Down Rounder<\/em>, she delved into an existence that some might describe as rootless. She calls it freedom.<\/p>\nRight now, at least, she\u2019s in Seattle, Washington, rehearsing with her band, getting ready for a new tour in support of her latest work, Mud Blood Bone.<\/em> Her fourth album is a raw, visceral record that melds folk, Americana, rock and country, with the 26-year-old clawing her way out of the ash and dirt to deliver some of the best songs of her career. Heavily inspired by the end of a long-term relationship with her former bandmate, Strummer Jasson, it opens on \u201cWhere Is My Love\u201d, a yodelling wolf-howl of despair delivered over snarls of electric guitar and jangling acoustic strums: \u201cI got a hole in my chest\/ I can\u2019t take the emptiness\/ Where is my love?\u201d<\/p>\nClyde\u2019s distinctive singing style \u2013 think Sheryl Crow meets Patsy Cline \u2013 she thinks, was a way to regulate her nervous system as a kid, growing up in a \u201cchaotic\u201d household in rural Ontario. \u201cI moved around a lot \u2013 my parents were pretty chaotic people,\u201d she tells me over video call, clattering around in the kitchen as she makes a cup of tea. Music, meanwhile, has become a means of figuring things out: Down Rounder <\/em>was written during a period in which she felt \u201creally low and disconnected\u201d, tired from travel and touring. Mud Blood Bone<\/em> tussles with the heartache and confusion of being out in the wilderness, post-breakup, but also uses Clyde\u2019s smart humour to take on matters of patriarchy, identity and her place in today\u2019s world. <\/p>\nShe has a masterful way of capturing the sense of rootlessness that comes with a relationship\u2019s end, like the unspooling of a kite as it hurtles into the sky. \u201cEverything I knew of love\/ Flew out the blue tarp high above,\u201d she sings on \u201cWild One\u201d. \u201cAnd I feel heavy, I feel sad\/ Thinking about the times we had\/ All we shared and all we made\/ Carved into a single blade.\u201d The title for Mud Blood Bone <\/em>appears in a lyric on this song, too. \u201cIt was a huge transition period for me,\u201d Clyde says of the time she spent writing this album. The breakup was \u201ca really painful experience \u2026 And I felt like I went through a rebirth, through the mud, blood and changing in my bones \u2013 I changed my whole life, every aspect of it.\u201d <\/p>\nYou hear this in two contrasting songs: \u201cI Am Now\u201d, the centrepiece of the album that unfolds over stark, graceful piano notes and ghostly echoes of pedal steel guitar, and the tremendous \u201cNight Eyes\u201d, like a country-fied take on Liza Minnelli\u2019s \u201cMaybe This Time\u201d, as Clyde hollers: \u201cBuild a fire in the caves of me, but know I\u2019ll never be a slave again for love.\u201d Recording \u201cNight Eyes\u201d was emotional \u2013 Clyde actually wrote it around the time she was recording Down Rounder <\/em>but didn\u2019t think it belonged on that album. She and piano player Eric Olsen found themselves alone in the studio and recorded it live: \u201cAfter the final take, we were both crying,\u201d she recalls, \u201cand we had to leave the studio for a while \u2013 we both just went into the woods, away from each other, and I didn\u2019t talk for about an hour.\u201d She had more fun on the rollicking \u201cMan\u2019s World\u201d, which is accompanied by a music video that casts Clyde in disguise as a boxer, fooling her male rival. \u201cI really just wanted to punch a guy in the head,\u201d she cracks. <\/p>\nShe\u2019s in a new relationship, with a musician based in London who plays with the folk-rock artist LA Salami. They were friends first, meeting when she opened for his band on their US tour: \u201cWe stayed in touch over the years, sometimes he would tour manage for me when I was in the UK. And then I was just [touring] solo, and we really connected.\u201d He inspired a few songs on the record, including the gorgeous closer \u201cAnother Time\u201d, with its swooning slide guitar and steady percussion. Given Clyde\u2019s roving ways, I doubt the long distance presents too much of an issue. \u201cI do enjoy it,\u201d she says of the travelling about, crashing on friends\u2019 sofas and in spare rooms. \u201cI have a ton of freedom in my life \u2013 I can go to Winnipeg to hang out with my friends there, or buy a plane ticket and go to Seattle to be with my band, or to London to be with my partner.\u201d<\/p>\n
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To the bone: Cat Clyde is raw and real on her fourth album (Julio Assis)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nFinishing Mud Blood Bone <\/em>felt like she\u2019d written herself out of something, even if she might not fully understand what her words mean until months or even years later. Her perspective on relationships has certainly changed: \u201cI had to relearn a lot of things and check in with what my values are, how to maintain them, set boundaries and stand up for myself,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was painful, but I used it to evolve into a better version of myself, so it\u2019s kind of a gift, in a way. It\u2019s given me a lot of clarity about what I want, the direction I want to go in.\u201d <\/p>\nWhat direction is that, I ask, and she smiles. <\/p>\n
\u201cForward,\u201d she says firmly. <\/p>\n
\u2018Mud Blood Bone\u2019 is out now<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Music Early on in my interview with musician Cat Clyde, one of the most distinctive voices to come out of Ontario since Alanis Morissette, I ask her a fairly innocuous question. Where is she based? \u201cI\u2019m not really based anywhere,\u201d she answers. Perhaps I should have known: on her 2023 album Down Rounder, she delved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":895899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[131522],"class_list":{"0":"post-895898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business-news","8":"tag-podcast-music"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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