Solo Saint

(Credit: Photo: Tod Seelie Styling: Mary Manning Hair: Lauren White, dress by Mayle)

Annie Clark may be the Sybil of indie rock. Case(s) in point:

Blog-obsessed music geeks are drooling over her gilded past as a member of the Polyphonic Spree at the tender age of 23 (“I tried out on a Tuesday and was playing a show with them in Europe by that Friday”) followed by a stint as an angelic ax-slinger for Sufjan Stevens.

NPR-informed aunt and uncle types are swooning over her more traditional jazzy moments, like the gorgeous torch song “What, Me Worry” that closes her debut album, "Marry Me"—among the finest released in 2007.

Hell, country music fans have to wonder why their current crop of female stars have yet to record anything as plainly heartfelt, seductive or daring as “All My Stars Aligned,” which plays like Patsy Cline 2.0.

It’s pretty easy to love all manifestations of St. Vincent, the ethereal nom de plume for guitarist/singer-songwriter Annie Clark.

The Annie Clark that answered the phone in Brooklyn recently was jet-lagged from playing Australia and Japan. “It was very cushy. I was able to bond with my bandmates, and I wrote a lot of music in that time,” she says.

She is totally unaware that in her absence, she’s become something of a darling in the indie scene, receiving the ultimate compliment a new artist can get in this digital world: an unauthorized mash-up. Clark has no idea what I’m talking about when I mention “It’s Raining Now,” a mash-up of her song “Now Now” with late Oakland rapper Mac Dre’s “It’s Raining Game in Northern California” that’s been burning up the blogosphere over the last few weeks.

“Well, I’ve always been going for a hardcore hip-hop sound,” the admitted fan of indie rappers the Coup says with a laugh. “So that’s totally rad.”

Clark is already sowing the seeds of album number two, even if it is still very early in the sonic gestation period. She’s already got studio time booked to record once she finishes a February tour, which kicks off right here in L.A.

“I’m very excited,” she says of the new ideas that came out of her trip. “But calling any of the ideas ‘songs’ yet would be a bit of a misnomer; they’re more like little pieces, vignettes, that will eventually become full-blown songs, I hope.”

Suddenly: A big, if well-deserved, yawn.

“Oh, sorry about that,” she says. “My sleeping schedule is all weird. I’m waking up at 4 in the morning and going to bed at 6 p.m. I’m getting a glimpse of what life is like as a retiree.”

But for now, no rest for the weary. Following her headlining show at the Echoplex with Foreign Born on Feb. 15 (“They’re such great guys. I can’t wait to make friends with them,” she says) with a date in the desert for her first-ever Coachella performance at the end of April, none of Annie Clark’s many music personalities will be able to apply for an AARP card anytime soon.

St. Vincent performs Friday, Feb. 15 at the Echoplex

Scott T. Sterling is Music editor for Metromix Los Angeles.