Interview with Clara Rose: Not stream it anymore music: Video

Interview with Blues vocalist Clara Rose. An interview by email in writing. 

JazzBluesNews.com: – First, let’s start out with where you grew up, and what got you interested in music. How exactly did your adventure take off? When did you realize that this was a passion you could make a living out of?

Clara Rose: – I was born in Dublin, Ireland with family roots in County Monaghan. I come from a very musical family, with musical Grandparents and parents on both sides of the family. This meant that from a young age, music was always a huge part of my life. My parents and I would often sing and make music together, we would dance around the house and record our own tapes and post them off to family members! From the age of 10 I began performing concerts with my family, even going to Germany to perform with them on a number of occasions. This is the age I got the ‘performance bug’ and it has never left. Winning national title for singing in Irish at the age of 12, I then pursued the study of music through school and university, gaining a degree in Music and a master’s in music therapy. For me, it was always going to be a life in music, one way or the other.

JBN: – How has your sound evolved over time? What have you been doing to find and develop your own sound?

CR: – My father taught me how to play guitar when I was 10 years old. I then began learning my favourite music, which at the time were bands such as Oasis, Stereophonics, Radiohead and artists such as Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Nina Simone. When I began writing music around the age of 17 it was a mixture of all these styles combined with my background in Irish folk music… and what ‘came out’ was: the blues!

JBN: – What routine practices or exercises have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical proficiency, in terms of both rhythm and harmony?

CR: – Musical training has been a constant throughout my life, I’ve always had an interest in combining the perfect amount of musical theory and ‘feel’ to create my own sound. As a vocalist, vocal health is really important to me. I try to eat well, exercise frequently, drink plenty of water, do vocal warm-ups and get some rest before performances. I am a guitarist also and a perpetual student of blues/country guitar.

JBN: – Have you changed through the years? Any charges or overall evolution? And if so why?

CR: – Yes of course! Change is important in order to grow and develop as an artist, musician and songwriter. For example, the move from being solely a live performer to an independent artist was a process that involved much change and evolution. I had to learn how to work in recording studios, with producers to achieve the sound I wanted and knew I had from my live performances.

There could be talk or advertising about your CD

JBN: – In your opinion, what’s the balance in music between intellect and soul?

CR: – In my experience you need both. The intellect (music theory, knowledge, experience in music) gives you a solid grounding in how you learn, create and perform music. However, without the ‘soul’ there would be nothing… no feel, no groove, no creative spark. The soul of music is the essence of how it touches those who listen to it, as it meets a point in their soul. You could say that really ‘good’ music is the perfect combination of intellect and soul!

JBN: – There’s a two-way relationship between audience and artist; are you okay with delivering people the emotion they long for?

CR: – In this work I see how music offers people a level of non-verbal support, it gives them an outlet to express, understand and regulate their emotions in a supportive, therapeutic context.

JBN: – How can we get young people interested in blues when most of standard tunes are half a century old?

CR: – Like anything I think once it comes from the heart and soul young people will form an interest in it. Collaboration with musicians from other styles of music helps to ignite the blues with new energy. When I listen to the music that is really popular with younger people there is blues in there, for example Hozier, Lady Gaga, Imelda May, Lizzo and Harry Styles ALL have the blues in their music! The blues will live on in the way it’s meant to with old and new combined. As Jimi Hendrix said, “blues is a feeling” and feelings never fade.

JBN: – John Coltrane once said that music was his spirit. How do you perceive the spirit and the meaning of life?

CR: – Our spirit is what keeps us motivated and inspired in life. It is our ‘life force’, what drives us as humans.

JBN: – If you could change one single thing in the musical world and that would become reality, what would that be?

CR: – That people actually want to buy music and not stream it anymore.

JBN: – Whom do you find yourself listening to these days?

CR: – These days I’ve been listening to a lovely Canadian songwriter called Leif Vollelbleck. I caught his show last week in Dublin and it was sublime. I always have the staples on the go too; Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell.

JBN: – What is the message you choose to bring through your music?

CR: – Live life to the full, whatever that means for you. Follow your passion, even if it is in some small way. Maybe without heartbreak, you can’t know true love. Rock on!

JBN: – Let’s take a trip with a time machine: where and why would you really want to go?

CR: – I’m going to stay with the music for this one. I have always thought perhaps I was born in the wrong time… I would love to go back to the 1960s and soak up all the amazing music in this time. Specifically, 1967 at the Monterey Music Festival to see Janis Joplin’s first significant performance and Jimi Hendrix burn his guitar. I would definitely have tried to get up on stage for a jam with Janis, what an artist she was.

JBN: – So far, it’s been me asking you questions, now may I have a question from yourself…

CR: – Are you still reading this interview?

JBN: – Yes, I want to find the end of useless thoughts 🙂 Where do people buy records when you don’t have money to promote it? It is not right and honest when you refuse to advertise, but enter through the back door and run text ads. Live honestly and share your modest means with someone who does something good for you so that we can progress.

Note: You can express your consent and join our association, which will give you the opportunity to perform at our Jazz and Blues festivals in Europe and Boston, naturally receiving an appropriate royalty. We cover all expenses. The objectives of the interview are: How to introduce yourself, your activities, thoughts and intellect, and make new discoveries for our US/EU Jazz & Blues Association, which organizes festivals, concerts and meetings in Boston and various European countries, why not for you too!! You can read more about the association here. https://jazzbluesnews.com/2022/11/19/us-eu-jba/

Interview by Simon Sargsyan