Eden’s Jewel - Fiona Clayton
Charles Paxton October 14th, 2007
Fiona Clayton pleases the crowd with her sweet song and acoustic guitar at The Nine Standards FestivalI may have missed Jimi Hendrix’s Appleby performance, but I did see Fiona Clayton at Appleby’s Avenue 67. It’s February 16, 2007, 8:30, we’re down at Appleby’s Avenue 67 and one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen is taking up centre-stage and her guitar with a quick smile and confident modesty. Surprising, you might think, for a sixteen year-old about to perform her debut gig with Phasinghz, the new Eden-based Multimedia company.
Fiona Clayton gives us a superbly lively performance with her feisty, spirited vocals and elfin ambience. The sensitive innocence of Marianne Faithful meets the fresh and quirky energies of Jewel in Fiona, add a zesty sprinkling of Sineid O´Connor and you’ll get the picture. The enthusiastic response of the crowd further invigorates, and stimulates her performance to new heights. The Jewel of Eden she is, without doubt.
Fiona Clayton by UlswaterIf this self-taught star from Penrith, Cumbria makes live musical entertainment look easy that’s probably because she’s been entertaining live since she was nine years old. First she sang with BlueJam, Penrith’s community-based music group and then as her music matured she and her friends formed the band Soft Target and she later went solo.Now, here she is, she looks as cool as you please playing a crowd of seventy. A boisterous and enthusiastic crowd at that and she’s playing them well. They’re enjoying the repartee between songs almost as much as the music itself. The music seems to freely flow from her. She says “playing my music to a crowd of people is one of the few places I can feel really comfortable.” That shows. It takes a lot of nerve to sing a capella the way she did.Perhaps music is running through her veins? Perhaps. Most of her friends are musical. Her Mum teaches music and her home atmosphere is imbued with the stuff. Yet, incredibly, this starlet is self-taught and hence she hasn’t been pressed in anybody else’s mold. Furthermore, she writes her own stuff - and its very good, too. Not only does she have indisputable talent with the guitar and piano, but this “profound lyricist” has been known to write a song within half an hour of setting pen to paper. When I asked her how she goes about writing her songs she answered with witty simplicity “I don’t go about writing songs. It just happens… If a song is proving to not write-itself, I give up on it and move on.” We’re talking complex harmonies and profound expression here. You are is a case in point, it’s the first song she wrote alone. Miss Me is powerfully moving - it raises the hairs on the back of my neck, that one. My kind of music.Did I say her music is feisty too? I did and it is. Take her songs Shiny Shoes, Alice and Bloody Old Bastard for examples. Though I expected this music to be by young people for young people - I don’t feel anything as much like a voyeur as I had expected. Sure there’s teenage issues and angst here in spades, but the issues are not just teenage, nor is the angst. This is music with a broad appeal.
Fiona Clayton on Piano at Avenue 67She’s great on the piano, too. I enjoyed the lyrical content of Picture Perfect as much as the music. It’s witty, it’s fresh, it’s accessible and meaningful. That one was my personal favourite overall, I think, but Shiny Shoes was a tour de force.This is superb music and it’s wonderful to see and hear talent like this upspringing in Cumbria. Since February of last year I’ve seen her perform very well at Cafe No.15 in Penrith, at Avenue 67 Open Mic events and at The Nine Standards festival in Kirkby Stephen and though she always pleases the crowd, I think it is fair to say that her performances are gaining real strength over time. Live experience at the bigger events, Solfest, for example must be polishing her performance as well as spreading her fame. The increased experience seems to be adding a finer polish and greater confidence to her live performance. She seems better grounded and her performance more graceful and relaxed. Self confidence develops through accomplishment and positive public reaction. If we don’t hear her songs on the radio soon, it won’t be because they aren’t good enough. When the time is right, hopefully she’ll record, and then hopefully she’ll get the airplay that her work deserves.It had been a while since I last spoke with Fiona and that interview had been rushed and superficial so it was good to touch base with her again and ask her a few more questions. I’m really glad that I did, because now I feel that I have a better understanding of her and her music at this point in time. She has come into focus for me, as a nice, real, down-to-earth person, with musical talent that I would consider to be extraordinary. I hope that you enjoy the following interview as much as I did:The Juice: What inspires you to do what you do?Fiona: Boredom. Pretty much. I get the urge to do something spontaneous and the first thing I pick up is the guitar, and a pen, and I just see what happens. Sometimes it can be inspired by some form of fantastic music that I get jealous about, and I think, hey I want to write a song like that, so I try. But writing music and performing is just something that I enjoy. Some people paint, cook, do sport etc., I do music. In effect, you could call it a hobby.The Juice: How does music affect you and the world around you?Fiona: Most of my friends are musical, and I guess that has a big impact on what kind of music I like and what kind of music I listen to. Music affects people in different ways, But I guess my story’s pretty much the same as everyone else’s. I think every song has some form of emotional side or relationship to the writer, so effectively? I pretty much use music as a way of getting away from everything.The Juice: What music do you currently listen to, and why?Fiona: I can listen to any genre of music and love it to pieces. At the moment I’m pretty much into everything, from Shostakovich, to Swaheli (Ladysmith Black Mombazo), Kate Nash, Paolo Nutini, Alkaline Trio, Arcade Fire, Subsource, Pendulum, Hot Chip, Timberland, Freemasons, Postal Service, Iron and Wine, Kate Rusby, Tommy Martin… the list is endless!The Juice: Do you have a personal favourite song, could be your own or someone else’s, and why do you especially like it?Fiona: I have two personal favourite songs, that in a way, are my ultimate songs of all time…” First Day of My Life” by Bright Eyes and “firesign” by David Berekly. They’re similar in different ways, but they were the only songs I listened to at certain times, and they have just stayed as something I always enjoy listening to. They never get boring.The Juice: Who are your musical and non-musical influences?Fiona: My non-musical influences are the people in the music industry who think they know what they’re doing, and how they can judge people, when they don’t even know what they’re doing themselves. Manufactured bands annoy me. So in a way, musical influences are those who have made it to the extent that they’re happy with and people love their music. Indie bands, indie artists… fruit…funky pictures… anything is musically influential.Watch Fiona Live @ Bojangles singing ‘The Watershed’. Mildly explicit!The Juice: How do you describe your music?Fiona: My music is me. It’s not important, it’s not special, it has no philosophical meaning that I’ve specifically depicted to put in a certain song. You could listen to it up a ladder, sat on a windowsill. It won’t make you do anything spectacular, because it isn’t anything spectacular. It’s moments in song form. In a roundabout way. You could swing upside down on a swing, lie backwards on a sea-saw, stick your head inside a bush, and you’d pretty much find what my music is about.The Juice: What image do you think your music conveys?Fiona:That’s a hard question. I think the whole concept of “image” is blown completely out of proportion. My image isn’t an image, it’s just, music. That’s all it is..My image is music.The Juice: And fine music it is, too. How do you go about writing songs?Fiona:I don’t go about writing songs. It just happens.The Juice: That’s often the way of great art, isn’t it? The Muse strikes. Please choose two of your favourite songs. What specific themes do they cover?Fiona: A song called Matchmaker.. it’s generally about how you get left out of the picture and a song I wrote not so long ago called, Good love. And I guess the title explains it all.The Juice: What was the hardest song to write and why?Fiona: None of them were particularly hard. I don’t find it hard. If a song is proving to not write-itself, I give up on it and move on.The Juice: That’s a healthy philosophy. What live performance experience have you had?Fiona: Tonnes. From performing in the centre of Carlisle, to Kendal Calling, to Solfest, to the Music Bus. I play with Bluejam Festival Band, so that gives you performing oppurtunities as much as solo-ing it up.The Juice: Excellent. What is your live show like?Fiona: Apologetic, surprising, and acoustic. You could have a cup of tea and probably spill it. Thats one way you could describe it.The Juice: We don’t see any need for apology, you’re surprisingly good, that’s for sure. How do you rate your live performance ability?Fiona: I have no self-confidence, everything that could go wrong, goes wrong in my head, but then I apologise out loud, and sometimes I get a bit finicky. Or sometimes it goes well. It’s a bit of a surprise to see how well I can perform on the day. It’s normally non-life-threatening to the audience though!The Juice: Here public perception is very different from your own insight. You seem very well composed, all things considered.Who are your fans?Fiona: I have had feedback from 11 year olds to 70 year olds, so I guess it’s a pretty vast range of people. But they seem to like it.The Juice: It’s very good. What is your best experience as a performer?Fiona: The applause. The laughs. The lovely people you get to meet.The Juice: What is your worst experience as a performer?Fiona: When everything stops and your mind goes blank.The Juice: That’s the stuff of nightmares, yes. If you could play to anyone, who would you like to have in the audience?Fiona: I’d love to play to the people who’s music I love, and for them to like my music too!! That would be nice. But I love having my family and friends in the audience and the people I’m close to, because they give me the real criticism, they aren’t just nice about it.The Juice: Great, it’s always good to have guidance. Have you had any previous print or broadcast media exposure or reviews?Fiona: I’m not sure? I have had some herald reviews, in the Beat.The Juice: That’s a good start. What is the hardest thing about being a musical performer?Fiona: Nothing is hard about it. I like it.Fiona opens at Avenue 67 with a well polished actThe Juice: Hmmm, sounds like you have a gift for it. It could be that you have nothing to fear except fear itself. Have any of your songs been published?Fiona: As far as I know, none.The Juice: That seems a waste to me, because your Myspace selection sound great. I hope that you do publish an EP or album. What are your immediate music career goals?Fiona: Nothing. Music isn’t something I want to pursue, this is just something I like to do at the moment. I’m doing Music A-Level so I guess after college I might go and do some volunteering abroad, teaching or something. I sometimes teach primary school children piano/recorder.The Juice: That’s interesting. What are your long-term career goals?Fiona: I don’t want a career! Haha, I seriously don’t. My goal in life is to live it as it comes, I hate plans. I hate hate hate organisation sometimes, and when it comes to life, it just doesn’t inspire me to know what I’m going to be doing. I have a plan to leave college with hopefully some qualifications, travel the world, settle down, buy a cat, have a big kitchen and fill it with everything and anything. Hopefully people and hey, maybe I can teach my kids the guitar some day and they’ll pursue what they want to do.The Juice: That all makes a lot of sense. Tell us about your next show and why people should be there.Fiona: I’m performing alongside Rory Connor at Dickie Doodles on the 7th of November, and you should be there because… it will be a laugh, a new experience, and you may even enjoy the music. I don’t like pressurising people into getting them to go to gigs. If people want to go, they go. If they don’t, they don’t.The Juice: Very reasonable. So, it’s Dickie Doodles on the 7th of November - if you want. What is your latest news?Fiona: I’m thinking about re-stringing my guitar. Wahay!The Juice: And we’ll leave it there, for now. The Juice would like to thank Fiona, very much, for a frank and interesting interview. Let’s hope that her music will continue to be rewarding for her because it certainly gives many other people a lot of pleasure.See more on her Myspace page.
Fiona Clayton kicks off an Open Mic event at Avenue 67