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Grimes has always been an outspoken musician. She isn’t afraid to call out the blatant misogyny levelled at women in the music industry and when it comes to politics, she’s no different. In an interview with Vice, the singer expressed her dismay with Canada’s current Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper.

“Getting anyone besides Conservatives/Harper into power is priority number one,” said Grimes.

During the interview, Grimes, real name Claire Boucher, was dismayed that young Canadians weren’t taking more of an interest in their politics governing their country.

“I don’t think a lot of the people involved know how to reach the youth. Most of my friends engage more with American media than Canadian media.”

“Such a small group of people need to be motivated to get the Conservatives out for this election. In 2008, the Vancouver South riding was decided by 20 votes, for example. I’d love to motivate those 20 people to vote. I think if more young people in the public eye can start motivating our peers and fans we can make a real difference!”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9XKLqGqwLA&w=560&h=315]

She said people’s perception of Canada as environmental utopia of free health care and equal treatment was way off the mark, adding that her main concerns for the upcoming election were the environmental degradation and the murder of indigenous women.

“I’m happy about The New York Times and The Guardian and other outlets who have been shining a spotlight on important issues like Canada’s tar sands, the massive environmental destruction, and corruption within the Harper government and the treatment of Canada’s poor.”

In the meantime, Grimes has announced her European tour, called the Ac!d Reign Tour, to promote her forthcoming new album, which is expected to come out sometime this month. 

It’s been three years since ethereal pop princess Grimes released her self-professed hastily produced Visions, and we’re aching for a followup. “I made Visions in a couple weeks,” she told Entertainment Weekly, although it sounds like the work of a much longer process, experimental and glittery and dark and featuring Grimes’ typical child-like vocals blended with layered electronic soundscapes.

But her new work will see her move in a slightly different direction, with perhaps a more polished sound. “This is the first record I’ve made with an audience…this time the songs are kind of written,” she continues to EW. “You could theoretically play them all on the guitar or on the piano. In terms of the sound design, I got a lot better.”

This is refreshing news that comes of the back of Grimes’ announcement that she had ‘scrapped her album cuz it was depressing and I didn’t want to tour it.’

On the actual details of the album, Grimes has teased different alter egos, including “Screechy Bat…the metal one…and one that’s super vampish and sexy… like Ginger Spice.” Drawing from ’90s and nu-metal influences, she’s described tracks called Flesh Without Blood (a “staccato rocker”) and SCREAM.

Personally, we’re still hoping that the final cut of the very good REALiTi will make it onto the album, even though Grimes has expressed her distaste of her previous singles. “It’s a lazy song,” she says about REALiTi. “I hate Oblivion too. All the songs that are singles are songs people have to force me to do…I always hate the songs that are singles.”

If it’s any consolation, we thought Oblivion was absolutely bangers. Here’s hoping that her new work comes swiftly and delivers as much of a punch as Visions.

Grimes, also known as, Claire Boucher, has been featured as the cover story of The Fader after a super interesting interview with Emilie Friedlander. Aside from looking totally gorgeous on their front cover, we got a great insight into who Claire Boucher is, her struggles in the world of music and what we can expect from her in the future.

The wonderful piece Grimes In Reality starts off with Grimes showing Friedlander her upcoming LP. One of her tracks Flesh Without Blood was described as a “guitar-studded power-punk anthem” and another, which features three female rappers as a “ferocious-sounding club track with twanging subs” and about being “too scary to be objectified.” The excitement is real.

In other music news, she mentioned the project that was said to be scrapped, actually wasn’t. She said she was writing a bit of music before Rihanna‘s Go (which she says was “never intended for the record” despite of what was reported). “I was like, ‘You know, my life is getting a lot better. I’m going to put all this stuff on a hard drive and start again. There were just hundreds of songs — on this album that I’m making now, there’s at least a hundred songs that won’t make it onto this. I think all musicians have songs that don’t make it onto records,” she said.

Her identity was also a topic of discussion. Boucher revealed that Grimes isn’t her only alter-ego. “Okay, there’s Grimes, but there’s other ones too now—and they’re like a girl group,” she says. “There’s Screechy Bat, who’s the metal one. There’s one that’s super vampish and sexy now—I don’t know her name yet, but she’s like the Ginger Spice.” 

What does that mean? Are we in for something very different in the near future?

She touches on some of the struggles all female musicians face, such as not being taken seriously by the industry. “The thing that I hate about the music industry is all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Grimes is a female musician’ and ‘Grimes has a girly voice.’ It’s like, yeah, but I’m a producer and I spend all day looking at fucking graphs and EQs and doing really technical work,” she said.

Another was the lack of safety of female musicians. She says she, and other musicians, get rape and death threats all the time. She even shared a story. “One time I was backstage at a show, and there was this random guy in my dressing room, and he just grabbed me and started making out with me, and I was like, Ah!, and pushed him off. Then he went, ‘Ha! I kiss-raped you’ and left. Shit like that happens quasi-frequently. When I play a show I have to have, like, three bodyguards in front of the stage, and then I have to have bodyguards on the side.”

There’s so much more to read in this incredible interview, which is available via The Fader’s website.

It turns out Grimes isn’t just a talented musician, she’s a pretty good illustrator too. She has joined the likes of Courtney Love, Ghostface Killah and Amanda Palmer (who have all designed their own covers) and designed an alternative comic book cover for the 14th issue of The Wicked + The Divine, which is due to be released on September 9th. The book, by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, is about the reincarnation of a group of gods called ‘The Panthenon’ into popstars. Very fitting.

The cover was shown at Comic-Con in San Diego over the weekend. Here’s the perfectly grotesque cover:

It’s been a while since we’ve had some new music from Grimes following the release of Visions in 2012. She had thrown out an entire album earlier this year because she didn’t like the vibes it was projecting. “The album was scrapped cuz it was depressing and I didn’t want to tour it.” she wrote on Tumblr. “I’m really not that sad or insecure of a person.”

She has, however, teased on Twitter than there will be a new album release sometime in Autumn (Spring for Australia). She says it will be a surprise release, so as far as we know there will be no release date (read more on that here).

Let’s hope we get to hear some new stuff soon. Keep your eyes (and ears) peeled!