Liddy Clark is an up and coming singer-songwriter who has opened for the likes of Scotty McCreery and Joe Nichols. We got to interview Liddy Clark for a forthcoming episode of the podcast to chat about her latest music and what’s yet to come.
Hey, how’re you doing? How’s your quarantine been so far?
Oh man! I’ve been finding time to keep myself busy, so that’s good. It’s just when I run out of things to do that I’ll be scared.
I guess it’s one of those things where it can go one of two ways, with everyone going really creative or just complete boredom.
Yeah, how are you doing at this time?
Not too bad! I always like to set the scene for people in terms of your music, so you grew up in Texas?
Yeah for like the first part of my life, yeah, I moved to Florida when I was seven.
Cool, so what were the music scenes like there and how did they shape you?
Yeah, so it’s really interesting because both of those places are completely different from each other, and California, where I’m at right now is even more different than both of them. I’ve been exposed to a lot of different kinds of music, I guess during my formative years. I always love going back to Texas. I try and go back at least once a year, hopefully twice or three times. My entire family lives there, so I’ve kind of grown up on country music there. I have cousins who were in the country music scene and were a bit successful in the late nineties – they were in a band called The Desert and were signed to Sony for some time. All of my cousins have been really supportive and helpful in terms of finding the right music to listen to and choosing the right moves to make. Florida is completely different, South Florida in particular, they’re not really into country music as much, more so in the past few years they’ve got into it. So yeah I’ve been exposed to a lot of different kinds of music.
That must have been really helpful, having your cousins know a bit about the industry, it kind of helps you have that background knowledge and know what’s needed in terms of your emotional journey when you’re pursuing your career?
Exactly, yes.
You’re currently in USC in California. What’s it been like balancing your music and your studies – almost living a double life?
It is definitely and even more so when I’m actually attending classes in person, but right now it’s not as difficult as it usually would be. It’s definitely kind of a stretch to do all the things I want to do, but luckily my personality-type is I like to be doing things, I like to have a set schedule for when I’m doing everything and just have a daily routine of things I need to do, vocal warm-ups and just free writes and stuff like that.
Last year was such a huge year for you in terms of releasing your ‘Testing the Waters EP,’ what’s really stood out in the past few years, because you’ve accomplished so much at such a young age and in the beginnings of your career?
Yeah, I mean it’s crazy that it’s already been a year since that came out. It’s crazy that it’s been that long but I think what’s really stood out to me is how much I’ve continued to learn and grow and how much the entire music scene is changing around me. I mean look at it now, we’re completely online and festivals are going online. It’s so interesting to see how the entire music industry is changed, hopefully for the better after this. I love learning things, I love getting to gain more knowledge and feel like I have more knowledge even than the day before. I think the ever-changing nature of the music industry is one of my favourite things.
Well hopefully one of the things that will happen is everyone falls back in love with ‘the record’?
Yeah, I think hopefully people will have more time on their hands, not just to listen to the first thirty seconds of a song but instead to listen to the whole thing and form an opinion after that.
Completely. Something that’s always struck me about your music is that you always try to integrate really big messages into your songs. Is that something you’ve always tried to bring into the writing room?
Yeah, especially with my personality type, I have to be honest in writing rooms, I care about a lot of different issues besides just love songs and break-ups, which can be devastating and beautiful and wonderful, but there’s another part of me that is so driven by social justice I guess – especially living in so many different areas and seeing what happens in different states and the way different people are treated. It’s a really important issue to me personally and I talk about it with my friends and people I meet. It would feel weird not to talk about it in the writing room as well, because that’s another extension of me.
Your latest release is a cover of Dua Lipa’s ‘New Rules.’ Can you talk a bit about that one and the release process behind it and why you chose it?
Yeah, Dua is one of my favourite current artists for sure, she’s got such an interesting style. I think I actually did this cover about two years ago and I was invited to be a part of this campaign for ‘Turn Her Up’ with FrtyFve Records in the UK. I decided I was going to re-release this cover along with it, just because it’s for International Women’s Month and just to celebrate female empowerment. I thought this song fit that mould and it’s one of my favourite covers I’ve done but I’d never released it on Spotify so I thought why not do it now. The campaign has been going great, and it’s great to see everybody’s reaction and it’s one of my favourite songs so it’s exciting to get to put it on Spotify and get people’s reaction.
The other one I wanted to talk about was your new single from last year ‘Hit and Run.’ Can you talk a bit about the story behind that one?
Yeah, so I actually released two versions of ‘Hit and Run’ last year, they were with two different producers. The latest version was with Mark Segal who was the one who produced my album project which is coming out soon. We recorded about ten songs so far, and I actually just ordered a bunch of home recording equipment, because we can’t go into the studio anymore we’re going to do this whole process where he’s in Nashville where he can control and record my Logic sessions from California, over in Nashville. It’s very cool software, and I’m excited to try it once I get my mic and get everything together. We’re working on this project and I just can’t wait for it to be released, so much of the music I’ve been writing in college and I can’t wait to release it.
Do you have any idea yet of when we’re going to get to hear it, or is it all just up in the air with everything happening?
Exactly. I didn’t have a clear idea before of when we’d release – I was hoping it would be this year – but hopefully as soon as we get the equipment together at my house, we can start the recording process and doing over-dubs. I’m still hoping it will be out this year, it’s hard to say with everything going on. It’s a strange time to be releasing music in right now.
Final Few
What record would you bring to a desert island? My favourite John Mayer record at the moment – he’s my favourite artist – is Heavier Things and definitely Billy Joel ‘The Stranger.’
What are you listening to on repeat at the moment? Kelsea Ballerini, Niall Horan, Dua Lipa… So much good new music at the moment.
What’s your go-to karaoke song? Oh man, Mr Brightside, The Killers definitely.
Complete the sentence…
Music is… everything.
Country music is… honesty.
Liddy Clark is… cool. (laughs)
