With a light and airy, yet haunting tone, Brisbane singer-songwriter Clea's sound is best described as ethereal pop-folk, featuring conscientious lyrics, a velvety voice, and a trembling acoustic guitar.
After touring with Holy Holy and Alex The Astronaut, and the release of her 2018 album 'Vermillion', Clea returns to the stage at The Tivoli Theatre's new room, What's Golden. “I've always admired The Tivoli, so it's really cool that they've made a slightly smaller capacity venue. It's such a beautiful building, so it feels excellent,” Clea says.
And what better way to grace a new stage as one of the first artists to use it, than to end a six-month break from performing.
“I'm really ready to get back on the stage because we haven't really done any shows since the album tour in March; kind of had a break to get moving on the second album.”
The musician gained traction in the Australian music scene after her triple j Unearthed submission, 2015's 'Polyester' received positive reviews. “I was in my room really late at night and my housemates were asleep, and I just decided that I would record this little, acoustic ditty that I'd written the week before, uploaded it to triple j Unearthed and didn't think anything about it.
“It wasn't until my friend was like 'oh it's really cool, those couple of reviews you've gotten from Unearthed's people' and I had no idea. So that was like the little taster and then it got played once on triple j, which was very exciting.”
Things didn't slow down from there for Clea; her follow-up single propelled her even further into the limelight, giving her a tantalising first taste of stardom.
“I really got introduced to it with 'Dire Consequences', which really exploded in my face in terms of people wanting to work with me and getting a real sense of how the industry actually works. Which can be very daunting but in a way it's all a part of it. . . It is a big system that you kind of have to delve into pretty quickly.”
While the wheels started turning early on, Clea doesn't feel as though she's been on a rapid climb, rather a steady path that reflects the work she puts in.
“When there's a lot of hard work and a constant move in terms of creating music and performing, it feels like a long time because you're working towards something that you have always dreamed of and pretty much it's the only thing I want to do. So in that sense, it feels like it's been a while but I guess it's only been about four years, it's been fast but slow.”
While she's seen an ever-increasing flow of recognition and support from fans, Clea's recording style has remained relatively stripped back.
“It's still kind of DIY. I record with my partner Alistar, and so we do it all ourselves. Ali has been gradually refining his skills in production, so we've gone on this journey of learning the ropes of recording together and he obviously gets better every time and I have more of an understanding of how I want [the songs] to sound.”
