Sword fighting and screaming: here’s how Grimes prepares for a session in the studio
Canadian artist shares details of her unusual training regime

When we spoke to Grimes in 2015, it appeared that she liked to keep things simple. She’d managed to create a critically acclaimed album using just GarageBand and a Roland Juno-G synth, after all.
Times change, though, and the artist also known as Claire Elise Boucher now has a much more complicated life.
In a recent Instagram post, she discussed her “360 approach to training”, which involves maximising the function of her mitochondria and spending two to four hours at a time in a deprivation tank. Her afternoons are often taken up with a couple of hours of sword fighting, and then there’s some core strength work and a hike.
This means that, by the time she hits the studio, Grimes’ mind and body are “functioning at peak level” - we’d just be exhausted - with a “neuroplastic goal between 57.5 and 71.5 AphC’s”. Nope, us neither.
Grimes also says that her creative space is illuminated with “the highest grade of red light”, and that she’ll enjoy a 20 to 25 minute ‘screaming session’ while she boils honey tea in order to maximise vocal proficiency.
All of which is in stark contrast to our studio prep regime, which consists of little more than rolling out of bed and pouring a bowl of Cheerios.
And that’s probably why Grimes is preparing to release her fifth album, Miss Anthropocene, and we still haven’t finished our first.
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I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.
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