Clara Tracey

Irish born, but splitting her time between Belfast, Dublin and Paris, Clara Tracey is releasing her new single 'Jane Birkin' Sept 15th and with it is announcing her debut album 'Black Forest' will be released Oct 21st on Pizza Pizza Records.

Always one to bring a unique "libertarian, feminist and theatrical slant to her music", Clara Tracey's song 'Jane Birkin' takes influence from the actress and singer.

About the song Tracey says "The song isn’t an ode to thee Jane Birkin per se -it’s more the androgynous nonchalance and freedom she represents in an era where women were just starting to free themselves. It’s a fantasy about moving through the world with confidence and having the courage to fantasize about whatever you want just as much as it is about that iconic New Wave aesthetic."

"Musically it was a bit of a departure from the way I usually write songs. I had just gotten a Nord (which had its own side of the bed for a while) and was experimenting more with Ableton so it was conceived as a full band not a piano arrangement from the get go. It was fun recording it in the studio especially after Dan added in the lazy sixties guitar - “And we’re off in a convertible around the Cote d’Azur” he announced (or something to that effect). The homemade video shot and edited by myself and Jamie Hyland (M(h)aol, Caskré) began as a vintage cat montage and developed into an on camera exploration of freedom and fantasy. It was partly shot during golden hour in the Pyrenees and the rest in an undisclosed Northern boudoir."

Clara Tracey brings to her music “a libertarian, feminist and theatrical slant” (The Irish Times). Originally from Co. Fermanagh, Clara fell in love with the piano at a young age, however her music career took a detour while she studied Law and French in Belfast. It was only after moving to France and experiencing life in a Parisian law firm that she discovered a more artistic lifestyle and started performing in jazz cafes around Paris.In 2015, Clara moved back to Dublin and has since performed at Electric Picnic, Body & Soul, Another Love Story and the leading Dublin venues under various names and guises. She has played with Aoife Nessa Frances, Maija Sofia and Paddy Hanna. Clara has also toured internationally, playing solo shows in Montreal, Paris, London and New York.Her debut album Black Forest produced by Daniel Fox (Gilla Band) was recorded between lockdowns at Sonic Studios, Stoneybatter and is the culmination of many years and experiments in songwriting. Her soundscapes and lyrics draw subtle cues from the erotic heroes and heroines of French chanson and literature, from Gainsbourg and Birkin to Anais Nin and Colette. It will be released via Pizza Pizza Records on 21 October.

About the album 'Black Forest'

Clara Tracey’s debut album “Black Forest” is an opening into her magic realist world where women reign, stained glass masterpieces come to life and fantasies are playfully erotic.

Infused with a sense of sexual liberation that can be attributed to the decade she spent living in Paris in the posthumous company of Colette, Anais Nin and Angela Carter, Clara deliberately provokes her nineties Catholic upbringing in Northern Ireland and the sense of repression that for some is still palpable there.

Clara first started writing songs as an escape from the monotony of her first job out of college in a Paris law firm. Her perfectionist streak meant that she continued to write songs while eschewing the studio for years until on the verge of an exasperated breakdown she finally recruited Daniel Fox (Gilla Band) in March 2020 (inspired by his Scott Walker-esque productions with Paddy Hanna). Recording between lockdowns meant there was no access to high fidelity piano takes so perhaps serendipitously organs and synths took over in a 70s/90s Gainsbourg meets Stereolab production style.

“And if life were a painting”

The visual world of the album is made up via direct references to art deco stain glass window painter (Harry Clarke), Georgia O’Keefe’s suggestive florals (Strange Flowers) and Jane Birkin’s androgynous sixties style. When Salvatore of Lucan offered to paint the album cover, her Harry Clarke lyric and “painted lady” aspirations came true in three sittings.