BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Monique Clare doesn’t restrict herself to genre or job — she makes music the way she wants to. And that means combining her skills as a singer-songwriter and classically trained cellist to create original pieces.
You’re about to be one of the first people in the world to watch her latest video clip To Feel Alive, in which she exhibits these talents — and gloriously.
Read the interview, then watch the official video premiere.
Monique graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in 2015, and now spends her life touring music for voice and cello (when she’s not trekking across the globe with her folk band The Maes). Classically trained, this award-winning artist has taught music in Afghanistan, performed with the likes of Eminem and Katie Noonan, and was named 2017 Folk Alliance Australia Young Artist of the Year.
Pretty diverse skills, right?
Monique, congratulations on your new video release To Feel Alive! Tell us, why’d you want to make a video to accompany this music?
This song was an important one for me to get out there, since it represents a lean away from ‘safe’ songwriting. When I started out playing solo, my songs occupied a gentler space, and the debut EP I put out was deliberately mellow. I kicked off this year with a songwriting residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts, which gave me the distance from home and the focus I needed to go deeper and check in with what sort of music I actually wanted to be writing.
I’m now in the process of putting those songs onto a debut album, but that won’t be out for ages! So I wanted to offer up something in the meantime just to say ‘Hello, this is what I do now’. Video is a great way to do that, and I worked with a Brisbane filmmaker Jax Oliver — who was brilliant — to make that happen.
May I just say: your voice is stunning. What’s going on in your brain when you are captured in this video? So often, we watch singer-guitarists. But how complex is it to sing a contemporary-style melody line while simultaneously using your classical training to accompany yourself on cello?!
Oh, thank you! There’s this gorgeous piece for voice, cello, and organ called Pie Jesu by Durufle. I remember trying to sing and play that about seven years ago, and I gave up after a few horrendous bars. Between tuning the pitch of my voice to a fretless instrument and coordinating the rhythms of the two melodies, it felt impossible.
Since then, it’s been a process of building up those coordination skills and training my ear to react quicker. I actually ended up singing and playing that piece at my graduation recital at the con!
The first time I ever played and sang in public, I was just [playing a bass line in pizzicato] and singing a backing harmony in the chorus. That turned into bowing bass lines, and eventually adding a second note and some rhythm. I remember being propelled by this fascination and drive to make three-note chords between my voice and the cello. Getting them perfectly in tune was endlessly satisfying.
For me, the process has felt easy because it’s something I’m so interested in and excited about. I’ve also worked on my voice a lot by itself. It used to be hard to project over the cello, so I worked on breath control and finding a more focused tone to even that balance out.
Talk us through the theme of the music itself. What’s the song actually about to you? Why’d you write it?
Sure, the lyrics are a little obscure! I was in Canada on this songwriting residency, and at the end of the residency I was planning on skiing for a few days; I was in Banff in winter! How can you not?! Downhill skiing is one of those things you put your body and brain through that temporarily halts any overthinking, negative self-talk, or existential dread — because you’re rushing down the mountainside, crisp alpine air slapping you in the face, potentially seconds away from crashing into a tree, with some incredible natural vista in front of you all the way. It just puts you right back in your body. Well, that’s how it works for me, at least! So that was on my mind, but the song didn’t start out that way.
I was originally writing the lyrics from the perspective of a friend who’s been having a rough time for years and years, and had just been hit by yet another major hurdle. So I was thinking about that constant anxiety in her life, and how little moments of joy are so crucial for her to stay afloat. It all rolled into the one song, contrasting pain with joy.
Since graduating from the Queensland Conservatorium in 2015, you’ve worked full time as a touring artist. How are you finding the touring life? What’s a typical day like for you?
I did spend almost two years teaching part time and taking a few trips to the United States to go to folk and contemporary string camps before I started touring. At the moment, I’m mostly on tour doing backing vocals and cello in an Australian folk band called The Maes. A typical day for us is a few hours of driving, usually through rural Australia, or whichever country we’re in; then we find the accommodation, load in and soundcheck at the venue, play a game of Bananagrams backstage with a cheeky wine or whisky, listen to the support act, and then do our thing. We’re usually packed up and out by 11pm.
Something I struggle with is not feeling productive enough, because there’s so much time waiting in queues in airports, sitting in cars or trains with patchy reception, and occupying spaces with other humans where you can’t do weird vocal exercises or cello practice. But it’s so good for my mental health! It forces me to spend a chunk of every day just listening to a podcast, reading, listening to music, or doing nothing at all — which I didn’t used to let myself do.
You’ve had quite the varied career, teaching music overseas, organising concerts, and even performing with the likes of Eminem, Katie Noonan, and Kate Miller-Heidke! As a freelance musician, how hard was it to push through and build your own opportunities?
I think I would have found it harder to aim for a stable orchestral job, for so many reasons. I played a few seasons in the Australian Youth Orchestra and that was such a blast, but I felt like an impostor because I wasn’t genuinely deeply excited about the music we played. I wasn’t excited enough about nailing fast passages, taking orders from the conductor, and practising an arbitrary bowing someone else had decided was best to make myself slave away for hours in a lonely practice room.
The pressure of competing for a chair in the section also didn’t do great things for my stress levels, and it skewed my reasons for striving to be a better cellist.
Maybe I’m a lazy, narcissistic control freak; but I needed a more creative, relaxed, and individual way to exist as a cellist. I feel like some of the opportunities that have come up in my career have fallen into my lap because I developed a particular skillset. I worked hard to get better at playing chords, rhythmic techniques, writing my own parts, improvising and, of course, singing and playing — and a number of jobs have come in because of those skills. But actually, those gigs with Eminem, Katie, and Kate only used classical technique! I was just lucky that someone passed my name on for those.
What are some of the biggest skills you’ve achieved in managing your own freelance life?
There are a bunch of admin skills you have to learn to sustain a freelance or creative career, which probably sound really boring! When you start out, you’re a website designer, bio writer, graphic designer, booking agent, social media officer, marketing coordinator, publicist, and accountant. It’s overwhelming and confusing; how do you sell yourself without sounding full of yourself? You learn how to do each of these roles but you get dizzy switching from one role to the next.
I’m working with a management team/booking agency now, and it makes such a big difference! But I do get a huge kick out of booking tours. I think ideally, I would be booking tours for other people, while someone else books mine for me.
What advice would you give to other emerging artists who dream of writing and touring their original music for a living, too?
I think you need to strike a balance between being fiercely ambitious, but also happy with wherever you land in that career. It’s completely legitimate to gig with your original music once a month, and to work a different, more stable job in the meantime. But you never know whether your music will be just what the world is waiting for, so it’s worth putting it out there to see. As for writing music, you just have to do it. That’s the best advice I’ve ever received. Write a bad song. Aim to write 10 bad songs, and one of them will turn out good.
WATCH! This is the world premiere of the video To Feel Alive by Monique Clare.
You can see this song performed live, along with others Monique composed on her Banff residency, in Brisbane (7 August), Bellingen (10 August), and Byron Hinterland (11 August). More detail available on her website.
Have you checked out CutCommon’s previous world premieres? You can still give them a watch — we’d recommend viewing the clips from Rosie Reibl, Xani, K Mac, and Jennifer Hankin!
Shout the writer a coffee?
If you like, you can give thanks to Stephanie for volunteering her time for facilitate these interviews and premieres with Australian artists. No amount too much or little 🙂
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