Canadian country singer-songwriter Emily Clair says she is planning on a simple Christmas this year. From Nacanee, Ontario, she is watching the response to her debut EP Stripped. Like so many recording artists, Emily had to change plans when the pandemic hit. She planned for an EP with some new songs, but when that was placed on the back burner, she had to find a clever way to release an EP that people hadn’t already heard.
Emily also wanted to complete the project for herself. After creating music since 2018, she wanted some closure on this stage of her career so she could move on to the next. Recorded in Hamilton, Ontario, at the Catherine North Studios, located in a former church, Stripped is a collection of her first seven singles – newly re-recorded “live off the floor,” mostly in one or two takes.
“It’s what people would get at a live performance. It’s like I’m saying, ‘This is me. Take it or leave it.’ You can’t edit that. It was a cool concept, a little risky—-not a lot of people do that,” said Emily. “These are songs people have heard but in a different way. I think there’s something so special about that.”
“I find that when you release something stripped down and acoustic, there’s something intimate about that. Those are my favorite shows–when I can sing acoustically and connect with the audience.”
Emily recognizes the importance of singles now, and while she finds the digital streaming “a little unfortunate,” she says, “I do like that vinyl’s making a comeback.” In fact, she has a vinyl in production for her EP Stripped, with the all-acoustic versions of the songs on one side and the original versions on the other.
As the singles and videos from Stripped are getting play, Emily says, “I’m trying to write songs all the time, working toward a full-length record.” She will release a few singles from the new project, with the first release around March. She expects to include some unreleased tracks on the album as well. “I’ve been in and out of the studio as much as I can with all this craziness.”
Writing has always been a priority for Emily Clair. “I’m an open book when I write, so if someone says, ‘This or that is a better idea,’ I’m always so open minded. Like I’ve said, three heads are better than one. I personally like writing in threes and even in fours. When I’m writing in twos, the pressure’s really on. If I’m not feeling it that day, I may think I need to come back to this one. But when we’ve got three people throwing out ideas, it almost always–for me at least–turns into a great song.
When the pandemic hit, she was concerned about losing the opportunity to co-write. She thought, “Oh my gosh, I can’t meet people to write anymore. I can’t feel people out. I’ve just got to pop online with people I’ve never met before and make it go.” She discovered that co-writing online opened a lot of doors for meeting new artists and new people in the writers’ world.
“Me or the Whiskey” on Stripped was a cowrite with Alex Sayers, guitarist for Jessie James. They met on her first songwriting trip to Nashville in 2017 or 2018. She admits to being terrified at first. However, she says, “I think being vulnerable in a room makes the best songs: Tell the truth, tell all your secrets, and songs are going to come out.” The song they wrote together during that session “Me or the Whiskey” is personal for Clair, about addiction and a past relationship. She says, “It really opened doors for me.”
While she focuses on writing her own material, song pitches sometimes come her way she knows are right for her. “Bad Habit” was her first song pitch. She wasn’t sure she could connect with a song she didn’t write, but she listened and loved singing it. “I usually know right away, on the first or second listen. A good song is a good song. You should be able to close your eyes and picture yourself singing it. If you can’t, it’s not for you.”
She felt the same way about “Limousine,” her latest single release from the EP. “I didn’t actually write that one. ‘Limousine’ was written by Patricia Conroy and Dave Thomson, both Canadians living in Nashville, and Jessica Mitchell, a Canadian country artist I’m a big fan of.” She says when she heard the song, she knew it was right for her, even before she knew the talented songwriters behind it.
Emily grew up in a musical family, but the path to country music was not always clear. Her father, a pianist and piano tuner, played classic rock. “I grew up on all that old good stuff,” she says, “and I still love it.”
She studied voice and piano lessons in early elementary and continued lessons for at least twelve years. As a young girl, she grew up on Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, whose voice she still considers the best. She sang Aguilera’s songs, as well as Corrine Bailey Rae, Stevie Nicks, and Aretha Franklin. Then when trying out for a school play, her eighth grade music teachers told her she sounded like the Dixie Chicks.
“I was like,‘Who the heck are the Dixie Chicks?’ I didn’t even like country music, but it grew on me. I’m a sucker for sappy, sad songs. I fell in love with country music and knew it was the genre I was meant to do,” says Clair. She says country music, unlike other genres, tells a story. “You can close your eyes and you are in the moment. I find that difficult to do with rock and pop. Sometimes I don’t even know what the heck they’re singing about. That made me fall in love with country music. I felt like I fit right in.”
In addition to changing the dynamics of her songwriting, the pandemic also put other plans on hold. With fellow artist Amberlea Bruch, she co-founded The Songbird Series, planning a regular series of songwriters’ rounds for women in country music.
“We don’t have a lot of that in Canada—at all. We thought it would be cool to do that her, specifically focusing on female artists.” She noted the number of talented female artists in Canada such as Tenille Townes, Tenille Arts, Meghan Patrick, many of whom often go unrecognized while doing amazing things. She suspect the pandemic—particularly the Omicron variant–will also likely impact her EP release party intended for January. She hopes that by late spring or summer things will pick up again.
As a newer artist, Emily is still trying to figure out what it takes to break through the country music boundaries after a measure of success on the thriving Canadian country music scene. She knows that despite the dream of overnight success, it’s important to put in the work. She took a year and a half studying the business end of music, networking and making connections. “It’s important to know people, to sit down and have a connection with people. It’s a slow ride. You have to work hard, to enjoy it and hope it takes you somewhere”, she says.
Emily believes it’s important to be true to herself. “I know I’m not a pop country artist. I try to release something that’s authentic to me. I’m not going to change for anyone. I’m not going to change to fit country radio. I want to do what’s best and what feels good in my soul when I’m singing and performing because I believe that those are the people who create everlasting careers.”
