[International] Alison Clancy: Poised for Greatness

25 Feb

CHRIS HARTFORD (INDEPENDENT WRITER) - 25 FEB 2022

*COVER ARTWORK FOR ALISON CLANCY - MUTANT GIFTS (LIVE AT ST. JOHN’S)*

In the world of music, it is not unusual to find an artist who steps into a recording studio, or onto the stage to share good music with the world. But it is certainly rare that an artist can “bless the world” with something even greater.... To find a gifted artist, one who comes along and graces us with beautiful, unique music that will live on in perpetuity? Now that is a rare gift. Rarer than the most precious of gemstones. It’s the kind of groundbreaking music from artists who go on to become legendary, and their music becomes legendary as well. These artists are known throughout the world, artists like Sting, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, and the like. Well, according to Michael Mistroff, the founder and chief A&R executive for Indigo Wave Records, one such artist has been discovered, and her talent and music is poised to become legendary.

Her name is Alison Clancy. Such a simple statement, and yet carries so much gravitas. Alison Clancy: the physical embodiment of an impressive array of talents, a gifted guitarist, songwriter, vocalist, producer, dancer, choreographer, and artist. Her own website states that she “is an artist in pursuit of beauty and catharsis”. Yet, when speaking to her, one realizes that she is far more than all of that. At first impression, she is warm, kind, and welcoming, though a bit shy. After listening to her for some time, and learning about her creative process, her thoughts on her work, and her deeper inspirations, one begins to understand the fundamental truth of her being. Put simply, she is music incarnate. Her connections to the essence of music itself is soul deep. This writer had the honor and privilege of meeting Alison for an interview at her home in New York City which was a very deep experience for both of us. When asked about where her talent and creativity came from, one can only answer that it is the core of who she is. However, if you ask her where it comes from, she states that from an early age, she was always “creating her whole worlds”. She often describes herself as trying to act as a “medium; a conduit for energy”, and this is self-evident in all of her being, especially in her music.

The essence of her creativity comes alive in the art that Alison creates. To date, Alison has made a record that was released in 2016, entitled “Psycho Tyko”, a collaborative body of work produced by Marisa Ferdenzi of CITYGIRL. Alison talks about how the album came about, as it had been “written in the studio”. She states that “it wasn’t us coming in withstructured songs... it was someone laying down a beat, and then someone laying down a guitar, and I’d come in with vocals... it was a beautiful meeting of the minds”. It had been about two years of Alison and the band hanging out and creating these songs, the process of which she describes as being “really fun and creative”. She then discussed some of her more recent work, which as she puts it, is “just me facing myself”. This is really where the understanding of her creative process comes into play, as listening to her talk about it is an experience in and of itself.

So much so that it is best if she tells it herself:

“It has been really interesting to go down the rabbit hole... using the studio as an instrument in a more focused way. When it’s just you, you can take the time to spend an hour listening to samples... to find the exact-ish sound that appeals to you. For better or worse, this music sounds like me... I’m digging into a very personal aesthetic. I am being uncompromising in the sonic world... creating a homeostasis between what it feels like to be me, and what my external world sounds like.”

As all people know and understand, the Covid-19 Pandemic has been difficult on everyone and performing artists have not been immune to that. Plays and shows put on hold, theaters closed for months on end, concerts postponed for a year or more, and even smaller workshops and practice spaces gone dark. When asking Alison to describe how the past two years have affected her and her process, she talked about her tenure as a dancer for The Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and what she considered to be the high point of her career, only to have it brought low again by the deadly virus that swept the globe.

“Before the pandemic, I was performing one of the greatest roles of my career as a Principal Dance Soloist at The Met. I was doing a 12-minute solo where I summoned a 3D holographic storm and a ghost ship from the ether. It was me in a red dress, and the whole Met orchestra, summoning lightning. The show opened on February 29th, 2020, and I got to perform it three times before the last show on March 10th, 2020. On March 14th, 2020, it was to be filmed and broadcast live to movie theaters around the world. I had friends in Budapest who got tickets. Then we went dark 48 hours before that happened. That was a bit disappointing, but I’m just so grateful to have created and performed that solo. My friend who saw it said, “you summoned too big of a storm!”. It was crazy going from literally the high point of my career to just nothing, like that.”

Hearing that is so heartbreaking, and it is a terrible shame to have not had the opportunity to witness such a breath-taking performance. However, according to Alison, an artist’s life during the pandemic wasn’t all bad for her. On the contrary, as a self-described “super introverted person”, the experiences of lock-down in New York City brought a relief from her constant work that she would not have allowed herself otherwise. “For me, my life as a musician and dancer in New York is kind of manic, so having a break from it was really kind of wonderful,” she says. “I wouldn’t have given it to myself, but I needed it. I got to really go deeper as a musician during that time, though I made a practice of doing the ballet barre every day, just to have a central ritual in my life.” The practice of ritual, something that most people struggle to include in their lives but rarely develop, is something that comes easy to Alison, as it has since she was a child. In fact, her views on practicing personal rituals in one’s life are rather enlightened for a young woman like her. “I’ve always been fascinated and drawn to performative rituals,” she says, “and I think if we open ourselves up to engaging in rituals wholeheartedly, we can change the world around us.”

It is that same spiritual, holistic approach to her life and her work that allowed her to create and perform her highlighted dance solo at The Metropolitan Opera, where she was playing the character of Senta. Listening to her describe her approach to the performance is perfectly splendid, as it helps one later understand her significant performance in a recently released music video: “Senta, the character I played, is supposed to be the most spiritually evolved person in her community... The main note I got from choreographer Carolyn Choa was ‘Be Senta.' No pressure there! Senta summons cosmic ghost ships, and travels through eternity with the intention of her love. I grew a lot as a person in trying to become a medium for love and energy [in the performance], and the best way I could do it was to almost try to evaporate as a person. I really tried to connect to the audience through my breathing, I tried to breath the same air as the audience, so I could be energetically intimate with them. That focus brought me into St. Johns.”

Released by Independent Project Records barely a month ago, “Mutant Gifts – Live at St. John’s” is a breathtaking, incredible performance filmed at the St. John’s Church campus in the West Village of New York City, featuring Alison Clancy as the vocalist and guitarist, and cellist Brent Arnold. Using the “shimmering acoustics” of the church, Alison creates something beautifully haunting and spiritual in nature, echoing not only the ghosts of the church, but of music itself. It is a song that is Alison as herself, resonating and vibrating pure musical energy throughout the hallowed hall of the church. Alison was invited to live on the campus, and create in its space, by Father Graeme Napier, which she describes as “such a privilege to live and make music there”. Upon walking into the hall for the first time, Alison immediately felt the immense power of the acoustic design of the church. “Sound is so good in that space,” she says, “Any sound sounds good in that space.”

She goes on to say that “I’m very much a creature of the night, and to have that acoustic, spiritual space to create music in until 3 or 4am in Manhattan, was perfect. It’s hard to find a place to be loud in the middle of the night in NYC. I really resonated with the sense of musical ritual in the church. I was given this space, and was thinking how can I honor this privilege and meet this moment I’ve been given? It’s a place where people bring their pain, hurt, hopes and worries, and it’s a place to explore the human condition. I tried to openly be informed by the energy in that space. I tried to relate to the environment, where so many people bring their most tender selves.”

Such insight gives one the sense of the transcendental perception of Alison’s musical talent, and how important her music will come to be for future fans and listeners of legendary music. Alison changes the world around her through her art, and her music will help the world raise its own collective consciousness, allowing all people to feel the flow of love and energy that permeates her sound.

So, what comes next? What is there on the horizon for Alison Clancy? Only great things, in fact. Much of the great work she had been creating in the past year or so will be put on the back burner for the time being, paving the way for her to create something new, which she calls “Mutations”, a name she came to even before the pandemic. She’s written a collection of songs and shot a series of music videos, featuring a gifted and legendary “bruk-up” (broken form) dancer known as the “Ghost of New York”. Alison describes his form and movement as “poetic”, and that she is “moved by the emotional presence, and physical textures and qualities he has.” She is excited to share and celebrate that beauty, and this writer had the privilege of viewing an exclusive sample of that, which was very moving and exciting! All of this and more should be available for a wider release sometime in early 2022, and it is the hope of this writer that all fans of important music who have the pleasure of experiencing the enlightened and game-changing music of Alison Clancy are as struck by the impact of her art as the summoned lightning storms of the loving and spiritually evolved Senta.

Buy the Mutant Gifts CD EP (out today via Independent Project Records) here.

Find Alison Clancy on Instagram | Facebook | Vimeo | Website