Kill V. Maim

Album: Art Angels (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • Grimes immersed herself in gangster movies while penning the Art Angels album. She told Q magazine this song, "is written from the perspective of Al Pacino in The Godfather Pt 2. Except he's a vampire who can switch gender and travel through space."
  • Grimes told NME this is her favorite song on Art Angels. She explained: "It's my strongest work as a producer and it probably reflects my personality more than most of my music. It's the song I've always wanted to make, and I finally made it."
  • According to an interview on the Song Exploder podcast, Grimes' vocals for this song were inspired by comics villain Harley Quinn. "When you're making a record and you're never talking to anybody you just start [thinking], 'Oh, I'm gonna try to write in the voice of…something.' Like with [this song, it has] a Harley Quinn kind of vibe — like just sort of this Joker-y, scary demon chorus," she said

    "I hate singing. It's just not something I identify with at all," Grimes added. "I'm pretty much always pretending to be someone else when I'm singing."

    Harley Quinn is an adversary of the superhero Batman and commonly appears as the Joker's accomplice and lover.

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