Claire Elise Boucher Biography

While studying at McGill University, Claire Elise Boucher became involved with the Lab Synthèse warehouse, an arts collective in Montreal. She was coerced into lending backing vocals to a song by her friends, and was subsequently inspired to make noise rock on her computer. A self-taught artist and musician, she began composing music and posting them on her original MySpace page under the alias 'Grimes' back in 2007. She chose the alias as she liked the 'grime' genre choice on MySpace, even before she knew what grime music sounded like.

On January 10, 2010, she self-produced her debut album 'Geidi Primes', a concept album inspired by the 'Dune' series, via Arbutus Records. It was received well by music critics, which prompted her to release her second album, 'Halfaxa', on October 5, 2010, followed by a tour with Swedish singer Lykke. She signed a record deal with 4AD label in January 2012, and went on to release her breakout album 'Visions', which she made entirely by herself in three weeks during which she reportedly locked herself in a dark room, used hard drugs and didn't eat anything. The album, which earned critical acclaim and made her a star overnight, impressed musician Jay Z, who signed her to his Roc Nation management company in 2013. Since then, she has stayed a darling of the press not only for the success of her latest album 'Art Angels', but also because of her swearing habits on the internet, her quirky image and a number of gossips. Most recently, she made news headlines in May 2018 after appearing at Met Gala with tech billionaire and SpaceX and Tesla owner Elon Musk, while wearing a choker necklace with the 'T' sign.

Claire Elise Boucher was born on March 17, 1988 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She is of Québécois, Ukrainian and Russian descent. Her mother, Sandy Garossino, is a former Crown prosecutor and prominent media commentator who currently writes weekly columns for the 'National Observer'. Her father was a banker and is currently an executive at a biotechnology company. She is the only daughter of her parents and has three brothers. She suffered from "restless leg syndrome" as a child, because of which she got kicked out of class many times, prompting her to get into dancing and take ballet lessons. Raised a Roman Catholic, she attended a Catholic school, but later lost her religious beliefs as she grew older.

Following her school graduation, she moved to Montreal in 2006 to study neuroscience and philosophy at McGill University. However, she soon became more interested in the DIY arts scene and eventually dropped out in early 2011 after becoming more involved in her musical career.

During the time she was working on 'Visions' locked up in her room, Claire Elise Boucher was involved with her longtime boyfriend Devon Welsh, of Majical Cloudz, who used to bring food for her to eat. The two later broke off, following which she began dating James Brooks—known for his own musical projects Elite Gymnastics and Default Genders—who she met in 2012. The two relocated to Los Angeles in September 2014, and he has been instrumental in her success with her latest album by taking good care of her earthly necessities, especially when she acted "like Don Draper".

She is currently in a relationship with Elon Musk, who she reportedly met online. Musk, while trying to make an inside joke about the thought experiment Roko’s Basilisk involving artificial-intelligence theory with a pun on the word 'rococo', discovered that she had already made the joke three years ago. The anti-AI tech giant was reportedly impressed by her immediately, more so after he watched the 'Venus Fly' video directed by her.