Arts & Entertainment, Music

Seizing Opportunity

Lesson time 07:27 min

Annie reveals her influences and evolution as an artist, touching on key moments like learning about the music business while touring with her Uncle Tuck and Aunt Patti.

Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars

Topics include: Feed Your Passion · Get Dirty · Doing It

St. Vincent

Teaches Creativity and Songwriting

Explore your creative process and embrace vulnerability with St. Vincent, the Grammy-winning, genre-defying artist and performer.

Preview

[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC - ST. VINCENT, "FEAR THE FUTURE"] Come on, sir. Just give me the answer. Come on, sir. Now I need an answer. My baby's lost-- [00:00:08.68] - At different points of my life, I've tour managed. I roadied. I teched. I pretended to be my own agent. [00:00:19.01] There's a hot new act named Annie Clark, who is making the rounds all over coffee shops in the Northeast. But I felt too uncomfortable calling myself and saying, oh, hi, can you give me a gig, that I bought a domain name, made up a fake agency, made up a fake name, and called people-- mailed them my CDs, wrote flowery emails about this amazing new talent that they've just got to check out-- and got some gigs. [00:00:50.57] Just-- and whatever it takes. Let's hop in the minivans. Let's do this. Help me with this amp. Sike. I can do it myself. [00:00:58.46] [MUSIC - ST. VINCENT, "FEAR THE FUTURE"] I fear the future. [00:01:04.67] From a really early age, I was just obsessed with the guitar. I remember seeing "La Bamba," the Ritchie Valens movie. And he had this little Stratocaster guitar. And I was just obsessed. I started making them as little craft projects with, you know, cardboard and rubber bands and just-- oh, this form is so exciting to me somehow. [00:01:26.66] And then there was a toy guitar at a local Target store, and I begged my mom for it. And she finally acquiesced, even though it was definitely out of the price range for for us at that time. I just remember long car trips-- that going on, you know, little family vacations and that kind of thing is always being about the soundtrack. [00:01:46.87] Frankly, I don't really remember the vacations. But I remember that we were listening to this Steely Dan record. And then we had this Traffic record, and then we got this Rolling Stones record and this Jimi Hendrix record. Those are sort of, like, in this way, the most crystallized moments of my childhood, is, like, looking at a landscape listening to Jimi Hendrix. [00:02:08.17] I started finally actually playing guitar when I was 12. And then it was all I wanted to do. It really was obsession. You know, any album you buy, you read the liner notes so you know who played on it, who produced it. Oh. Oh, this-- it's like, oh, this person played on that record, and then oh, wow. [00:02:27.03] And you have this library of, in some cases, totally useless knowledge, or useful only in the amount of joy that it gives you to know, oh, yeah, so and so and so and so. There's been nothing in my life that has ever given me so much joy. I played bass in a metal cover band, and we played things like junior high cafeterias. [00:02:59.56] So we played-- we played some Maiden and some Metallica and some Pantera and some AC/DC. And then I remember I played a show in Dallas at a bar. Which I was 15, so I was not obviously allowed to even be there, but they made an exception. [00:03:17.90] My guitar teacher, who was a great guy named Tony Hyatt, he had a b...

About the Instructor

Under the stage name St. Vincent, Annie Clark has won Grammys while remaining fiercely innovative and true to herself. Now Annie is opening the door to her process to teach you how to explore your creativity. Learn how to record music, write songs, improve your guitar skills, and embrace your vulnerability. Let Annie guide you through the ups and downs of creating art so you can share what’s in your heart with the world.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

St. Vincent

Explore your creative process and embrace vulnerability with St. Vincent, the Grammy-winning, genre-defying artist and performer.

Explore the Class