Last month, Clea unveiled her debut album Vermillion, and it's an absolute gem. The Brisbane-based artist also recently supported King Princess on tour in November. To celebrate the release of the album, she took some time out to break-down her captivating single 'Dreaming' for us.
I wrote 'Dreaming’... amidst a hot QLD summer. Ali was tinkering in the garage, laying down the lagging bells and twirling synths. I immediately came up with the melody that begins the song and it was essentially completed in 20 minutes. One of those rare moments when things emerge fully formed in a flash. We spent a long time thinking we needed to adjust it and in the end, it remained as it was first written.
The story behind ‘Dreaming'... explores the exposure of women forced into bestowing ‘favour’ to those who abusively wield their positions of power, loosely inspired by the “Me Too” movement. I love that the seemingly pop arrangement hides what the song is trying to convey, highlighting the topic even more so as we generally only see the surface bright lights and smiles and don’t tend to dig deeper.
My favourite lyric is... “I’ve been inundated, in a rolling trance.” It’s this idea that when something is so sweet there is no sense of telling what’s real or not, the emotions are so intense and overbearing that it replicates a trance-like state.
It was made... in the garage at the back of my house. The final version was then made at Swan Pond Studios amongst the Scenic Rim hills.
My main inspiration was... that quick, hot moment in time that brought upon those creamy melodies and obscure instrumentation. All of the flutes, saxophones, Mellotron sounds and chord changes are largely inspired by the Beach Boys album, ‘Pet Sounds.’
It sounds best... on vinyl. Available to purchase online ;)
Listen to 'Dreaming' by Clea below:
ITUNES // APPLE MUSIC // SPOTIFY
You can catch Clea on tour at the below shows:
1st March - Rocket Bar & Rooftop, Adelaide
15th March - The Lansdowne, Sydney
16th March - Grace Darling Hotel, Melbourne
23rd March - The Foundry, Brisbane
More information is available here
You can listen to Vermillion here:
Vinyl edition is available here
