Grimes (Clare Boucher) drops in to chat with Rowena McGeoch on Arvos on the back of playing Meredith Music Festival.

The Canadian musician discusses the totality of her artistic process, saying she needs to be in control of every aspect of her music, including album artwork and merchandise. “I can’t think of something as Grimes if I didn’t make it.”

Multi-media mastery is something that comes naturally to the experimental pop performer, who has been a dancer and visual artist her whole life. In fact, music is the medium in which she is least experienced. “I only started playing music three or four years ago… music is the difficult part.”

Grimes also talks about the challenges of playing live shows with male bands: “The problem with that is everyone’s like, ‘Oh man, the singer in Grimes is great’, and people just automatically assume that all the production or all the work is done by the guys. If you have any guys on stage that’s just the way people default.”

Knowledge of Boucher’s song writing formula quickly dispels any such notions. In the past, her method has involved isolating herself to ensure a product unaffected by expectations. “One of the most detrimental things to at least my creative process is worrying about other people’s judgements. So sometimes it’s important, I think, to just kind of get away from other people. If you just forget what it’s like to even be around other people, it’s a lot easier to just do things without worrying about pressures.”