Hamilton, ON-based singer-songwriter, Mary Clements has unveiled her new single, “Memories“.
On this track, Clements astutely uses a more narrow vocal range to give the illusion of a stream of throughs and memories while the band accents it perfectly to represent both positive and negative images that just tend to flow through our minds without any reason.
Mary shares,
“People with anxiety will understand that sometimes our thoughts can be both pleasant and also overwhelming all in one moment and I tried to capture that feeling,”
Watch the video for “Memories” below, and find out more about Mary via our mini-interview.
First off, care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Hello! My name is Mary Clements and I am a Hamilton-based singer-songwriter. While I have studied music since I was young and even have a degree in music from McMaster University, this is my first time putting out my own music. It has taken me all my life to build up the courage to write and record my own, personal music and I am so excited to start sharing it with the world! When I am not doing music, I am an entrepreneur and business owner running an award-winning French education program called Les Petites Pommes which I founded in 2009 as a place for students to feel happy and confident learning French. I draw inspiration from the world around me and language learning and helping people feel connected is something that I hold close to me whether it’s music or in my business.
You have unveiled your new single, “Memories”, what can you tell us about the writing process behind this release?
My second single, “Memories” is inspired by those moments when you’re trying to fall asleep but your mind is just playing constant streams of thoughts and memories that you can’t turn off. I experience anxiety and sometimes for me, this can signal the start of a panic attack or it can just be some pleasant memories floating around my head. Often times there is no choice between which one decides to play and these thoughts just happen to you. So I tried to capture the experience of being restless in this song. This song comes from a time when I was in a more vulnerable place before I had tools like meditation to help me. I have greatly improved since the time this song was inspired from.
To accompany the single, you have also released a music video, what was the highlight of the video shoot?
The video aspect of this song is something I am extremely, extremely proud of because I filmed, directed, and edited it all by myself. There are so many choices to make when you are just starting your music career about how you are going to make this financially sustainable and one choice I made early was that I wanted to put as much budget into the music and try and shoot and film my own videos. I did not realize what I was getting to however I would not change a thing!
Two years ago I went to Henry’s and bought a Nikon filmmakers kit and since then I have developed my skills through a COUNTLESS amount of hours watching filmmaking videos on Youtube and have taught myself how to work my Nikon, how to use Final Cut Pro, how to colour grade, how to use set up shots in different lighting situations and much more.
Now speaking about the actual video, as mentioned above I did everything myself and the two locations I shot were: 1) My bedroom 2) in the forest of Cootes Paradise in Hamilton. When I was filming in the forest of Cootes Paradise it was actually during prime birding season and everyone walking by my was so excited asking me if I had caught any good birds on film! I explained to them that I was actually filming my music video and this was much less exciting to them. When I look at the raw footage I realize now the birds are actually quite loud in the background compared to my shoots since!
This is your second single from your upcoming album, Come With Me, which is set for release later this year. How do you go about choosing which tracks will become singles?
I chose this as my second single since my first single “Come with Me”, the title track off my debut album is a jolly invitation to invite listeners to join me on this new musical journey I am embarking on. I chose “Memories” as my second track because I think it is a nice contrast to “Come with Me” in that it has a bit of a darker vibe. Coming from a classical voice background I am always thinking about how to present a balanced repertoire to take the audience on an interesting journey so this song seemed like an obvious choice to me.
What else can we expect from you in 2022?
In 2022 I am looking forward to presenting my debut album, “ Come with Me”, in its entirety and making many more music videos! As each music video comes out, I will have gained more skills since the last! Something else I look forward to is multiplying moments of connection in the world. When someone takes the time to listen and share my music, this is an act that I do not take for granted or lightly because now we have shared an intimate moment together that creates connection. To me, there is nothing more special in life than feeling connected to each other.
If you’d like to follow along my journey, please consider subscribing to my blog MARE where I discuss, music, art, recipes, and everything else I find joyful! My blog is where all my main peeps are 🙂
Connect with Mary Clements:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram