by CA Marshall
It's been a few months since the Starlight Music Chronicles 2016 Artist of the Year competition in June and since, we have received an influx of emails and queries: 'When is the next event opening up?', 'When can we vote?', 'How can we sign up!?' This overwhelming response to the competitions that started out as a way for SMC to gauge their audience and cater to our followers music requests, quickly turned into a much debated and celebrated monthly event. Each month in the 2015/2016 year became more competitive with Indie Artist and Fan participation. Enter the October 2016 Artist of the Month (AOM) competition.......
In the first ever 100% Judge voted event, the reception to our winning Artist, British Born Hannah Clive, has been incredible! From the first announcement on twitter to this very day (where fans are still tweeting and discovering our lovely songstress), all social media went completely off the hook with re-tweets, shares, comments and hearts. Late last month we took to interviewing Hannah to formally roll out the announcement as Official October 2016 SMC Artist of the Month. Here's what she had to say:
Artist of the Month Interview – Hannah Clive
October 2016 AOM
SMC – Hello Hannah! We welcome you as our October 2016
Starlight Music Chronicles Indie Artist of the Month! Congratulations! Can you
tell us what your reaction was when you first heard the news?
HC – Thanks for the welcome SMC, and join your SMC Artists
Alumni – it's an honour to be in such prestigious company. My first reaction to
winning was complete surprise and joy, shouting "I've won!! I've
won!!!" as I went running upstairs to my child. At which point said
smaller person began jumping up and down. Together we looked at your online
announcement whilst being repeatedly kissed, hugged and told "Well done
Mum - I'm gonna tell all the other kids in school!" – as my friend and
indie champion Rebecca Singer later commented online – the approbation of 'the
Minnie Me's are the best'. Then Twitter lit up like a Christmas tree with all
the amazingly encouraging and complimentary responses from fellow tweeps, I
think I was getting 400+ notifications every couple of hours? Its still going!
It went mad on my Facebook profile too. I felt genuinely quite humbled and
emotionally overwhelmed.
SMC – Where was the first Social Media platform that you
discovered you had won?
HC – Twitter.
SMC – So let’s get into your music – can you tell us your
background and chronological music career history?
HC – The short or the long version?! Music has been my life
– and I'm not 22! Basically I was brought up in an entertainment's family. My
father was a well-known British actor and writer and my mother worked behind
the camera in light entertainment production on BBC music shows, before giving
that up to raise me and my older brother – the BBC hadn't heard of maternity
leave at that point! So we were always a media household I guess you could say
and therefore a degree of inevitability that we would both go into media. In my
case – performance – beginning with a singing role in Evita alongside other
kids in Andrew Lloyd Webber's London West End production. For me, that
confirmed in my mind that being on stage was my thing.
I wrote poetry and had piano lessons anyway so aged about
11, one day I combined the two and began writing songs, going on to form bands
as I got older and meeting musicians – networking. Through my own connections
with them, I crossed over into the mainstream music industry at about 17 by
doing backing vocal sessions for other artists, including Ray Charles, OMD and
others. This was an incredibly useful training ground to learn the craft of
music making and performance, both in studio and live. But it was my own music
I wanted to push forward which I tried very hard to do.
However, at that time interest in female singer songwriters
playing their own instruments was at an all time low - dance music and
electronica were all the rage, synthetic bands - by the time that started to
change I had become disillusioned with an industry that saw anyone over the age
of 25 as a non-starter. So I took a hiatus from music and went off to live on a
narrowboat.
I returned to music when I saw more control pass to artists
with the advent of Myspace and what was to become the digital revolution. Since
then I've been raising a child alone and juggled that with my career and doing
a Media Degree. My decision to return to study was a response to the fast
growing realisation that unsigned acts needed many more skills than simply
standing on a stage and performing. Given the state the music industry was in
i.e. the rapidly diminishing returns for product – music professionals such as
myself needed to diversify. After finishing my degree (when I also won
Outstanding Adult Learner for London) I became even more aware of the plight
the industry was in and the extreme difficulties new music makers were facing
in trying to forge a viable career in music. I decided I wanted to help, to
share their music, to support grass roots artists just like me and to protect
our culture – music is a universal language after all. And that's what I've
been doing online ever since at #HCHQ – supporting good quality emerging
artists and the response has been amazing. There is an entire community out
there actively helping new music makers including SMC. Some of us musicians
have begun to understand that traditional rivalries need to be put aside and we
need to help each other; there's strength in numbers after all and that’s why I
began the #SupportArtists hashtag. That’s how I met (IAM)WARFACE who of course
nominated me for this competition.
SMC – Have you won similar competitions/contests where you
have been nominated?
HC – This is the first time I've ever won a competition like
this or been nominated. My EP 'Richmond Park Sessions' won an award after it's
release a few years back; entered into a radio poll in the States by an
independent radio network, it won Best EP from a Solo Artist. But this is the
first time I have been nominated and voted for as an artist in my own right.
SMC – We also see that you have collaborated in a review of
our Artists of the Year Iamwarface when they performed live. What has been your
connection to the band to date?
HC – I first heard of (IAM)WARFACE locally. I knew their
guitarist Louis through his previous band and his wife with whom I've
collaborated musically. I listened to their music and was blown away. And just
as I have with other bands, I began interacting and promoting them - they
responded with same. I guess I wanted to see at least one of our bunch get away
and be successful because I knew they deserved it. This led to a growing
professional relationship with the band leader Matt. Our virtual online friendship
finally crossed over into reality when I saw them perform at John Wildgoose's
unique 'Into The Wild Festival' earlier this year. I did a write up of my
experience as a fellow musician going to the event - including a review of
their performance. I am now playing there next year in 2017 as I understand it,
on the same bill as Warface - which is so cool and a really lovely full circle.
I decided to do the write-up because just like all those people who voted
for(IAM)WARFACE as SMC Artists of the Year 2016, I thought they were so
bloomin' good, they deserved shouting about and as bands we need to help each
other. Warface had the smarts to recognise the need to interact with their fans
themselves instead of having someone else do their social media and our connection
would never have happened had we not both been doing our own social media. Matt
is now working on a musical collaboration mixing a new track of mine. We
musicians are a friendly bunch in the main, so we like to help each other out
and my relationship with Warface is typical of that camaraderie - only we're
using modern technologies.
SMC – How do you feel about going up against some of the
Music Industry’s most celebrated Indie Artists?
HC – In a word - nervous! I'm older than many of them most probably
but I hope with that comes something else, perhaps a broader lexicon of life
experience upon which to draw. But either way I love my fellow artists and am
just happy to see them getting up and over the barriers, accessing a wider
audience; for them to achieve success and create viable music careers for
themselves.
SMC – If you had to ‘battle it out’ with any one of the
industry peers in the October competition, who would you choose and why?
HC – Hard to say. I was very nervous about battling it out
with Chris Watkins' Drunk Poets. He is an incredible talent and such a lovely
bloke too. He and I mutually cross promote one another online – I have a
standing invitation next time I'm in Alaska to do a gig together! So finding
myself up against him musically felt weird. But really, it was an honour to be
amongst such a roster of pure talent and if we speak to one another's fan base,
as well as each other, then we're all winners.
SMC – Can you tell us more about your music – what is the
creation process like for you?
HC – It varies on whether I'm working alone or with others.
If I'm writing songs alone it tends to be a slower process. I'm not one of
those song-a-day songwriters. I tend to store them up in my head – subject
matters – then the lightening strikes and I sit down and work it out. After
that I begin getting it recorded, usually round at my Producer's studio. He
knows about working with artists and how to get the best out of me creatively,
having worked with Kate Bush and The Bee Gees. If other musicians or songwriters
come to me with an idea I'm quick at producing lyrics and music content. I
springboard off of what they're suggesting and knock those out really quick. In
the case of 'The Lost Boy' with British jazz hip hop band The Herbaliser, I
heard the music score and wrote the vocal melody and lyrics in about half an
hour. The best ones always come out quick like that. Next day I took it to Jake
and Ollie in their studio, we tweaked it a bit and then I sang it. Next thing I
know its the title track of their new album and on Radio 6. That was cool. Its
just topped 68,000 views on YouTube.
SMC – What instruments do you play?
HC – My main instrument is my voice. I was classically
trained on the piano and flute and self-taught on the guitar - mainly because
guitar is more portable than a piano to a teenager! And it's been my instrument
of choice for writing and live ever since but I'm no virtuoso! That's changed
with my new material - in that I've made a return to the piano - my first love
and inspiration. Now all I have to do is work out how that translates
live...perhaps I can take some tips from Christina Perri! Oh and buying a
keyboard for live – that would be good!
SMC – What is your greatest ‘fan’ moment?
HC – Ooh thats a toughie! It depends on whether you're
talking fans or peer recognition – when they give you a shout out – for example
Huey from Fun Lovin' Criminals did on Twitter (he plays 'Lost Boy' on his BBC
Radio6 show) and Jimmy Star on Twitter; Jimmy has the Number 1 most popular
syndicated radio show on the net, yet he connects with people personally,
bothering to take the time to tweet and support a grassroots artist like
myself. If we're talking fans, then for me my best fan moments are from those
lovely people all over the world, who I've never met before or seen me live,
they've just got into my music and give me a shout out online. It's comments
like those that truly move me. Its truly humbling, gives you faith in humanity,
which is why I bother to do it myself, rather than using a computer generated
answering system. We are nothing as performers without our audience - my Dad
instilled that in me from an early age - my fans lift me up and keep me
going.
SMC – How do you feel following on the heels of your
industry peers IAMWARFACE?
HC – I am completely delighted and honoured to be in the
same Alumni as them. For me, creatively they have the potential to be up there
creatively with the likes of say Bowie because they aren't just music, they are
art, performance and a brilliant contemporary example of music genre hybrids,
challenging boundaries sonically and artistically. I just love that and can't
wait to see and hear more from them.
SMC – What are your thoughts on the 2017 Artist of the Year
competition next June? Do you feel that you are at an advantage over other
artists who, say, will be winning in June of next year?
HC – I guess that
rather depends on what I manage to achieve between now and then because of
course having been October Artist of the Month 2016 I now have a longer run-in
to the final Artist of Year in June 2017 – this time with the backing and
promotion that SMC offers me as an artist. This interview being a good example!
SMC – What is your view on the Music Industry in general –
what is your experience?
HC – I think we're in a transition stage in the industry
whereby the water is still finding it's level. These are exciting yet
challenging times in the industry. I think now, its a bit like back in the
sixties with a burst of unrestrained musical creativity occurring – a post digital
New Wave if you will. But somehow in there, we have to see fairer remuneration
to artists - and not just those in the chain above them, it has to filter down
to the actual music makers – be that at the top of the profession or those
starting out. Collection societies have yet to get a proper handle on streaming
revenues and proper distribution of them and that simply isn't happening at the
moment, although there is movement in the right direction, block chain may yet
be the answer.
SMC – What is your family’s support of your music like?
HC – Sadly my father passed away in 2012 and as a performer
himself, he really understood what made me tick. But I have good support from
my mother – she knows the industry – I'm a lone parent so she's a great help and
besides her I have the unfailing support, belief and enthusiasm from my child.
My friends are and always have been incredibly supportive of my career path.
SMC – What is a ‘Day in the Life’ of Hannah Clive like?
HC – Well it begins with getting up for the school run – SO
not rock n roll! After that I take to the computer, go through emails and check
all my social networks and respond accordingly. I might then go to the studio
and work on a track or stay home and work on a piece. Then my duties as Mum take
over again until after my kid's bedtime whereupon I go back to the computer and
social networks. I often enjoy listening to unsigned music radio shows such as
the brilliant #Unsigned Madness show with Stephen and Anne Lambert on EGH Radio
or Teri's #Music Matters on Indie Rage Radio – I love being in their chatroom
and talking with music lovers and fellow musicians from all over the world and
I'm beginning to meet up wit them in real life too which is marvellous. When these shows finish, I go back to the
SN's just before midnight because that’s when all my American fans come online
and real time interaction with them is of utmost importance to me. Then its
sleep! I've begun to make a return to gigging. But to do that successfully and
like a lot of bands do, I needed to build a proper core audience of fans online
first. I was tired of having to ask the same bunch of loyal friends along to
gigs, hoping I might catch some 'passing trade audience' then being paid but
finding that after paying my musicians, I was out of pocket. So now I'm working
the "build it and they will come" philosophy! I'll know if it's
working when I do Leeds on October 22nd as part of the Oxjam event! Plus, I'm
seeing a huge jump in the numbers of my followers online – on Twitter mainly
and now a crossover to Facebook. I prefer to use my Facebook profile (as
opposed to the limitations with my Facebook artist page) – my profile is like a
more intimate Backroom Hannah Clive Club –
I get a more personal interaction with people on there. In addition,
recently I've come to accept that love it or hate it – we do need Spotify
because that's the medium people are accessing their music through. And to get
known and build audience – I have to do that on Spotify – even if the
remuneration is appalling (it's something like 0.0004 pence per stream?
Pharrell famously only earned about $2000 dollars from his single Happy for the
whole of north America, to give you an idea). So social networking forms most
of my day, building my audience relationships, in and around all my other
chores and domestic responsibilities that all Mum's have – my child's not so
little anymore so I can concentrate more on my career.
SMC – Can you tell us one unique fact about yourself that no
one knows?
HC – I like to take Jaffa cakes apart bit by bit slowly as I
eat them. They are a British chocolate covered biscuit with an orange jelly in
the middle and that’s the bit I end up with last. Apparently you can buy them
in America at Lidl's. Oh and I've never had s'mores - we don't get them here in
the UK, just marshmallows...can someone send me a red cross s'mores parcel from
the States please for Halloween?
SMC – Final question, if you had one piece of advice to give
to new or up and coming Artists about the Music Industry, what would that
advice be?
HC – Network, keep playing and don't let the b**tards get
you down, oh and if you're lady – tell 'em to keep their hands off. That's
four! Be consistent in applying yourself, be kind and listen to what those
older and more experienced have to say – don't be in a rush to show them what
you can do, they'll find that out anyway because true talent shines through. Or
as we say here in London: "Pin yer lug'oles back!" That was more than
one piece of advice wasn't it? Always been a mother hen me! Can I just add,
thank you SMC for giving me this opportunity and creating a space for so many
other unsigned talented artists out there. Organisations such as yourselves are
at the forefront of creating possibilities in what is a very difficult market
and given that I believe music is a universal language that deserves
recognition culturally, that's no small thing you're doing SMC. Big thank you
on behalf of us all.
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Hannah Clive's Social Media (Click to View):
