Grimes clarifies that she never “scrapped” an album

Grimes has clarified that she did not scrap an entire album of new material following negative reactions to her one-off song ‘Go’. She originally wrote the song for Rihanna, before releasing it under her own name when things didn’t work out. She also spoke with interviewer Emilie Friedlander about progress towards the follow-up to 2012’s ‘Visions,’ growing up, new alter-agos, and sexism in the music industry - particularly in the field of production.

“It wasn’t so much a scrapped album,” Grimes told The Fader, referring to the rumours around ‘Go’. “It was just [songs] that didn’t make it onto this album. Basically, I was doing a bunch of stuff, and maybe a bit before ‘Go,’ I was like, ‘You know, my life is getting a lot better. I’m going to put all this stuff on a hard drive and start again. There were just hundreds of songs—on this album that I’m making now, there’s at least a hundred songs that won’t make it onto this. I think all musicians have songs that don’t make it onto records.”

Instead, the so-called “scrapping” of the album was simply part of her process. “Everything I made after that was 10 times better,” she went on. “I want people to feel, if they’re buying something, like I put my heart and soul into it and I improved myself as a person and a writer.” She also added, of the material that won’t make it onto the new album - “ I’ll probably put it out for free at some point.”

Grimes also talked at length about her artistic persona, and added that Grimes now has several alter-egos on her next record. “There’s Screechy Bat, who’s the metal one. There’s one that’s super vampish and sexy now—I don’t know her name yet, but she’s like the Ginger Spice.”

She also spoke about the sexism she experiences in the music industry, which, in part, fuels the indignant tone of her new material. “The thing that I hate about the music industry is all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Grimes is a female musician’ and ‘Grimes has a girly voice,’” she said. “It’s like, yeah, but I’m a producer and I spend all day looking at fucking graphs and EQs and doing really technical work.”

“It’s more happy and angry,” she continued, speaking about the general sound of her new material. “I live in my own house that I pay for. I bought all this equipment myself. I control my own life now. No one has any say over what I do or where I go or when I do it.”

Listen to ‘REALiTi’ below, and read the DIY guide to Grimes here.