(SXSW 2016 flavoured!) Bands to Watch #380: David C Clements
Editor’s note: we’re making some exciting changes in the way we cover SXSW 2016 this year, especially in the way we preview all the bands that we want to introduce you to before the big event in Austin in March. Read all about our big plans here.
Belfast alt-folk songwriter and SXSW 2016 showcasing artist David C Clements is set to release his debut album ‘The Longest Day in History’ later this week. Due out on Friday the 19th of February, the new LP has taken shape over several years of evolution, starting with an EP of the same title which was released way back in 2012.
Clements’ songs themselves have a similarly evolutionary inclination, as I first experienced with the expansive ‘Hurricane’, originally released on that early EP. The EP version of ‘Hurricane’ is truly swoon-worthy, beginning with a series of uplifting gospel-tinged verses and building to an emotional unleashing of lyrics in the coda, which ends on the prophetic line “It was the longest day in history”. ‘Hurricane’ is set to feature on the full-album version of ‘The Longest Day in History’, along with ‘I’m Still Alive’, which is the featured track in Clements’ SXSW 2016 artist profile. Like ‘Hurricane’ before it, ‘I’m Still Alive’ is anthemic and inspirational, rhythmically propulsive and dynamically spacious, sweeping to completion with a swelling final coda.
As a bit of a sneak peek into the new album, Clements released a separate EP last November titled ’My Dear Mother’. “The idea with the ‘My Dear Mother’ EP [was] to start introducing the new material without giving the game away just yet,” Clements said. “I wanted to be able to share something straight away from the album as well as some music that didn’t end up on it.” That eclectic mix of music includes the EP’s title track along with new versions of older songs “When We Go” and “On the Border” as well as a cover of Neil Young’s ‘Philadelphia’. Just below, you can watch a live studio performance of ‘My Dear Mother’, filmed by Brian O’Kane and Thomas Camblin (who Mary and I happened to meet during this interview with Travis is a Tourist at SXSW 2014).
[youtube]https://youtu.be/SnBZVhDLjXQ[/youtube]
David C Clements’ debut full-length album ‘The Longest Day in History’ is out today, the 19th of February; album pre-order is available on Clements’ Bandcamp page. Ahead of his scheduled appearance at SXSW 2016, Clements will play an album launch show at Belfast Limelight on Friday the 11th of March, featuring guests Luke Sital-Singh and Callum Stewart.
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