Oklahoma Rock Blog: K.C. Clifford Embraces Destiny with "Orchid"

Friday, February 12, 2010

K.C. Clifford will hold a two-night album release celebration this Friday and Saturday night at the Blue Door in Oklahoma City.

Her new album, Orchid, was funded by her fans, who raised $20,000 to help with recording costs, album promotion and tour expenses through her “Become My Record Label” project.

FLASHBACK: K.C. Clifford Fans Raise $1000 for Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma

As a singer/songwriter, you are a storyteller. Collectively, what kind of theme do you think prevails from the stories you tell in the songs on Orchid?

Orchid is a collection of songs about survival, the human condition and redemption, a more grown-up version of love that doesn’t come with unrealistic expectations, and the reality of death, grief and sorrow. Within those themes, Orchid also deals with social justice and hope.

I understand you have musical influences from folk, opera, country, and bluegrass artists. Can you describe how this manifests itself into your music?

Most people don’t know I fronted a punk band in Nashville called Built Like Lizzie; it wasn’t always acoustic guitars for me. I was pretty wound-up and pissed-off back then, and I loved the unleashed feeling of the genre. My punk alter-ego wore a lot of black and too much eye-liner. We recorded a 3-song demo that is rarely let out of the vault. Maybe one day I’ll do that…

My songwriting naturally mellowed as I got older. I was increasingly inclined to write acoustic-based material, and eventually found my voice as a singer-songwriter.

The female forerunners of the Americana movement are evident in my music: Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Nanci Griffith. But I also bring some influences you wouldn’t expect. I love Karen Carpenter, Carole King and Chicago 17, bands like Over the Rhine and The Sundays, and I could listen to musical theater soundtracks all day and be happy as a clam. I am a singer, first and foremost. Because of that I have a strong appreciation for committed, no-holds-barred vocalists of multiple genres: Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Alanis Morissette, Tori Amos, Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill, & Dusty Springfield. I love great vocalists, melodies, and lyricists.

Do you have moments that are more country, or folksier, than others?

I don’t really think of my music in those terms. Country, folk, Americana, roots- the lines between the genres are incredibly subjective and open to interpretation. Is one a sub-genre of the other? Are two of them virtually synonymous? I don’t feel qualified to say one way or the other.

What I can say is my songs are each a window into a moment of time. Every song is a conversation, and has its own tone. During the songwriting process, I let the song take me where it wants to go, and I strive to remain true to the voice it wants to manifest. And I’m often taken to places I never imagined creatively. Songwriting is a beautiful adventure.

When I invited Will Hunt to produce Orchid, I essentially entrusted him with the arrangements and “feel” of each track. It was a dream come true to have Will at the helm of this project, I am not exaggerating when I suggest he is a creative genius. To watch him work alongside Chad Copelin at Blackwatch Studios was an eye-opening musical journey. There were moments that took me by complete surprise, like the so-called “saloon” piano parts on Redman, and moments that took my breath away, like seeing Will conduct the live string quartet on “Atta Girl”.

What’s your favorite song to perform that’s on the new record? Can you describe it?

My favorite song to play changes each time I take the stage to perform, and depends heavily on the energy of the audience and the room. And it depends on my mood. If I had to choose today, I would say “Story of Our Own,” a song that I wrote for the upcoming documentary, Film Festival: Rwanda. The song makes me smile every single time I sing it. It’s really even-keel through the first two passes of the verses and chorus, and then it opens up into this whole other world on the bridge where I get to let loose vocally. Sharing this song never gets old, I love it.

At the Blue Door CD release concerts this weekend we are playing the songs for the first time live as a full band. I cannot wait to participate in the amazing energy on stage- rehearsals have been a blast! Who knows what my answer to this question will be after performing these songs as they were recorded.

Your father was a musician – how much of an influence do you think his musical taste had on you and your development as an artist?

Yes, he is a musician. My father plays in a legendary regional bluegrass band called Mountain Smoke. But more than that, my father is a lover of music and he shared that love with me as a kid. He isn’t one to brag about this, but he has a stellar record collection. Dad has vinyl 45’s of nearly every number one hit from 1956-1965, and many of the songs that made it into the Top 10 during that era.

When I was in elementary school, my dad engrossed himself in a project called “The Classics, Volumes 1-12.” The project was a collection of 12 mix-tapes comprised of all the aforementioned hits, organized chronologically by year and the date the songs charted, and complete with DJ-esque commentary recorded by my dad in between each song. He gave the tapes as gifts to friends of our family. Since cassettes were in style long before the wide spread availability of digital technology, the songs were each played in real time and dubbed onto tape. I remember after I got ready for bed, my mom and dad would let me go in and listen to Dad spin record after record, hit after hit on the stereo in his study.

My dad introduced me to Paul Simon, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Motown, The Beatles and The Beach Boys. He loves great troubadours such as Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio, Guy Clark, John Denver and Carole King.

To see him on stage is to know his passion. I’ve never seen him happier than when I watch him perform with Mountain Smoke. It’s like I can actually see the weight of the world fall off his shoulders when he sings and plays.

Dad gave me my first guitar when I was 20- the 1972 Martin I play to this day. He would move heaven and earth to help me live my dreams if he could. “Mayes County,” one of my favorite Mountain Smoke songs, has this lyric:

All that we want, my wife and me
Is to raise our children in a land that’s free
To give them a chance to play their own song
They’ll never grow up if we make ‘em sing along

To try and fully capture the impact my dad’s love for music had on my artistic development is a big task. It really can’t be underestimated. Music permeated my childhood like a soundtrack- it accentuated every major scene in my life. Suffice it to say, both my parents did (and still do) everything possible to support and encourage my life as a creative.

Your husband is also a musician. Do you collaborate with him often on songwriting?

My sweet husband David Broyles is the front man and mastermind behind several musical projects, including the rock band Dr. Pants. He has a wonderful music blog, known as The Mixtape Jones Report (Needless to say, I am the daughter of a music geek who married a music geek… a love for mix-tapes runs in the family) David is a very talented guitarist and approaches much of his songwriting work with the ear of a composer and producer. I definitely married up musically.

Our songwriting processes are very different. David tends to write in a stream of consciousness fashion, letting words fall on the page. He’s typically a fast writer, and often writes lyrics first. He hears the whole song- from beats to guitar riffs, and loves to build tracks on his laptop in Garage Band. A prolific songwriter, he turns out much higher quantities of work than I do.

My songwriting process is pretty meticulous. I spend a lot of time on each line, finalizing the thought before I move on to the next one. I can’t imagine writing a chorus lyric until the verse before it is done- because I don’t know where the song is taking me. I almost always write music first, then melody, and then lyrics, line by line. If possible, I strive to write songs in one sitting. Many minutes and sometimes hours are spent patiently waiting for the song to take me where it wants to go. I don’t really hear past the skeleton of any song I write to a larger production, I figure that will come later if the song stands the test of time. I write one to two songs per month.

In our ten years together, David and I have co-written 3 songs. It takes a whole lot of patience for David to wait through my perfectionism and long pauses in productivity, so obviously we don’t do it very often. Two of our three co-writes are fan favorites: “Johnny Cash” and “Stained Glass”. As we have a lifetime of music-making ahead of us, I’m sure we have more songs to come!

You will be spending a lot of time on the road promoting this record. Do you think your experiences on the road have a positive or negative effect on your songwriting process? Can you describe the impact?

I think the more I spend out in the world experiencing the beautiful diversity of people, places and cultures, the better equipped I am to address that world in my writing. We are so fortunate to be able to go out on the road and take this music to a greater audience. My songs will only touch the lives of my listeners if I am in touch with what their lives are really like.

To live a creative life, I must be prepared to submit myself to the discipline of my art. There will always be something trying to get in the way and divert my time and energy into other distractions. I could come up with a million excuses if I wanted to. I have to make a place for writing in my life, so I set aside blocks of time to write when we are home from tour.

You decided to release this album independently rather than working with some labels that had made offers. Can you tell me why you ultimately made this decision?

Everyone knows the record industry is in flux these days. The labels are scrambling to keep up with the effect of digital technology. There are some newer label styles that have cropped up- more along the lines of a la carte, boutique, and co-op models. I am definitely interested in seeing how those models progress as they are time-tested in this new, ever-evolving market.

More than ever, we are living in the golden age of the indie artist. With digital technology and social media on the forefront, artists like myself have more opportunities than ever to make a dent in the marketplace. Ultimately, as we left the label meetings, David and I felt that the risk of signing was higher than the reward. Why give away a percentage when we could manage a team ourselves and maintain ownership? If the right deal comes along, we will take it. But in the meantime we are happily, decidedly indie.

Can you describe the process of getting this record into production? What’s next for you?

I laughed to myself when I read this question, because the process of getting this record out felt like destiny. Many moments seemed like the deck was stacked against us, and I was sure the record would be dead in the water. And then in the eleventh hour, some twist of fate would occur, and we’d be back on track.

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my fans, who I affectionately call “The Generous Friends.” In late December 2008, I booked studio time with Will Hunt for mid-March. I didn’t have a dime saved for the production, and I needed $10,000 in 2 months to make it happen. At a post Christmas show at the Jazz Lab, I mentioned from stage that I was raising money to make a new record. After the show, a fan gave me check for $1,000. I was floored by their generosity.

Later that week, I sent an email to my fans announcing the start of my “Become My Record Label” project. I offered perks to anyone willing to partner with me to get the album made and promoted. The money started trickling in, and at the end of January we had $2,500. We were able to raise the $10,000 we needed a month ahead of time.

To date, The Generous Friends have given over $20,000 to see Orchid released into the world. We are in the throws of a devastating economic crisis, and ordinary people are giving of their resources in extraordinary ways. All I can really tell you is that I’m convinced Orchid was meant to happen. At this point, it feels bigger than me.

What’s next for me? All I really know to do is take the next right step and see what happens. I am eager to see how Orchid is received in the marketplace, and I look forward to bringing the music to a wider audience.

Natalie Wright is a contributor for OklahomaRock.com and the creator of Sophie Zine and Sophie Vintage.