We were so smitten by Clare Manchon and her Reasons at this year’s CMJ festival in New York, we wanted to bring you a download from her new album Arrow, out last week, so you can share the love. We tracked down the sweet soprano while she was en route to a performance in Newport, Kentucky, ("We've been reading the KISS biography, KISS And Tell, aloud," she told us from the car) to ask her about the new record, how she made it and what else she's listening to these days. Download the single "Ooh You Hurt Me So" and click through for more on Clare and her boys.
"Did you know that Gene Simmons dated Cher and Diana Ross?" We didn't, in fact -- nor would we have thought that this velvet-voiced chanteuse would pick such heavy road reading. She assured us, though, that her musical tastes are about as far from flamethrowers and facepaint as you can get. "I love big melodies," she says, "the Everly brothers, and stuff like that… there aren't a whole lot of current bands doing that. Though of course," she admits, "I love Grizzly Bear like any other Brooklyn girl."
Swelling orchestral interludes — trombone, tuba, clarinet and violin intermingle with ethereal electric guitar — are certainly her band’s specialty. Members of Bierut and The National bring their special brand of indie shimmer to Clare’s sound, while husband Olivier Manchon, who has a background in French classical music, is adept at spinning the melodies she writes into intricate, vaguely Parisian arrangements. "To have it be complex and seem simple," Clare says, "I think that's the ultimate challenge." Listening to the pristine compositions on Arrow, we just have to say fait accompli, Clare.
Arrow was released last week on Frog Stand Records and is available on itunes.
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