St. Vincent Says She Almost Made An Album That Sounds Like Tool

Last week, St. Vincent returned to officially announce her highly-anticipated album, Daddy’s Home, with the shimmering track “Pay Your Way In Pain.” Everything about the album, including its cover art, is heavily inspired by early ’70s music. But that wasn’t always St. Vincent’s plan. In fact, the musician had originally wanted to craft an album that sounds like metal/progressive rock band Tool.

Speaking to Bryce Segall on his Radio.com’s New Arrivals show, St. Vincent discussed her musical inspirations and how she started making a heavy-sounding LP before scrapping it for Daddy’s Home:

“The crazy thing about music is, you can plan and plan and think you’re gonna go one way, and then you start writing and the music just takes you wherever the music takes you. That was certainly the experience with this. I was dead set in my mind that after Masseduction I was just gonna make this like, heavy record. Like just heavy the whole time — like, ‘hey kids, you like TOOL? Well, you’ll love the St. Vincent record,’ you know? I got sort of down a road with that, but I kept finding that I didn’t have anything to say there. It didn’t feel anything, to go more angular and harder after Masseduction, but where it did feel like something, and felt free and fun and fresh and a lot of other ‘f’ words, was to just go back to the music I’ve listened to more than anything else, which is stuff made in New York from ’71 to ’76 — post flower child, pre-disco, pre-punk — and just sit in that space for a bit. And that’s where the music ended up taking me.”

Listen to St. Vincent’s interview on Radio.com’s New Arrivals show with Bryce Segall above.

Daddy’s Home is out 5/14 via Loma Vista Recordings. Pre-order it here.