This was from the pre-Metromix days, so it's not on the site. But back in 2007 I went to see John Vanderslice play at the Maintenance Shop in Ames. Opening for him was a little known singer-songwriter calling herself St. Vincent. John got very upstaged that night.

At the time, her show consisted of a guitar and a platform she could stomp on. I think everyone in the room fell in love with her a little bit that night. She was scheduled to open for Midlake at the M-Shop just a few weeks later, so I sent off an email to see if I could get an interview. I did get one, though only through email, not a phone call.

Here's my story as it ran:

Solo artist rocks the stage

joe lawler

joe@dmJuice.com

Annie Clark's stage show has shrunk dramatically. The Texas singer-songwriter was the guitarist for the army-sized band Polyphonic Spree, but she has since gone solo as st. vincent.

Her oversized glasses and mammoth microphone only heighten her diminutive size, but she remains quite a presence onstage, full of wit and a booming voice all by her lonesome.

Last fall Clark toured Europe with Sufjan Stevens. In 2007 she went on tour with Midlake and now John Vanderslice. Her debut album, "Marry Me," hits stores in July.

We asked her about her musical past and present. Her personality took over.

ON HER STAGE NAME:

"I was drawing absent-mindedly on my sketchpad in that meandering, half-conscious way. I found I had inexplicably covered an entire page with the name 'st. vincent.' I don't believe in signs, but I took this as one."

ON THE POLYPHONIC SPREE:

"I am a blushing Texan. Where else could a phalanx of psychedelic sunshine rockers have the wide open space to grow but Texas?"

ON BEING A SOLO PERFORMER:

"There's only one heartbeat onstage. And it's yours. And it's beating fast."

ON HER GIANT MICROPHONE:

"The Coppertone mic sounds like an AM radio from the 1940s. There is something militaristic about the sound of it. Singing into it, I feel oddly aware that history gets far enough away from some wars to romanticize, idealize and even glamorize them."

HER MUSICAL INFLUENCES:

"A party shuffle on my iTunes reveals: Charlie Parker, Stereolab, D'Angelo, Neil Young, Deerhoof, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ali Farka Toure, Captain Beefheart and, what do you know, Midlake and John Vanderslice."

THE EXPANDING ST. VINCENT:

"There's a brigade of St. Vincent altar boys waiting in the wings, fully armed with trombones, trumpets, violins, basses and things to bang on for the live experience."