logo

St. Vincent speaks out against cancel culture: “Find me the person who has lived a flawless life”

“When I see [shaming] in our modern world, I’m like, ‘Urgh, I’ve seen this before.’ This smells funny to me.”

St Vincent onstage

Photo: Jeff Hahne / Getty

When you purchase through affiliate links on Guitar.com, you may contribute to our site through commissions. Learn more.

St. Vincent has spoken out against cancel culture on the internet, insisting there’s a better way to use information that “causes less human suffering, [rather] than more”.

The musician shared the opinion for an interview with NME. St. Vincent – real name Annie Clark – drew parallels between the way certain groups of people behave on the internet and her childhood, where she grew up surrounded by religion.

“Growing up in Texas, [religion] is the predominant mythology of the place. I do think I still have a lot of anger toward the particular brand of it that was ambient where I was growing up,” she said. “It seemed to me that a lot of people were disguising cruelty as piety. I have a real knee-jerk reaction to that.”

She continued: “When I see [shaming] in our modern world – our modern social media – I’m like, ‘Urgh, I’ve seen this before.’ This smells funny to me.

“We’re in a strange time where there’s a lot of new information and we need to be able to integrate it in a way that causes less human suffering, [rather] than more.”

Clark dug deeper into the subject when she discussed her upcoming album, Daddy’s Home, due out 14 May. She explained her intention with the record was to “tell stories of flawed people doing their best to survive”.

“Nobody’s perfect and people make mistakes and people can transform and people can change,” she said. “If we don’t think that’s possible, then I don’t know what we’re doing.”

“I don’t know who among us has lived a flawless life. Find me the person who has lived a flawless life, or a life without struggle. I don’t think that’s possible.”

In other St. Vincent news, Ernie Ball Music Man has lifted the lid on Goldie, a new signature model for Clark, out later this June.

For more music news, click here.

Related Artists

Related Tags

logo

The world’s leading authority and resource for all things guitar.

© 2024 Guitar.com is part of NME Networks.