Saturday, March 16th 2013. Soundshine presented one-woman project of Montreal-based Claire Boucher, better known by her stage name Grimes at Gandaria City, Jakarta. It was great experience to witness the appearance of a musician who is said to possess one of the best albums of 2012. It’s an apt visual representation of this eccentric “post internet” poster girl, which revels in its oddity with irresistible glee.
Boucher spends most of the night singing in a vaporous falsetto. She occasionally manipulates her voice (as on the steely, Transformers-jam “Eight”) but mostly she just loops it, layers it, and cloaks it in reverb; there are moments when she’s dancing to the beat of the weird, but it makes her performance look expressive. The most common complaint I’ve heard of Grimes at night come from people wishing her performance in a more appropriate place rather than a mall. But never mind the fact that even the haziest moments on that night are anchored by melody — this shortage can be covered with the refreshing appeal of Grimes itself. (Text and Photography Teuku Ajie)
Before watching her performance that night, we had a small chat with her to find out her personality outside of writing and recording, and these some fact about Claire Boucher:
1. Claire Boucher is a cat person (although she frequently posted dog pictures on her tumblr and she admit confused about it).
2. She’s listening ‘N Sync and concluded Mariah Carey as her biggest inspiration of mainstream music (The first time she heard Mariah Carey it shattered the fabric of her existence and she started Grimes).
3. She’s a person who care about the environment, refused to use plastic in her daily lives.
4. She was quite vocal for a political matters especially on freedom of expression, yet not interested to making a song about it.
5. She remained humble despite being inspired many young artist in the work and pursuing their dreams.
6. She will return to the studio to work on Grimes’ fourth album after finishing tour this year.