Jennifer Clarke
Jennifer Clarke
© 2008 JMC Music Ltd. (837101298773)
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This stunning debut mixes pop, country and folk styles to create a totally new sound.
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After four years of writing my own biog in the third person I have finally decided to write it as myself. I am, after all, a writer of songs and spend hours pouring my heart into my fingers willing them to make some magic on the strings of my guitar and the keys of my piano. Surely stringing some facts and information together shouldn’t be that daunting a task! Yet somehow it is. I have the ability (required in the music business!) to boast about any of my achievements and to exaggerate my less impressive news as somebody else – the imaginary journalist getting the latest story – but telling it all as me seems downright pretentious. At the end of the day I know who and what I am and it’s nothing greater than human! The funny thing to me is that when there’s a news and creativity drought, like the time after my second single ‘It’s Alright’ was released and the hype had died down, you stand there fleshing out the lean pickings of information - ‘Yeah, I’m up the walls at the moment, writing like there’s no tomorrow!’ - and when something big really does happen, like when I was asked to tour with Michael Bolton in the UK and America or when my first single ‘Right Back at the Start’ was play-listed by almost twenty radio stations across Ireland, you do the opposite and play it down - ‘Sher I’m kept going thank God, how about yourself?’. One of the things I strive to be is a doer and not a talker. Nevertheless, in terms of an upcoming gig or release the odd reminder to the press and public does no harm! I’ve always lacked a sense of ‘limits’ in terms of what is achievable in my field. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing but I think that any artistic career requires lots of over-reaching and ‘unrealistic’ ambition. Human limitations don’t exist to people with big dreams. Grammys are won by people, Nobel Prizes are won by people and million pound soccer contracts are dealt by and for people. Not super-beings! My attitude probably has to do with a combination of things – my parents support and their general attitude to life (do what makes you happy), realising I have a talent and that I enjoy using it and having somebody believe in me whole-heartedly early in my career, that person being my music college course director Chris Ahern. I was blessed to have somebody steer me in the right direction from day one and fuel my own belief in myself. I believe in setting the bar higher and higher and I’ve always aimed for the stars, for example picking up the phone and asking major music manager Mike Maska across the ocean in America to take a chance on me. We’re still working together today! As a result of that I met some amazing musicians who ended up playing on my album, namely Christian Eigner of Depeche Mode on drums, Gus Isidore from Seal’s band on guitars, Nick Seymour from Crowded House on bass and Bruce Brody – long time collaborator with Maria McKee – on Hammond organ and as producer. I haven’t always got what I set out to get but sometimes just by working really hard something unexpected will crop up. It’s as if the energy you put into whatever you were focussing on collected somewhere and created something else. I didn’t expect to be asked to open the show for Ronan Keating at ‘Live at the Marquee’ to 5,000 people just after releasing my first single but because of the energy Chris and I put into ‘Right Back at the Start’ it got somebody’s attention. The same with performing at ’02 in the Park’ to 100,000 people and singing live on national television on afternoon current affairs show ‘Seoige and O’Shea’. It’s the behind the scenes work that matters the most and makes the other stuff look easy. I think you make your own luck. Sure, we all need a bit of fairy dust sprinkled on us from time to time and being in the right place at the right time can change your life but only if you allow it to. Only if you’re open to possibilities you might not have imagined. You can’t always spot an opportunity with your eyes. Sometimes just by being tuned into the unknown your gut will point out a road to take. I’ve always wanted to sing. Before anything else came along – playing piano, playing guitar and writing – singing was my favourite thing to do. It still is! There must be some kind of ‘happy’ chemical that’s released into my body when I do it because it’s got the ability to completely alter my mood, no matter what I’m doing. In a world where you can’t say this and you can’t say that I don’t mind admitting that I think I’m really good at it too! It’s not something exceptional that I achieved, like earning a degree, learning a new language or setting up a successful business. I was just born a singer, the same way that somebody might be born an athlete, an artist or a dancer. It’s what I do with it that’s the acid test of character! My dream is to get right to the top and I have a long way to go but I think selling thousands of CDs independently, receiving national airplay for six months, touring the USA and UK with a worldwide star, setting up my own record company, recording with world-class musicians and having a team of wonderful, supportive people around me is a pretty lucky start! Do I have what it takes to be a star? I hope so!
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Jennifer Clarke
author: ChuckWow, what a fantastic set of songs! great lyrics, lovely production and her voice is superb. A must have album. Jennifer rocks!!!