My January Artist is Clara Rose
On 15th January last I posted a declaration.
I declared that I am going
to interview –right here – a dozen great writers and artists whom I am
privileged to know. I am going to ask them
what they keep in their drawers – or rather to describe the tools of their trade. I’m going to find out what their hopes and fears
are for their art. Very shortly
afterwards I heard my latest favourite song -‘Wallflower Waltz’ - on RTE Radio’s Late Date
music programme and I knew it was a sign.
What better way to start my quest to discover how art is made than by chatting
with the Queen of the Late Night Radio Clara Rose.
Clara has been writing and performing original music for 10 years now. She already has two acclaimed albums under her belt - A Portfolio and Queen of the Late Night Radio.
She has also shared stages with Celtic legends such as The Horslips, Henry McCullough, The Waterboys, Eleanor McEvoy, John Spillane, Jack L and she records and tours with blues legend Don Baker.
Clara and Don are currently in studio finishing a collaborative album that is due for release later in the year. The album is a mixture of original songs by both artists.
Clara has always written. As a child she wrote short stories. As a teenager she wrote poetry. ‘Terrible poetry’, she maintains, laughing. ‘Maybe if you put music to terrible poems they become good songs?’ She hasn’t tried yet to put music to her short stories although some of her favourite artists do that regularly - Tom Waits does and Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell….
She reveals that she doesn’t have a writer’s drawer,
nor does she use a particular desk. But
she does use very specific tools for her trade. Clara usually writes a song with the guitar. Mostly it’s when she is messing with the
guitar that a lyric pops into her head - and then a feeling comes – and then
she’s off.
Othertimes the lyric and the melody come when she’s on the road. Often she will pull over to sing it into the phone and then she can hardly wait to get back to her guitar to develop it.
‘I've written lots and lots of songs at the kitchen table
where I’ve deliberately sat down in a disciplined way to do it. I don't like them. My songs are very personal. They are like a therapy for me – and if
people like to listen to them then it’s a bonus.’
Clara has two other very important creative tools – a
journal and a songbook.
‘I usually
scribble before I go to bed – a sort of de-cluttering exercise. I allow a
stream of consciousness to flow into my journal. Very often when I take the time to look back
over it I’ll find a lyric in there and then that will go into the song
book. Later I’ll go back to the song
book and develop the lyric into song.'
Clara, (who incidentally holds a Bachelor of Music from
Maynooth University and a Music Therapy Masters from The University of
Limerick), is a music therapist. I ask
her about her day job. She loves
it. She works principally with people
with disability and with older adults.
‘I bring instruments along – maybe a badhrán, maraca, tambourine,
whistle. We begin by playing their
favourite songs. It’s a non-verbal
therapy - an alternative to talk therapy. I like my sessions to be as much fun
as possible’.
Which of her own
songs does she currently like best?
I was delighted when she cited Wallflower Waltz. I asked
her why? ‘I think it has the ingredients
of a good song – the lyrics draw you in – it has a good strong melody line
and the harmonies work well around that.
For the time that you're listening to the song it takes you in.’How did wallflower waltz come to you?
'Usually I write with the guitar but this time it was with piano’, she explains. ‘I was waiting for a client one day who didn't show. I was playing a melody on the piano and suddenly there it was. At that time I felt a lot like a spectator in life and this song is a sort of imagining of someone joining me on this wallflower journey.’ Clara explains that she’s not really a piano player – so what was arising wasn’t theoretically correct – it was, she says ‘almost as if musically incorrect odd cords came together as if by magic to reflect the lyrical theme of the song.’
So – who, I wondered, is Clara’s audience?
‘If I look at my stats on Facebook my audience is between 25 and 35 - there are a lot of men in their 50s in there too - all ages really - all very beautiful intelligent people who like songs that make you think - contemplatives songs. But I also like and enjoy and write songs that let go - shake your ass/butt type songs – that bring out the craic - my gigs cater for both types of experience.’
Have there ever been
times when the muse is not with her?
She says this has happened to her several times. Once she had a whole year where she didn't
write. She might have been performing, promoting, and very, very busy - but she
didn’t write. She made a big change in
her life around that time and then the writing began again. She describes the times
when she can’t write as terrifying. As
time goes on, though, she is beginning to trust more that after every ebb there
will be a flow.
Clara sees the whole thing is a gift. Her big hope is that she will always be able
to experience it. She is deeply
appreciative of her freedoms. She is aware that so many people in the world that have
talents are oppressed - who simply don't have the opportunity to sit down
on a Tuesday
night with the guitar and make songs…...
We wonder together
if art is art without someone else to respond to it?
Clara talks about a recent gig she played in which she
‘world premiered’ two new songs. She describes herself as dying to see what
people would think of them, to take the temperature of the audience reaction. ‘Your
instinct might tell you that it is good’, she says, ‘but audience response is
the test’.
What is her genre?
Clara describes herself as blues rock oriented. She started out as more ‘emotional rock’ and
now she says maybe there’s a more ‘measured' 'folksy' singer emerging. She loves the storytelling part of the Irish
tradition. She’s very aware of the storytelling
and musical traditions that filter down from both sides of her heritage – of
having a DNA that's very Irish - that goes way back both sides - as far as the 16th century.
She talks again about the fact that her songs are very
personal - she doesn't plan them. She
admires very much Marion McEvoy, for instance, who studies a character from
history and creates beautiful historical folksongs around that character. She
would like to be able to do something like that - but right now anyway - that’s
not how it’s happening for her.
We discussed what
it’s like to be an independent artist.
It involves a lot
of administration and hard graft. A lot
of online promotion - website maintenance - booking gigs - setting up equipment.
It takes Clara one and half hours to set up equipment for a gig - then a quick
change in the jacks – sometimes with maybe 12 minutes to make herself look
beautiful - and then she goes on stage.
‘I hope I use social media just enough to get the balance
right between not pissing people off but yet giving them enough information’
she says. There is a need to be more and
more creative with social media posts. She notices that people respond much
better when she uses video or images than when she just put up text.
Who is she currently listening to and loving right now?
‘Hosier’, she says
immediately. ‘Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison. LA pop rock band Haim are on her current list
as is English acoustic folk rock trio the Staves. She loves to listen to talk radio to relax.Who is she currently listening to and loving right now?
Does Clara
read?
Why am I not surprised to discover that she is, and always
was, a voracious reader. Here are the current books on her locker:
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared - by Jonas Jonasson
Moby Dick - by Herman Melville
Oh Dear Silvia - by Dawn French
