Interview: Alain Clark
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CM: Hi Alain, great performance last night at your UK showcase. How did you
think it went?
AC: It was great, I had a lot of fun and hopefully we projected that on the
audience. It was my first proper gig in England. It felt like a first gig even
though it was only five songs.
CM: The stand-out moment was probably ‘Father & Friend’, which you played with dad onstage, would you agree with that?
AC: Oh yeah, it usually is, he isn’t always around when I play live, but when he is it’s just a real emotion. I get asked if I ever get bored playing it, each time is
like the first time we played it in a studio.
CM: So after having played London, what’s next in terms of the UK audience?
AC: Well I’m staying in London for another week in which we’re going to visit some big cities like Liverpool and
Manchester, mainly visiting local radio shows. My dad’s coming and I have my guitar so we’re going to play some songs. The goal of course is to get a tour going in the
summer.
CM: You’ve forged quite a career in Holland, both for singing and producing. Your first
self-titled album didn’t do so well and was in Dutch. How has life changed and do you think the
linguistic change has affected that success?
AC: Life has obviously changed a lot, ‘Live It Out’ came out in 2007 and 2008 was my big year in Holland. It’s been going outstandingly well, but I still feel that I’m still doing what I have been for five years - I love to make music every day.
I think the language change has a lot to do with it, as my first album was more
of a project – expressing myself in a different way. I was getting out ideas that I couldn’t do while I was writing songs for other artists. It was very concept-driven,
whereas ‘Live It Out’ is more about writing and singing what I feel.
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AC: Yes I did - I had the people and funds in place to do everything right and
when you produce it yourself you don’t need to make any concessions. I would have to pick ‘Father & Friend’ for the obvious reasons. There aren’t many artists that can do what I do and get to do it with their father and I
realize how special that is. I’m proud of the fact that I have someone as close as him to share these
experiences with.
CM: Who would you say were your biggest musical influences?
AC: When I started to take an interest in music my favourite artist was Michael
Jackson, especially the early albums like ‘Off the Wall’ and ‘Thriller’, which are albums that I still listen to. I also discovered the likes of Stevie
Wonder and also great songwriters like Bob Dylan. There are so many different
artists that influenced me.
CM: Soul singers have traditionally had to work doubly hard to succeed. What are
your hopes for this year and do you think it’s harder for artists of your genre?
AC: International recognition is one of my biggest dreams and I hope to do as
well here as in Holland. I will work my ass off to achieve that dream. I think
you could say that that’s almost a fact and a year ago I would have agreed with you. On paper, my music
shouldn’t work at all but it did massively and it surprised a lot of people. I didn’t expect what happened to happen so quickly.
CM: Thanks Alain.
‘Father & Friend’ is due to be released 23 February through Warner music with the album, ‘Live It Out’ set to follow.
(c) ChrisOnline.biz 2009
