Watch St Vincent discuss her favorite riffs, cover Pantera, Tool & Jimi Hendrix
St Vincent is on the endangered list of modern guitar-driven rock-oriented female musicians. It's a dying breed! Fans will know what an integral part 90s' alternative rock played in shaping the oeuvre of Annie Clark (St Vincent is her stage name).
This past Friday (8 June), much to her fans' delight, St Vincent took over BBC Radio 6’s Instagram account and, as expected, fans asked her about her favorite guitar riffs. This led to a sneak-peek of St Vincent covering the likes of Pantera, Tool and Jimi Hendrix in short-bursts.
When she was asked if there was a riff that she wished she'd written herself, St Vincent took careful consideration. "It's hard to do without a pick, let's see..." she said, dropping a disclaimer before diving into a cover of the opening of Pantera's 'Cowboys From Hell'.
She followed it up with Tool’s 'Forty Six & 2' from their 1996 album 'Ænima', which she mistakenly referred to as 'My Shadow'. In all fairness, pretty much the entire discernable chorus of the song has Maynard screaming the phrase "My Shadow" over and over again so it's not something to nitpick at.
She even went ahead and sang a few lines from the song while strumming the riff, before she added: "It's hard to sing and play at the same time. That's a great riff. I love that riff."
Indeed, Tool has an infamous reputation for structuring mind-numbingly complicated riffs with time signatures that look like math equations but the 30 seconds or so when Annie covered the song was pure joy! To top it all off, she covered both songs with an acoustic guitar and no pick!
Watch the performance below via BBC Radio 6's Twitter account.
Another question St Vincent answered with her guitar was "What are the riffs that made you pick up a guitar?" First up was a quick rendition of Jimi Hendrix's 'Manic Depression,' complete with a hilarious imitation of Hendrix's gruff voice. This was immediately followed up by Led Zeppelin's 'Black Dog', during which Annie tried hard to keep a straight face as she mimicked Robert Plant's high-pitched croon.
St Vincent is currently on the 'Fear The Future Tour' in support of her latest studio album, 2017's 'MASSEDUCTION'. Check out tour dates and tickets here. Recently, she dropped an alternate version of the album's 'Slow Disco' that’s aptly titled 'Fast Slow Disco' with an edgier, electronic pulse, landing somewhere between industrial and dark dance pop. Revisit the remix here.