Review Fix Exclusive: Stephen Clair Talks Musical Origins, Future And More

Review Fix chats with musician Stephen Clair to find out his origins in music, creative process and goals for the future.

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

Stephen Clair: I only ever wanted to be involved in music. So, you might be asking me about how I got involved in the music industry, but really simply loving and engaging with music is where it starts.  From the very beginning, as a pretty young kid, music and songs and word play just grabbed hold of me so hard. My associations with singing songs were so tied to my whimsical grandfather who was always singing songs and tapping out time on the steering wheel as we rode around together. He was always rewriting known songs off the top of his head, riffing away, whether it was Johnny Cash or Louis Armstrong, and I took to that right away. I just naturally joined in. I could barely see above the dashboard. But that relationship to songs became established right then: When I started playing guitar at age 11, I wasn’t much interested in learning how to  play other people’s songs.  I would get the basic gist of somebody’s song, but then my inclination was to make my own song out of it.  I think that came directly from my grandfather’s playful way of getting through the day. From that point on, I only cared to be ‘involved’ in music. 

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Clair: I write songs all the time.  And I’ve been at it pretty much forever at this point.  I love it. I dream up exercises for myself all the time.  Prompts.   The creative process is a living organism as far as I’m concerned. The more a person writes, the more regularly a person writes the more fertile those pathways will be. That said, good ideas are pretty easy for just about anyone to generate, but knuckling down and taking those ideas to a place, to let them become some kind of fully realized thing, that takes some dedication. It’s a responsibility.  You have to not only show up for work, but you have to kick some ass while you’re there. And it’s not necessarily a breeze. It’s a job. A freaking amazing job.

Review Fix: What inspires you? 

Clair: Well, how about this time we are living in. It’s inspiring beyond belief. It’s Dickensian. Here we are.  We’re in it. The shitty stuff is extra shitty.  Ridiculous.  But the good in the world is kind of staggering right now too. I can’t even fathom how numb a person would have to be to not be fired up right now. 

Now, all that said, I don’t typically go for the grandiose big issues head-on when I write.  I can usually find it right in the room where I’m standing.  Or honestly, right in my own head.  I’m so inspired, really.  Because I’m curious.  Curious about human relationships.  There is EVERYthing to be curious about.  But doesn’t it all come down to human relationships? Is there anything else?  That’s it.  That’s all it takes.  Pick a topic. We’ll never figure it all out. Writing songs is a lot like solving puzzles. 

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?  

Clair: It’s music with guts. Rock and roll made by hand. I’ve always loved the bands and the songs and the sounds where the guitars and bass and drums just roar like waves crashing and then receding, it’s that rare and exquisite platform where you can simultaneously get your rocks off and wear your heart on your sleeve, stomp, and moan, and sneer, and whisper your most honest private thoughts all at the same time.  That’s the whole point for me. That’s what brought me here.

 
Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?

Clair: More of the stomping and moaning. But then between songs we get to make friends with the audience on a more real level.  For me, it’s a ROCK AND ROLL show (whether I’m with a band or solo), where we also get to commune with the people in the room.  It takes us and them to put on a show.  It’s a conversation. I’m not ever interested in playing rock-star-guy or acknowledging some theatrical fourth wall. Everybody in the room has got to be in it together if the thing is going to be firing on all cylinders. 

Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?  

Clair: It’s hard not to imagine, like it or not, what the current shit show could be 10, 20, 50 years from now.  I mean, when you’re alone with your thoughts, do you ever go there? Where are we really headed? And to what degree would humanity have to change its ways to duck this impending doom?  Can humanity rise to that?  Well, I let myself go there a bit, poetically speaking, when I wrote Strange Perfume, but then I was like, well, hell, this is turning into a rock n roll anthem, the chorus better bring us back.  So the refrain in the song shrugs its handsome shoulders and says, with a wink, well, if it is the end of the world, then how about we just go back to your room. Classy, eh.  Rock and roll has been telling us to get it on from day one.  And I guess I’ve now thrown my hat into that ring. 

Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2019?  

Clair: So far, knock wood, the record is speaking for itself. I mean it’s doing the work a record should do.  Meaning, the critics and the listeners are digging it in all the ways one might hope.  For a goal, I sure would like to play a whole lot more and bigger shows and just simply get it to and with people. It’s just more fun, getting with the people. 

Review Fix: What’s next?

Clair: How about I write more songs, make more records, and play many more shows.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Clair: We all have to take time to put down our gadgets, walk outside, look around, talk to our neighbors. We are living in an era of extreme convenience and hyper ease that has brought with it some destructive habits.  But you can’t blame the things.  It’s on us. We have to make good choices based on who and what we care about. And we so forget when we’re distracted.  Can music help? Yes. I spend a lot of my everyday life putting music-making in the hands of regular people. When people are at shows and when they’re making music with others, there’s a pretty good chance they are communing with one another.  And when we humans hang together we remember how much we care for one another.  And that’s all we got.