Local solo artist Anne Clements will perform tonight at 10 p.m. on WEFT Sessions. As always, you can listen the old-fashioned way at 90.1 FM or online at weft.org.
After the jump, a lively Q&A with Clements about her decision to not sing “pretty,” even though she can, and how working from home has brought down her stress level.
Smile Politely: Will you be solo in the studio or with a backing band?
Anne Clements: Solo with electric guitar – it’s an unusual combination, but I’ve gotten so used to my Yamaha that I’m not really comfortable playing an acoustic any more, although I’m working on getting back into it.
SP: Have you played for a radio show before? Any complications or advantages that you expect?
AC: I did a WEFT session many years ago – I barely even remember it, although I think I did play a couple of the songs on my CD (forthcoming – not as soon as I’d hoped when we set up this session, but Real Soon Now…). Also did one a couple of years ago with Monday’s Child – so far the only thing resembling an actual band I’ve been in, and it was a blast.
SP: How does the songwriting process work for you?
AC: It can start with a good line, or a good riff, or a vivid image or emotion-spike – ideally all of the above. Then I craft it into a song, picking up threads from other things – other situations, other images, other lines and/or riffs that have been lying around in the back of my brain waiting for a home. The critical thing, for me at least, is shaping it into Art – taking something very subjective and personal and making it into something other people can relate to, with a pleasing and interesting structure and sound and, ideally, some kind of a “twist” or unusual perspective that wakes up the brain a little bit.
Also, walking is excellent for hammering out lyrics, phrasing, etc. Being back in the city (I work half-time in Chicago, half-time down here – see below!) is helping with that.
SP: How would you describe your sound for someone who’s never heard your music before?
AC: That’s always the hardest question. I used to say “kinda like one Indigo Girl”, but that’s a bit dated. Lisa Kennelly, the lead singer of Monday’s Child, once flattered me tremendously by comparing me to Bonnie Raitt. I’d say I’m in her territory, along that of with Amy Rigby, Patti Scialfa, and a few others – maybe Liz Phair – in the sense of writing “grown-up” songs about more complicated stuff than girl-meets-boy, and venturing outside of the standard “feminine” sound, especially now that this sort of soft, feathery female vocal has become so pervasive in the mainstream music world.
The challenging thing is that my voice naturally does “pretty” fairly decently (at least when I’m in practice), but that’s not what I want to sing. I would have loved to be a blues belter, but that ain’t happenin’, so oddly enough, my main vocal inspirations are people like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Waits, even Britney Spears – people who can’t, strictly speaking, sing, but have done wonderful things with what they’ve got. So, I’m still working with it.
On the guitar side, even though I am completely self-taught (a.k.a. musically illiterate), and find myself frustratingly limited by that in some ways, I’m also kinda passionate about – again – working with what I’ve got. My mission (should I choose to accept it) is to break the glass ceiling of serious guitar work – to make the world safe not just for world-class female guitarists like your Susan Tedeschi or your Lita Ford or your Kaki King, but also for us dedicated and passionate just-sort-of-OK female guitarists.
And then there’s the whole Wiggly Spine thing – if you think of a rock band as a stick figure, the hips are the bass, the feet are the drums, the head is of course the vocals, the arms are your lead guitar, keyboards, etc – but the backbone of the whole thing is the rhythm guitar. I like to think of myself as a ferocious rhythm guitar player … a very wiggly spine, if you will. Working with seasoned (a.k.a. phenomenal) musicians like Matt Stewart, Josh Quirk, Tom Broeske, and Mark Rubel has only reinforced that, even as I hustle to catch up in the chops department.
SP: Was there a moment when you realized that you wanted to be a musician? How did that come about?
AC: It’s never been a question of “wanting” to be a musician – music, particularly songwriting, has always been a part of what I am. There was a pivotal, life-changing moment of realization, though – but I’m going to try to shoehorn that into my chat with Todd tomorrow night, so will not spoil it here!
SP: What’s a singer or band that you’ve been compared to that you don’t think is representative at all, and why not?
AC: Wow – the only person I really recall being compared to is Bonnie Raitt, as per above. I have in mind that somebody at an open mic once compared me to somebody I found appalling, but I seem to have completely blocked it from my memory. Either that or the Alzheimer’s is setting in.
SP: What is the greatest album of all time? Why?
AC: Dang, do you actually get answers to that one? I can’t even begin to approach it – there are so many great ones, and so much depends on context. If I had to go with one, though, I guess I’d have to be a typical boomer and say Dark Side of the Moon, for all the usual reasons.
SP: What was your favorite band when you were in junior high?
AC: Actually, I was into classical in 8th grade (Chicago didn’t have junior high). Didn’t get the epiphany that rock ‘n’ roll really was music, not just hype and noise and “people yelling at the top of their lungs about their private lives” (as some child prodigy once said) until the middle of freshman year, when I caught the Woodstock movie … and that was, as they say, all she wrote.
SP: Are you a full-time musician or do you have a side gig?
AC: Alas, the music is the side gig. I make my living in the world of enterprise software development – fortunately, the basic skill sets are remarkably similar between the two – especially when it comes to recording projects, I’m finding.
For the past few years I’ve been working in Chicago, while keeping a home here – for the past several months I’ve been able to work from home here every other week, which has helped immensely with the stress level. I have two of almost everything (including cats), and everything else is inevitably in the wrong place at the wrong time …
SP: What do you like to do in your spare time?
AC: What is this “spare time” of which you speak? I work, I play music, I exercise to keep the old bones from congealing, I read (and watch The Daily Show) to keep the brain likewise, I hang with the family and friends….and, oh, yeah, I drive a lot.
SP: Would you like to say anything else that wasn’t covered in these questions?
AC: If you keep going in the same direction, you end up where you started from.