Multi Instrumentalists

"Tell the truth now Your heart is a strange little orange to peel What's the deal?"

"Romeo, where'd you go? It's been years and still no sign, But I'm keeping hope alive.Juliet, how you been? You look like death like you sure could use some rest from this place human racing and the faces of people who pound at your door They always want more — they want more."

"Little lamb, what's your plan? Greener pastures in the sky? It's a shame you want to die know why Just to find you've been blinded to the greenest of pastures they're right here on Earth For what it's worth you're not the first to break my heart."

"The keys are in my pocket and they rattle you awake."

"I'm a wife in watercolors I can wash away what seventeen cold showers couldn't wash away."

"Honey what reveals you is what you hide away."

"Tomorrow's some kind of Strangerland where all the news is good."

"What would the neighbors think? Oh no! If they only knew."

"I think I love you I think I'm mad."

"Just like an amnesiac, trying to get my senses back. Oh where did they go."

"I wish I had a gentle mind and a spine made up of iron."

"Honey can you reach the spots that need oiling and fixing. H E L P Help Me."

"I read the signs, I got all my stars aligned, My amulets, my charms, I set all my false alarms, So I'll be someone Who won't be forgotten."

"Oh but I'd pay anything to keep my conscience clean. I'm keeping my eyes on the the exit sign. Steady now."

"As for me I would have to agree, I'm as fickle as a paper doll being kicked by the wind — when I touch down again I'll be in someone elses arms"

"I do a dance to make the rain come, Smile to keep the sky from falling down, down, down, down. Collect the love that I've been given Build a nest for us to sleep in here You know it's real."

"Marry me, John, I'll be so good to you — You won't realize I'm gone, You won't realize I'm gone."

"Your skin's so fair its not fair"

"Many people wanna make money, make love, make friends, make peace with death — But most mainly want to win the game they came to win they want to come out ahead. But you, you're a rock, with a heart like a socket I can plug into at will. And will you guess when I come around next. I hope your open sign is blinking still."

"There are no signs, There are no stars aligned, No amulets no charms, To bring you back to my arms. There's just this human heart. That's built with this human fault. What was your question? Love is the answer."

"Come, my love, the stage is waiting, Be the one to save my saving grace."

"While people will cheer on the spectacle we've made I'm sitting and sculpting menageries of saints."

"While Jesus is saving, I'm spending all my grace, on rosy-red pallor of lights on center stage. While people have cheered on the awful mess we've made, through storms of red roses we've exited the stage"

"I'm not the pawn to your king I'm not your world on a string I'm not anyone you'll beat I'm not anything"

"Now, now ... You don't mean that say you're sorry You don't mean that ... I'll make you sorry"

"While Jesus is saving, I'm spending all my days in backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints. While people are spinning like toys on Christmas day, I'm inside a still life with the other absentee."

"Your lips are red My face is red from reading your red lips"

"It's time. You are light. I guess you are afraid of what everyone is made of — Time and Light."

"I certainly owe a lot of awesomeness to blogs, to people who have been blogging about a show, or blogging about a single, or blogging about something. It's just amazing to me that it seems to be a nice equalizer. People don't necessarily need the clout of a big "record company machine" to put their face on a billboard. It seems more organic and honest in a lot of ways, for fans of music to be critics I suppose."

"Some songs I wrote that night, and some songs took nine months to arrange, get how I positioned them. Some songs I wrote parts of when I was twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen… Just putting it together, just finding the right place for it. So it's really been a long time coming. ... I'm actually really restless, in the sense that I'd rather be always making something new. I'm really excited about making a second record. I've got a lot of things up my sleeve, I guess."

"I'm a debut artist, I'm not established — nobody would write about it if they didn't like it. So I'm waiting for the next album for the backlash."

"I enjoyed, and I tried to soak up and learn everything as fast as I could from doing any kind of music. It's good to have a gig. If you're a musician, it's good to be working. I love doing all of it, but Marry Me is my baby, St. Vincent is my child."

"I was recording with The Polyphonic Spree, recording The Fragile Army, and we were holed up in January in Minnesota at our studio. They called Mike in to play, and we just hit it off, in a really, really special way. Actually, the night after meeting and having a conversation with him, I sat down and I wrote "All My Stars Aligned". And I just kind of had an idea, "Wouldn't it be amazing if Mike Garson played? So the guy who played solo in Aladdin Sane, wouldn't it be amazing if this guy played this song?" And I wrote it, based on a conversation we had, but I didn't want to ask him, because I felt shy, and nervous, and everything. It was a few months later, actually, we kind of got in touch, and, 'Oh, what are you doing?', and I sent him a couple songs that I was working on. I sent him "Your Lips Are Red" and I sent him "All My Stars Aligned", just to show, you know, 'wink-wink, hint-hint, this is what I'm doing.' And he wrote me back, the things that we'd said, and asked to play on the record. So I was, 'Well, okay, if you insist…' That worked out pretty miraculously."

"In a really great way, you simultaneously try to take up as little and as much space as possible."

"Here's an awesome tour story: I was playing these two shows last fall in Europe, we played at Reykjavík, and the three or four days we were in Reykjavík happened to be the one and only Sugarcubes reunion show… So it was like, tour of a lifetime."

"What me worry? I never do I'm always amused and amusing you"

"Sticks and stones have made me smarter it's words that cut me under my armor they say..."

"What me worry? I never do. Life is one charming ruse for us lucky few.Have I fooled you, dear? The time is coming near when I'll give you my hand and I'll say, "It's been grand, but... I'm out of here I'm out of here""

"Leaden trumpets spit the soot of power they say "I'm on your side when nobody is, cause nobody is. Come sit right here and sleep while I slip poison in your ear""

"I think anyone who is creative or self-aware in any way, there’s like a humility to it, or I should say a humiliation to it. But there’s also a self-delusion — the provisional ego, as my uncle would call it. The self-delusion is the thing that makes you go, oh you know what, all the music that I’ve ever loved in the world, I want to be a part of that — hey, listen to what I have to say, it’s really important, it’s going to matter.” You can’t apologize your way into people’s hearts ... You have to go full force."

"We are waiting on a telegram to give us news of the fall I am sorry to report dear Paris is burning after all We have taken to the streets in open rejoice revolting We are dancing a black waltz — fair Paris is burning after all."

"The first thing I did when I picked up any instrument, when I was five years old, was write a song. It's kind of funny; I thought about it, statements that it's a "solo effort" — it's kind of like, "Oh, well I've been doing this since I was five." I was kind of doing this before I did anything else."

"I'm not your mother's favorite dog I'm not the carpet you walk on I'm not one small atomic bomb I'm not any any any anything at all."

"All your praying moments amount to just one breath. Please keep your victory But give me little death."

"The drug issue is hard to separate from a class issue, an education issue, a wonky foreign policy issue, and a race issue. What I do know is, be it caffeine, alcohol, cocaine, or adrenaline, let's face it: people like to get high. From Starbucks to Budweiser to your own brain, everybody's a pusher these days. If I could substitute another drug to be consumed in the country as much as alcohol is, it would be helium from children's birthday party balloons. Try not laughing when someone sounds like a chipmunk!"

"I always looked at any instrument as just a tool, an expressive voice to write with. It even differs from guitar to guitar. Some guitars demand that you play them delicately and really respect the instrument, and some beg to be abused. Same with piano. I know with guitar, I'm intimate with it enough to know when I put my fingers here, it will sound like this. I prefer writing on piano because it's always a surprise."

"A lot of the songs have a duality about them; one part is totally sincere, and there's another part that is kind of smirking and making light of it all. Or there's a very dark streak about it."

"I like the material, which makes it easy to sort of delve into it, and then also I was too tired to be nervous. I was just happy. The anxiety, the anxious energy was not there, because I was too exhausted."

"I'm crawling through landmines Just to know where you are."

"I love the idea that something would be whimsical, and like "delightful", you know, but also disgusting — so I like this sort of, you know, a really gnarly guitar — really gross, disgusting guitar and then a — really a whimsical... — it's one of those things you can only describe in sort of awkward hand gestures and eye motions. Imagine!"