’m trouble. My old roommate and I in New York used to go to Tompkins Square Park and hustle people on the court because they would see the two of us and be like, “There’s no way these two people can play.” But we could play!

Part of the reason I put on a very physical show is because I grew up being an athlete. The physicality of all of it – and the competitiveness, the drive – was rooted in sports early on.

Also, give me 10 minutes and I can tie a cherry stem in a knot with my mouth.