Q&A: Alicia Clara Revisits Her Bedroom Pop Past With Second EP ‘Velveteen’

Q&AMusic

Nov 2

☆ By Makena Alquist ☆

WE ALL WISH THAT WE COULD TALK TO OUR YOUNGER SELVES — sometimes it’s the version of us from a few minutes ago, sometimes it’s the one from decades ago. On her new EP, Velveteen, Alicia Clara reaches back through time to these past versions of herself, blending the memories and emotions of her past with her current dream pop sound.

After bursting onto the Montreal dream pop scene two years ago, Clara continued to keep up as the world around her picked up speed. Bedroom pop in its truest form, the EP opens with “I Let My Plant Die,” a song detailing the death of her plants in her apartment. Clara wrote the song during the early months of the pandemic, and throughout the song she both mourns the plants and yearns for a future that will never happen.

This theme of wondering about the future reaches its peak on the third song on the EP, a rerecord and first release of a song that Clara wrote a decade ago. With the help of her producing partner, she created a new interpretation of the feelings that, despite once burning so brightly, have turned to a dim glow, like tiny lights in a rearview mirror.

Despite containing only four songs, Clara’s Velveteen brings listeners along on this emotional journey through her past. The final song, “Velveteen,” arrives with her to her current state, beautifully completing the voyage. The EP is full of dream pop vocals and blissful acoustic guitar paired with lyrics endlessly relatable for anyone harboring curiosity about the future.

We sat down with Clara to talk about the EP and what taking this journey through time was like. Read the interview down below.

LUNA: First of all, congratulations! How does it feel to finally be releasing the EP after spending so long working on it?

CLARA: It feels good, but I'm already planning my next record so I feel like my head's not really in that EP anymore. Also, because the songs on there are from a year or two ago I feel… not disconnected, but it feels like a chapter that's already been closed myself personally. So it feels good, but I just kind of have to jump back into it a little bit.

LUNA: Definitely, I understand. I read that you started this EP toward the beginning of the pandemic — is that right?

CLARA: I worked on my previous EP at the very beginning of the pandemic, but this one I started around Oct. 2020. So a few months into the pandemic, but yeah … Mostly, I was thinking of this EP … between the first winter of the pandemic up until the sort of the one year mark of the pandemic.

LUNA: What was your process for the creation of the EP during that time?

CLARA: I started working on demos with my collaborator/producer, Michael Kalman, about a year and a half ago. I just wasn't sure exactly of the tracklist, so that changed a little bit along the way until I wrote this song “Only Fools.” Then I thought, “Oh, I really like this one — this could take the place of another song that doesn’t fit the theme.” The central idea behind the EP was to include the song that I wrote when I was 17 as an homage to my younger self, so I wanted the EP to sound like what I would have liked back then: a little more pop than where I’m directing myself these days.

LUNA: So it was a long process?

CLARA: Yeah, it was a long time writing on my own in my apartment, a bunch of chill sessions with my producer, but the actual recording of it was pretty quick. We recorded it in, like, two days last December. My producer and I then kept working on it once a week for two or three months at the start of this year. So it's been a bit more of a slow burn than the one I did before, but it's good, I guess, to take time.

LUNA: You mentioned “In 10 Years” — was it always a plan to record that song, or was it just an idea you had while working on the record?

CLARA: I think I always knew I was going to record it at one point because that's like… It's not the first song that I wrote, but it's the first decent one that I wrote. Back then, I sent it to my friends and they all loved it, and a few years ago — like maybe four or five years ago — one of my friends was like, “Oh, you know, I still listen to that song from back then.” So I thought, “If people are responding to it, then I should maybe [re]record it.” So by myself I made like 1,000 different demos, then I took it to the band and we just jammed it at rehearsal. It turned out completely different to what I had made originally in terms of the arrangements and the production, but I like the dramatic ballad style that it has. So yeah, it was intentional, for sure.

LUNA: You also mention that this EP aligns pop-ier than some of your other work — what were your influences while working on it?

CLARA: Not directly, but it was brought to my attention that it sounded a little bit like that band Ivy, from … the early 2000s. It's not a direct influence, but I think it was kind of there. Also, I'm always inspired by this band called Widowspeak. Also a bit of Tops, also from Montreal. I rarely think of a particular influence and sort of work from that — I usually just work from my head, but I think it definitely comes through subconsciously.

LUNA: Okay, final question: Have you been able to keep a plant alive in the two years since you wrote “I Let My Plant Die”?
CLARA:[Laughs] No. I mean … I have one plant that just won't die. It's the most resilient being that I've ever seen in my life. I'm looking around… I have fake plants right here: this guy's not gonna die on me. I think that’s just another thing I decided not to dwell on.

CONNECT WITH ALICIA CLARA

INSTAGRAM

SPOTIFY

Listen

INSTAGRAM

We couldn’t be more stoked to have Suriel Hess as our new headliner for our upcoming LA show 🤩 🫶 Not gonna lie, us & Notorious Noise kinda went OFF with this line up & you’re not gonna wanna miss it - ticket link in bio 🎫