Australian singer/songwriter Imogen Clark pays homage to her Western Sydney roots while breaking out of her hometown in “If I Want In,” a sonically and emotionally charged eruption of passion, ambition, and a raw energy that can’t be tamed.
Stream: “If I Want In” – Imogen Clark
I always dreamed of running away into the big wide world; the London of The Jam, the California of Joni Mitchell, the New Jersey of Bruce Springsteen.
Whether you’re a bat out of hell or born to run, we all feel the urge to break out of our hometowns at some point along the way.
For some, that urge is driven by teenage angst; for others, a thirst for adventure; and for others still, there’s a deeper need to fulfill some as-of-yet undiscovered inner potential. After all, how can we grow if we’re standing still?
Imogen Clark knows this timeless truth all too well, having left her home in Sydney to make her dreams come true. The Australian singer/songwriter captures her own coming-of-age experience in her dynamic new single “If I Want In,” a sonically and emotionally charged eruption of passion, ambition, and a raw energy that can’t be tamed or tampered down.
There’s a railway hotel in every town around here
If you stick around long enough,
they’ll make you disappear
There’s ice in the summer, there’s fights in the bars
And out west of the city, you never see stars
Everyone I know is either married or in rehab
I couldn’t say which one is worse
I’ve got too much supply and never enough demand
I’d kill to live it in reverse
If I want in, I gotta get out
If I want in, I gotta get out of this
If I want in, I gotta get out of this town
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “If I Want In,” Imogen Clark’s second song of 2023 (following the heartfelt “My Mother’s Daughter” this past May) and the invigorating lead single off her forthcoming third studio album, due in 2024. Known for her high-energy indie rock sound and an “emphatic, emotionally charged finesse,” Imogen Clark has dazzled our ears and captured our hearts over recent years with cinematic, spellbinding songs that hit hard and leave a lasting mark.
And like so many of her musical heroes, the Western Sydney-based singer/songwriter had to leave home in order to become the person she knew she could be.
“I grew up in Western Sydney and spent my teen years at Penrith High School by day and playing sketchy pubs at night, dealing with creepy men hitting on me and bar fights breaking out in front of me,” Clark tells Atwood Magazine. “So many people I knew then couldn’t imagine more from life than getting married and having babies as soon as possible with their high school boyfriends, and dying in the same suburb they were born in. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that if it makes you happy, it sounded like a nightmare to me. I always dreamed of running away into the big wide world; the London of The Jam, the California of Joni Mitchell, the New Jersey of Bruce Springsteen. This song is about knowing my hometown made me who I am, but it made me a person who had to leave it to realise her dreams.”
“Recording this at Abbey Road with Jung, Max, and Donnie from Gang of Youths was one of the most creatively fulfilling days of my life. I stood where The Beatles made some of their greatest music, where Pink Floyd recorded Dark Side of the Moon, played the piano Paul McCartney played on ‘Lady Madonna,’ and the ideas just flowed nonstop between all of us, everyone jumping between instruments, hyping each other up and trying to make music that lived up to the surroundings we were in.”
I’m going after this fever dream
You gotta leave to be the homecoming queen
And I’ve left pieces of myself
inside every single dive bar
Here in Western Sydney
So I took pieces of her with me
Everyone I know is either married or in rehab
I couldn’t say which one is worse
I’ve got too much supply and never enough demand
I’d kill to live it in reverse
If I want in, I gotta get out
If I want in, I gotta get out of this
If I want in, I gotta get out of this town
“If I Want In” channels the spirit of a younger Clark, who knew she was destined for more than her hometown could offer. “I’m going after this fever dream,” the artist sings in the second verse, her charismatic voice a lightning rod of conviction and self-confidence. “You gotta leave to be the homecoming queen. And I’ve left pieces of myself inside every single dive bar here in Western Sydney…” The choice to leave home comes with its own weight and plenty of ramifications – for example she’ll always be the one who left – but Clark is following a calling, as so many of us have done before her and so many more will do after her.
True to the spirit of the song, the “If I Want In” music video is a globetrotting affair shot on both sides of the ocean.
“The song is about my journey with my music and how it’s taken me from Western Sydney to the other side of the world, and we wanted the video to reflect that,” she explains. “We shot around the streets and bars where I played my first ever gigs as a teenager, iconic locations in Nashville, LA and Venice Beach, and finished it off on stage with my band at the Oxford Art Factory in Sydney.”
“It’s the first video I’ve ever shot in three cities over two continents, and it speaks to how global the journey of making this album has been, stretching all around the world and back again.”
I had to learn who I wasn’t to find who I am
With the streets of Windsor screaming
get out while you can
Don’t wanna be a mother and wife to a man
Who I’ve known since I was 10
And he’s telling all our friends
You should hear her when she sings
Her little songs on the weekends
Stay tuned for more teasers off Imogen Clark’s new album as she prepares to put out what promises to be her biggest work to date, and stream “If I Want In” exclusively on Atwood Magazine. An anthem of self-discovery and actualization for this and the next generation, “If I Want In” reminds us that leaving home – and “getting out” – is a tale as old as time.
So if you’re yearning for more than your four walls can offer, it might be time to spread your wings somewhere new and see what else this big wide world has to offer.
Everyone I know is either married or in rehab
I couldn’t say which one is worse
I’ve got too much supply and never enough demand
I’d kill to live it in reverse
If I want in, I gotta get out
If I want in, I gotta get out of this
If I want in, I gotta get out of this town
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:: connect with Imogen Clark here ::
Stream: “If I Want In” – Imogen Clark
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© Michelle Grace Hunder
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