The Oklahoman: Performer Sheds Pounds, Inhibitions

Friday, February 12, 2010

When she lost more than 100 pounds, K.C. Clifford also shed insecurities, musical boundaries, creative roadblocks — all the things that made the difference between a promising talent and a contender. With her latest disc, “Orchid,” the Oklahoma City singer-songwriter now feels free to go deeper with her sound and her subjects.

“In my writing, the walls came down across the board,” said Clifford, who will perform songs from “Orchid” during a two-night compact disc release party today and Saturday at the Blue Door, 2805 N McKinley.

“My inhibitions kind of went out the window on some level, and I got really honest about certain parts of my heart. As deeply personal as these songs are, I think there’s a universality that I haven’t accessed before in my writing.”

In 2007, when her weight topped out at 278 pounds, Clifford, who debuted in 2000 with “Times Like These,” took decisive action to change the way she lived and to deal with the root causes of her obesity. In addition to eating less and exercising more, she came to terms with the childhood insecurity and sensitivity that led to her weight gain, and now, a year after being profiled on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” Clifford said there have been immediate changes in how she writes songs.

The most immediate change evident on “Orchid,” which was recorded with producer Will Hunt at Blackwatch Studios in Norman, is that Clifford is now creating characters and singing about them in the first person, such as the grieving mother in “Blue Bonnets” and the American Indian forced from tribal grounds in “Redman.” She said she found an empathetic voice while dealing with her physical change and emotional adjustment.

“Honestly, my weight loss had a lot to do with it, the process internally, the discipline I had to apply to my emotional life to make those lifestyle changes possible,” Clifford said. “What happens when you take away that thing that you used to medicate your emotions, suddenly this whole new fresh thing comes up.”

But it was not just Clifford’s approach to subject matter and lyrics that underwent transformation. As a folk artist, Clifford always had lived and died by the acoustic guitar. But “Orchid” goes well beyond the strum, incorporating piano-based songs as well as tracks driven by dulcimer. Another new musical development involved Clifford and husband/collaborator David Broyles essentially dissecting her song structures to construct the perfect bridge.

Clifford said she always had been daunted by bridges, those interludes that serve as transition pieces after two or three iterations of the verse and chorus. Clifford and Broyles examined the works of true bards of folk-rock such as Paul Simon and Patty Griffin, exploring the musical elements that make good bridges in their songs. Then she examined what worked and didn’t work in her bridges against those artists’ compositions. The resulting songs felt more resonant; Clifford immediately threw out anything that felt forced or like an afterthought.

“I’ve learned how to write better for my voice, and I’ve honed in on a sound that feels like my authentic sound,” she said. “For the first time ever, I felt like bridges were my friend.”

“Orchid” is the first studio album Clifford has recorded since her weight loss and the first to include material recorded in the space of one year. Her previous studio discs such as “Teeth-marks on My Tongue” and “Times Like These” included material written over four-year periods. As such, “Orchid” distills the emotions and ideas that poured out of Clifford during a pivotal period in her life.

In the year since her appearance on “The Biggest Loser,” Clifford has been recognized more and learned a lot about media exposure. But while the show offered the singer her largest forum, it was not a game-changer. Real game-changers, Clifford said, come from within.

“I think that, a year later, I see ‘The Biggest Loser’ as part of an arc that was a larger thing,” Clifford said. “It prepared me for that kind of exposure, I learned things about interviewing on television and I’m a better professional. But did it change my life? Ish. I’m still trying to pay rent. I still have to figure out how many calories are in a brownie. But I do think it will be a marker on the map.”