St. Vincent has spoken about performing with Sufjan Stevens at the Oscars.

Sufjan Stevens was nominated in Best Original Song, and - as a pre-requisite - had to form a band to perform at the ceremony.

Moses Sumney and St. Vincent formed part of the ensemble, with Annie Clark reflecting on the experience with Beats 1 host Matt Wilkinson.

"I wrapped a tour and then the next day started Oscar rehearsals," she said. "It’s a whole thing. It’s like fittings because you have to look slightly different at various events...It was funny. There was immense rehearsals for this - not just rehearsals with Sufjan Stevens and that band but also dress rehearsals and run-throughs and stuff like that because it’s a show and it’s live and it has to be really tight."

"The stages are like motorised and they move up and some move to the side and there’s this kind of Matrix-y thing behind and under the main stage. They get us - the band - set on the stage and I’m going 'huh that’s weird it’s like 50 feet up to the real stage, we’re way down here' and the fun fact is that I’m terrified of heights so all of a sudden we hear like 'OK you guys ready? We’re moving.' So we’re on this stage moving slowly up 30 feet in the air."

"This is my nightmare. I’m standing, holding onto the mic stand as if that’s going to help me, that’s not attached to it. But also there’s no barricade on any side, there’s not even like a semblance of safety. Anyway, we get 30 feet up in the air and then it stops and they’re talking and it’s like 'the best animated short blah blah blah' and then you go up again another say 20 feet and at the top of that it’s '1-2-3-4 you’re ready to perform!'"

"I’m like 'oh my God' this is like doing American Gladiators Gauntlet and then like 'and it’s showtime kiddo!' Luckily we ran through that enough times for me to get comfortable but I don’t know if you’ll notice like I’m standing with a very wide stance. It doubles as like a power stance but it also doubles as like 'OK I’m as sturdy as I can possibly be'."

Elsewhere in the conversation, St. Vincent reflected on David Byrne's recent note of apology, after it was pointed out to him that his recent collaboration-heavy studio album used an entirely male cast.

Annie Clark, of course, recorded an entire album with the Talking Heads singer, and she was sympathetic to his message of personal growth. She commented:

"I think it was definitely an apology and I thought it was good of him to address it. There’s always a spectrum and there’s always context. David Byrne I think is on the right side of history in general, in terms of moving the needle forward but I’m glad that he recognised the room that he still has to grow as far as that goes."

"David’s a class act and again, everybody has room to grow, like every single person has room to widen their frame of reference and be more compassionate and David is a truly, truly good one. I think it was good of him to recognise his room for growth."

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