How ‘The Bachelor’ Inspired St. Vincent’s New Look
Before releasing her excellent new album this week, Annie Clark dyed her hair a striking shade of silver. The 31-year-old singer-guitarist – better known as St. Vincent – cites two crucial inspirations for the color change. One was the electric-orange mullet that David Bowie rocked circa Young Americans. The other influence was a little more complicated.
Annie Clark’s bizarre fever dreams: inside St. Vincent
“This is really random,” Clark explains. “I got obsessed with that show The Bachelor. At the time, a lot of people were talking about ‘the sanctity of marriage’ and preserving this beautiful institution. ‘We must not let anyone who isn’t in the club, in the club.’ OK, fine. But then there’s a game show where women who have barely met this one random guy – the hunk – are willing to go to, like, Evel Knievel heights to impress him.”
Clark took particular note of a contestant named Sarah Herron. “She had one arm, and she was terrified of heights,” she recalls. “And these evil, evil producers were like, ‘You know what? We’re going to strap her to the hunk and then drop them off the side of a building in Las Vegas. If you want a chance with this hunk, you are going to have to face your biggest fear.’ Which, P.S., a fear of heights is a very logical fear. Some fears are just totally reasonable. But she faced it, for a chance with the hunk.”
So what, exactly, does this have to do with St. Vincent’s new look? “Oh,” the singer adds with a laugh. “She had blonde hair.”