NOTHING BAD MAGAZINE

17th June 2011

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Coat by Uniqlo

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Photography: Katie ColeslawModel: Verner Freeson

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Shirt by Jil SandersJacket by UniqloJeans by Uniqlo

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Shirt by EspritCoat by UniqloJeans by UniqloShoes by Kurt Geiger

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Shirt by Jil SandersJacket by UniqloJeans by Uniqlo

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Interview by Wazid AbdulIllustration by Ferry Gouw

Alex Clare

Alex Clare

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Thankfully singer/songwriter Alex Clare is free of the usual singer/songwriter clichés but it would be blind-sighted to say that the guiding hand of pro-duction duo Diplo & Switch (referred to by him far less glamorously as Wes and Dave) hasn’t helped him significantly. It’s easy to get cynical here, but there’s really only one way to find out for yourself...

Alex Clare

How has the year been for you?

Insane, just spent the whole of last year recording and writing; tracks getting finished and mastered now. We went to New Orleans as well in February, that was amazing

How was that? The New Orleans mu-sic scene is pretty unique right?

Yeah definitely, Post-Katrina? I mean yeah you still see all the wrecked buildings but people just get along with it; the music scene

is just ingrained in the culture. Some of the hipsters there get really annoyed by it though, like ‘look at these white people listening to jazz’ and it’s like ‘dude...you’re white’. They all seemed to move in after the hurricane to the Garden District, messy lifestyle, crazy neighbourhood. But yeah, had a great time out there.

Have you found the time between re-cording and writ-ing the album and the limelight a little blunt? From relative obscurity to pretty

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Alex Clare

much a mention in everywhere...

Well before last year there was pretty much nothing. Island really gave me the benefit the doubt and just let get me on with it. It was only by October that we had anything to be heard, so I think that’s why it may seem sud-den. But yeah it feels fine, it feels healthy, no one’s been particularly scathing about it yet. We worked hard on the record, and the feed-backs been positive so far.

Guardian did a little thing on you, and they described you as “reggae metal”

I think journalists listen to something and the just pull the first two things out of the ether. So they heard ‘Up All

Night’ and thought ‘hmm a little reggae, a little metal - reggae metal’. But I mean that’s fine, you just don’t want to be pigeon-holed, right?

Especially as reggae metal. It’s fair to say it’s a hybrid of influ-ences, but is there is an overarching one? What did you listen to as a kid?

It was all very aggres-sive, I think. I listened to a lot of soul and blues music, Neo-Soul? More Soul-Soul, I mean I like stuff like D’angelo, just how he operated locking himself in the studio for days, but my main love is like Stevie Wonder, and just every-thing he has done. But on top of that, growing up in London meant I was into UK Garage and Jungle as well, and

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Singles: Up All Night, Too Close, and Treading Water

Album:The Lateness of The Hour

Out July 11th

Alex Clare

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Alex ClareAlex Clare

I skated too, so I was into punk and hip hop like Wu Tang. I mean I think we just all go through phase’s right?

True, people are rarely ever that niche, what about in terms of making this record?

Again I find it hard to pin down one influ-ence, but there was definitely this fascina-tion with sine wave that I’ve had since I was young stemming from UK Garage. I just wanted to get that sine wave sound down on record, not as a dance tune, but with a proper arrangement. Because at the end of the day I am a singer-songwriter, stages rather then clubs.

I sense a definite garage influence on

some of the tracks. Would you see an affinity between yourself and artist like Jamie Woon, not sonically, but in your affiliation with credible electronic producers?

I think yes in that we’re both coming out at the same time, and yes we are both working with dance producers, but electronica is such a broad genre. It’s so undefined. I think there is enough to link us to-gether to an extent, but there’s just as much to separate us. I think my sound is more aggres-sive.

Do you listen to a lot of it now? What are your thoughts on it as a scene, I mean, it’s such a force now…

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Alex ClareAlex Clare

Yeah, it’s become mas-sive. I liked dubstep, like not at in-depth lev-el, just the really cheesy stuff! I liked Magnetic Man actually. I really loved that record. I think it goes back to this fascination with the sine wave. But yeah a scene mentality in general is just limiting in terms of influence, I try and keep away from it all, and just do my own thing. I mean Camden’s down the road, but it’s nice to be away from it.

How was it working with Diplo & Switch?

Yeah, it was great, I mean ‘Up All Night’ was pretty much all them, and yeah it was sur-real at times I suppose, I was at the Red Bull Studio when they did the Lee Scratch Perry

thing for Carnival, that was pretty special. Do I want to work with them again? Yeah of course I would, time will tell, though.

What does the near future hold for you?

Well I am playing a couple of shows and still writing as well. I did my first show for the album a few days back and I enjoyed it; really love playing live. And after the release I’ll be touring…

Next Issue24th June 2011

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