The Clientele: Interview with Alasdair MacLean

Do you have a favorite band or set of songs that you play over and over – in a row, on the same day – because you like them so much?

I was introduced to The Clientele a few years ago – and after listening to almost everyone of their albums, I instantly became that person. I’m pretty proud of it.

The good news is that the London-based band is coming to New York City (of course, I’m going).

But the best news is my recent interview with The Clientele’s Alasdair MacLean, the band’s lead vocalist.

Even if you think you haven’t yet heard The Clientele, you probably have. Their song, “(I Can’t Seem To) Make You Mine,” was featured on the soundtrack of The Lake House.

Yes, I could go on and on, but let’s get to the chat with Alasdair. Some more writing wisdom from someone that does it – and does it well.

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Laura: I’m so excited for your New York City show in July. What’s your favorite thing about New York?
Alasdair: I love Angelica’s Kitchen, the organic vegan restaurant on E. 12th Street. There’s nothing in London like it. I think I’d go there every day if I lived in New York.

Laura: Do you ever get writer’s block when you’re composing your lyrics? I get stuck occasionally when working on my own writing projects. If you do experience it, how do you get past it?

Alasdair: Yes, I do. In my experience the only answer is to go and do something completely different until a really good idea arrives at 4am or in the bath or something.

Laura: I’ve read some sources that say art and literature are two key sources of inspiration for your lyrics. How would you best describe where you get your ideas from?
Alasdair: I’ll be reading someone like Rilke – in one of the Duino Elegies, Rilke wrote that bats “shiver through the air” “like a crack in a porcelain vase”. That image is so immediately true but also so dense and mysterious. It seems musical in itself.

You see it in art too. Some astonishing images, like Rilke’s, remove you from yourself, they form a different sort of logic, written into the music that should be evoking the same feeling of strangeness. It’s very like transcribing a dream, everything’s mixed up and things are suddenly linked to other, previously un-associated things.

Laura: What bands or artists have you been listening to lately?

Alasdair: I’ve been listening to Nino Ricardo and La Nina de Los Peines, who were Spanish flamenco artists in the 40s and 50s. Also a lot of John Taverner, the British composer.

Laura: With all of your years of experience, what guidance can you offer to other songwriters – or any type of writer – who are working on their own music, books, blogs, etc.?

Alasdair: I like Camus’ idea that our imaginative lives are just slow journeys back ‘to find the two or three great and simple images in whose presence (our) hearts first opened’. That’s all I’d say is important really. Stick to your guns!

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You can check out The Clientele at the band’s site.

And, you can get tickets for the show in NYC here. It will be at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on Sunday, July 19 at 7:30pm.

Be sure to check out some of their tunes as well – and let me know what you think, because you will love them – and then become one of those people.

Tagged as: Interviews, Laura Cococcia, Music