Meet Tess Clare | Singer-songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tess Clare and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tess, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I think risk is key when it comes to being a creative. My life inherently doesn’t have a straight path, since I’m chasing a career that doesn’t have one right way of being obtained. I have to have the courage to take risks like opening up in a writing session, or playing a show where it could either be an empty room or a room full of people I’m trying to entertain. I can’t expect to make advances if I’m not willing to take risks.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I make songs that fall under the umbrella of indie pop. My influences include a melange of Amy Winehouse, Holly Humberstone, the 1975, Edith Piaf, Julia Wolf… I describe my writing style as the transferring of my raw emotions into power. Every emotion, whether joy, sorrow, anger… I believe that there’s a real, deeper power rooted in each feeling I experience, and translating that into my music is so important to me. I’m most excited about the music to come, the unreleased songs I’ve been sitting on, dying to put out and have them heard. Although I’ve done a lot, I’m nowhere near where I want to be in my career yet. The path to a successful artist career takes a long time. The music only plays a small role, although still the most vital. I’ve had to overcome disappointment from opportunities I thought would come to fruition but didn’t, and I have to continually seek new opportunities. One thing I’ve learned and always remind myself about is to not allow the disappointments to take over and distract me from continuing forward. I would like the world to listen to my music and hear something in it that makes them feel seen and powerful; my hope is that my music connects me to the people listening.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If I had a friend visiting, we would do a lot of driving because I would want to take them to so many places all across the city. We would start on the east side by roaming around Echo Park, browsing through Stories, a super cute local bookstore and coffee shop, then we’d eat at Monty’s Good Burger for some excellent vegan fast food, and catch an indie show to end the night. The next day, we would eat all the amazing food in Sawtelle and buy a ton of fun snacks at the Japanese grocery store. Finally, we’d drive up the coast to Malibu, hang at the beach, and watch the sunset. Later that night, we’d go to West Hollywood and catch an amazing drag show and dance the night away at the gay clubs.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
As cheesy as this may be, I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my parents. From the beginning, my parents have supported my desire to follow my passion. As a kid, they let me try different activities to see what I gravitated towards, and once they noticed how much I loved singing in my choir group, they encouraged me to start singing lessons, then guitar, then fine arts boarding school, and then studying songwriting in college… Neither of them have any musical background, but their constant love for me and my music, as it’s evolved over the years, has always encouraged me to keep going.

Website: https://tessclare.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tessclare_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tessclaremusic

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2npw4XO4goI157AMfCKR2g

Other: https://linktr.ee/tessclare_

Image Credits
Austin Younger Annie Noelker Marjorie Lutich