10 things about Grimes (and "X Æ A-12 Musk" is not one of them)!

Claire Elise Boucher aka Grimes is nowadays everywhere in the press for musical and non musical reasons but the truth is that 2020 marks a decade of prolific and interesting musical career of the Canadian born artist. She is undoubtedly weird and controversial like Elon Musk (her famous boyfriend) but she deserves recognition by herself rather by being just the girlfriend of. Here are some interesting facts of her career to get to know her a bit better!

#1

Born and raised in Vancouver (Canada), after graduating from Lord Byng Secondary School in 2006 she relocated to Montreal to attend McGill University as a double major in Neuroscience and Philosophy, as well as a double minor in Russian language and Electro Acoustics but left the school in early 2011 before finishing her degree.

#2

In 2010 Grimes released two albums. Released by Arbutus Records on cassette, Grimes released “Geidi Primes”, a debut album inspired by Frank Herber's Dune. Later on but still in 2010, also under Arbutus Records she released “Halfaxa” and the Canadian artist started to gain some recognition and started touring beyond Montreal.

#3

In 2012, after two albums and some collaborations, Grimes signed to record label 4AD and released in 2013 “Visions”. The album is considered Grime's breakout album and contains the single “Oblivion”, ranked back then by the musical bible Pitchfork as the best track of the decade that far (it was 2014).

#5

Grimes doesn't like calling herself a musician and she never wanted to be a singer but rather a Producer. She sings because in the beginning she couldn't find a singer. She likes to have as much control as possible of her music and she makes everything very independent, including writing the music and lyrics, doing the visual artwork and even producing or engineering.

#6

In 2014, after signing a deal with Roc Nation, the management agency founded by Jay-Z, Grimes wrote the song “Go” for Rihanna but when the artist from Barbados turned it down she decided to keep it for herself (Rihanna was also represented by Roc Nation).

#7

Influenced by Japanese anime, manga, and comic artists such as Charles Burns and Daniel Clowes, Grimes has created album art of all her albums including art lithos for each track of her fourth one “Art Angels” that were sold with the vinyl release. Grimes also illustrates all her merchandise and her illustrations have even been shown at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (Spain).

#8

It's no secret that the Canadian artist has always been very influenced by science fiction and after a hiatus of five years Grimes has recently released her fifth studio album Miss Anthropocene containing the single “Idoru”, a nod to the classic science fiction novel by William Gibson also called “Idoru”.

#9

Grimes was bullied in School and one of the reasons was her lisp. She once said about it: “Yeah. I mean, I think my voice is very—it definitely bothers some people. Some people really like it. People hate my lisp. When I was in high school, I remember people would be, like, ‘ugh, I don’t want to talk to you. You have a lisp. It’s so annoying.’ But I don’t know. I like having a weird voice. All my favorite singers—you know, even if they’re not the best, but they have a voice that you can immediately recognize, I think that’s a really awesome trait.” During her career she has been constantly asked about this so back in 2013 Grimes said via Twitter: "SO many journalists ask why I sing with a lisp. I. have. a. speech. impediment. & I can't do anything about it so let it be"

#10

Surprisingly a semi-acoustic ballad that reminds a lot of Oasis, the single Delete Forever included in her last album goes about friends passing due to drug abuse. She said about it: “I’m so bad at talking about this song. I guess it’s kind of about the opioid epidemic…I’ve had quite a few friends pass away, in particular, one friend when I was 18 passed away from complications related to opioid addiction. Artists keep dying and stuff so I wrote this song on the night Lil Peep died.”

Learn more about Grimes by visiting her official website.