Clarke no longer ‘waiting’

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This article was published 30/05/2019 (2301 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Looking at his resumé, it’s really easy to forget Roman Clarke is just 23 years old.

The multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, who plays the West End Cultural Centre tonight as part of the Ego Spank Presents series, has already had a successful career as part of now-defunct trio Middle Coast and just released his first solo effort, Scorcher, in April.

In addition, he is in high demand as a songwriter and session musician, co-writing and touring with heavy hitters such as Joey Landreth, producer extraordinaire Murray Pulver, The Launch winner Olivia Lunny (who says everything Clarke touches turns to gold) and up-and-coming indie-folk star Taylor Janzen.

https://youtu.be/zw1ao9fNE1k

Not to mention he was recently nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award for songwriter of the year for his track Waiting.

It’s also been a double-album year of sorts for Clarke, who co-wrote Landreth’s newest solo record, Hindsight, which was released just a week before his own album.

Clarke then hit the road and toured with Landreth overseas this past month, claiming the opening slots for solo sets of Scorcher tunes, and then joining Landreth’s band as a drummer and backing vocalist.

Clarke says the support from Landreth, as well as the other well-known names in Winnipeg’s music scene, is welcomed and appreciated.

“I think it’s definitely humbling because Joey is a musician I looked up to growing up and the fact they’re all supportive of what I do and they’re all excited and they want to make music with me is, yeah, I guess flattering in a weird way. But it also makes me realize how actually easy making music can be; sometimes you get caught up in this cycle of, ‘How did this person do this? They must know something I don’t know.’ But then you get to know them and they’re just doing the same thing I’m doing. They’re just making music and doing the best they can, and are doing it because they love it, and that’s all you can really think about,” Clarke says.

“Everyone is just on the same plane, which is an intimidating thing, but also a comforting thing as well.”

Scorcher is a solid debut release; it pulls sonic inspiration from funk, pop and R&B, but lyrically it follows closer to themes and techniques found in country, a genre Clarke grew up listening to in his hometown of Brandon.

“I like a certain type of song, and you’ll find them in pop music but more specifically country music. I listen to a ton of country music… just those kind of songs, the punchline-y songs, like there’s a verse that leads to a punchline. To me, that is a good vehicle.”

Clarke, now based in Winnipeg, wrote and produced Scorcher, and also played almost every instrument on it, a decision made mostly out of necessity.

“I started doing it because I basically couldn’t wait on anybody to play on my songs any longer. Like, if no one is going to help me do this, then I’m just going to do it. And then I realized how easy it was to lay down these parts, which are not that crazy,” he says.

A lot of Scorcher has been a learning process for the band-member-turned-solo performer.

He grew up in the Middle Coast, and says he has now realized how much his bandmates, Liam Duncan and Dylan MacDonald, contributed when it came to some of the less glamorous parts of being a professional musician.

“At first it was a really tough transition because I went from seeing Liam and Dylan every day to now, I hardly see them at all because we’re all going whole-hog into our own things,” Clarke says.

“Just at first it was hard being like, I gotta learn how to talk on stage, I have to learn how to put on a show and build all these skills I was shirking a little bit because I had the support of Liam and Dylan. Which was ultimately great, because I learned a lot from them, but I didn’t necessarily have to think about certain things to do with show stuff and some business stuff, too. So now I’m trying to wrap my head around that.

“And beyond that, actually having a vision is hard, and I’m just learning how to do that, too… at the core of it I would like to just keep releasing records.”

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @NireRabel