Alex Clares musikalischer Weg war steinig. Nach Veröffentlichung seines Debütalbums lässt ihn seine Plattenfirma wegen zu niedrigen Verkaufszahlen fallen. Als ihm dann jedoch mit dem Welthit “Too Close” der Durchbruch gelingt, nimmt Island Records ihn erneut unter Vertrag, um ihn wenig später wieder im Regen stehen zu lassen. All das ist jetzt gut sechs Jahre her. Alex ist mittlerweile mit seiner Familie nach Jerusalem umgezogen und kann auf diesen Abschnitt seiner Karriere reflektiert zurückblicken. Letzten September veröffentlichte er sein viertes Album Three Days At Greenmount, für das er in nur drei Tagen seine persönlichsten Songs in zurückgenommener Akustikversion aufgenommen  hat. Wie die Gitarre und Jeff Buckley seinen Werdegang beeinflusst haben, hat er uns im Interview verraten.

You went through an odyssey of sorts with the record label Island Records. How do you feel about that today in retrospect?

Alex: I’m actually very grateful for the experience. I think now I do things on my own. I have a record label, they do my distributions, but that’s basically it. Everything else I kind of self-manage. I do really appreciate what Island did for me, but I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a major label. I never say never, but I’ve seen the belly of the beast.

The most famous song of your debut album The Lateness Of The Hour is “Too Close”, which became an international hit. In what way can such a big commercial success be boon and bane at the same time?

It’s amazing, because it gives you huge exposure all over the world, which is great. It still gives me the opportunity to play all over the world. That’s its boon. Its bane is that you’ll always be associated with it when you’ve had one massive hit, which is fine, I don’t mind. It’s funny though when you go on doing a TV show, especially in Eastern Europe, even though you’ve got a whole bunch of new music, they’ll always be like: can you play that song? And I’m like: yeah you know what, I don’t care, I’m happy to!

You also learned to play the trumpet and drums before you decided to focus on the guitar. Why did you prefer that instrument?

It’s a lot easier to be honest! As a teenager, I was never going to get a girlfriend playing the trumpet, but I could play the guitar and sing Jeff Buckley to people and impress them. Drums was great fun but is really hard to carry around. Being the drummer you’re always the first one at the venue and the last one out the venue. I was writing so many lyrics that it was kind of hard to write melodies for lyrical compositions when you’re playing the trumpet or the drums. So it had to be the guitar really.

Is there any instrument you’ve always wanted to learn?

Bagpipes! How cool are the bagpipes?!

#Acoustic #Alex Clare #Folk #Interview