INTERVIEW: CLEWS On Changing A Song From A Ballad To A Banger
CLEWS. Photo supplied.
Sydney duo CLEWS (aka Lily and Grace Richardson) are inspired by bands like Oasis and Blur, but they’re putting their own spin on things. They’re making music that’s chock-full of harmonies, and their tracks are perfect for a sing-along.
I spoke to Lily about the band’s upbringing, as well as their new single, Want You That Way. Get to know the band before they drop their next single, and find out their plans for the near future.
Ben Madden: Firstly, can you introduce yourselves and your music? CLEWS: I’m Lily and I’m in a band with my little sister Grace. We’re called CLEWS. We make guitar music with loads of harmonies and sing about how it feels to have never been in love.
I wanted to ask about growing up in Mollymook. It’s a place with a small population, and a coastal town – how did your relationship with music evolve while there, and how does being from Mollymook influence your music?
It was a wonderful place to grow up and shaped our personalities in a completely different way than if we had grown up in Sydney (where I was born - we moved down the coast just before Grace crashed the party). Growing up in a smaller town made singer-songwriter/folk music more relatable to me, and as a kid, I saw my own songwriting in artists like Josh Pyke, Sarah Blasko, Missy Higgins - those Aussie artists who ruled triple j in the ‘00s.
But the way we grew up, our exposure to music and the industry completely overspilled the confines of Mollymook - we lived in the States for a few years while our Dad was in a band, we were always going to gigs growing up and dipping into mum and dad’s huge CD collection. Mollymook shaped who Grace and I are as people, but Sydney is really the heartland of CLEWS.
You’ve taken influence from bands like Oasis and Blur, and you can hear the Brit-pop inspiration in your music. What do you think has allowed Brit-pop to continue to influence artists, long after the ‘peak’ of bands like Oasis/Blur?
I’m drawn to Britpop like Oasis because the guitar chords are usually just simple and sound good. I learnt guitar by learning chord shapes, not scales or lead movements, so I like music where you can play Em G and the point of difference comes in the melody and story you put over the top.
Songs where you can just sing them out on an acoustic guitar are timeless and are built on good songwriting, no matter how fuzzy and distorted and grungy they get. So britpop has so many elements to love - good guitars, good songwriting, and badass energy.
Want You That Way was written on an acoustic guitar before being transformed into a pop song – can you talk me through that process?
Haha - this is a good segue from our last point. All my songs start on acoustic guitar. Like I said, I can’t play anything fancy, only chord shapes. I love writing on acoustic because no matter where you take the song in production or arrangement you will always be able to strip it back to its bones and sing it just like you wrote it. Grace and I built the live arrangement up with our drummer and bass player, with the idea of taking it somewhere poppy and high energy.
You’ve increasingly been leaning more and more into pop production – what lead to that transformation in your sound?
This also flows on nicely from your Britrock question…well played. Leaning into pop is a decision that comes from wanting to sound sparkly and new. As much as I love ‘90s guitar music, that’s been done and been done well for decades now (Hole, PJ Harvey, The Cranberries), it’s not exciting if we’re too derivative of those great bands!
Grace and I also just genuinely LOVE pop music and shamelessly devour the top 40. We always set out to make music that we would want to listen to, so pop-rock blends those worlds in a way that suits us.
Pop in Australia continues to evolve, and recently it feels like more and more artists are embracing the title of being “pop”. Is this something you’ve experienced, and why do you think things have progressed that way?
Interesting question. I guess by definition ‘pop’ music is just supposed to be music that is literally popular, so it should evolve and change as listeners’ tastes evolve and change, instead of having a monolithic sound? Music is so married to the internet now so I love seeing the charts be ruled by different genres like hip hop/rap, or Latinx music, or huge country songs, or amazingly filthy songs by women.
Maybe local artists embrace pop because it’s fun, or because everyone has Protools on their laptops and can get the 808s slapping. It’s a good question!! Classic rock had its day and I’m sure it will come back around, with huge artists like Machine Gun Kelly hopping on pop-punk or Miley making a glam-rock record, but for now pop is the soundtrack to a hot girl summer and I’m here for it.
It looks like we’re finally seeing bands being able to tour again in Australia. How have you embraced the return to the stage, and are things finally feeling somewhat back to “normal” to you?
Like everyone in the live music industry, we really missed playing last year and it really sucked to see people who work so hard behind the scenes like tour managers, venue staff, road crew, sound engineers have their calendars wiped clean.
I realllyyyyy hope the government supports our industry - because even though it feels like life is going back to normal with big sports stadiums and malls filling up with people, the live music sector has seen a much slower unfurling.
Finally, what are the next few steps for you both, both personally and music-wise?
Step one; thank you for your great questions. Step two, release loads of music this year, more than we ever have before. Personally, I am getting stuck into writing an Honours thesis and Grace is living a life worthy of a rom-com, thanks for asking xx.