St. Vincent Covers Herself

How she wrote Savior and then recorded it two ways.

- Nate Jones

IN OCTOBER 2017, St. Vincent released her fifth album, Masseduction, a critically acclaimed collection of art rock with a pop sheen courtesy of producer Jack Antonoff. Now, a year later, she has put together a companion piece, MassEducation, made up of quiet piano versions of the same songs. St. Vincent walked us through the writing and recording of both versions of the track “Savior,” which explores the discomfort of trying to mold yourself to your partner’s desires. NATE JONES

Writing “Savior”

THE FIRST PART of this song was something I wrote when I was 16. When I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time with one of those boom boxes with the microphone you can plug in, sort of like makeshift karaoke, and I would just practice Billie Holiday riffs. The “Pleeeaaaase” part of this song would’ve been one of the first melodies I wrote, and I assume that some of the inspiration came from trying to practice the melismas of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. It was in the midst of another song that was dirge-y; I think I’d just discovered PJ Harvey’s Is This Desire? record. And me and my best friend made a music video for that song. I went to Stein Mart and found some ’70s-housewife Dolce & Gabbana kind of outfit, and I was writhing around my mother’s house while my best friend filmed it. So that’s why it particularly stuck out, because we had all the fanfare around it when I was 16. Some melodies, you don’t know when they’ll come into play, but you’re like, Okay, I see you. I’ll squirrel you away for the exact right time, and that time happened to be 15-plus years later.