Dreamy indie rock, ambient pop, and an all-around hypnotic soundscape easily draw you into ‘Nothing Dazzled,’ the debut record from Swiss-Québécoise musician Alicia Clara.

Stream: ‘Nothing Dazzled’ – Alicia Clara

Alicia Clara’s debut album, Nothing Dazzled, shines with its dreamy, mesmerizing fusion of indie rock and ambient pop.

The Montreal-based musician’s debut releases after three years, though much of the writing traces itself back even further to the solitude of the pandemic. In a time of isolation who else can you confront other than the person in the mirror? Clara couldn’t help but question her purpose in an ever-changing existence. On first listen, the record is a beautiful, ambient collection of tracks melting into one another. A closer listen to the words behind the hushed whispers and ethereal vocals reveals a more introspective truth of oneself.

“ I think with my past EPs I was trying a little bit too hard,” Clara admits. “This record, I just took my time a lot more, which is good for the creativity.”

The full-length marks a step up from her earlier releases, with each track carefully crafted without falling into the trap of overproduction. Clara, who co-produces all of her music, worked alongside Chris Steward (Bodywash) to flesh out the sonics of the record. This release feels as if finally stepping into her intended soundscape, born both from trusting her intuition as well as collaborating with a trusted musician. The pair first crossed paths by chance during a recording studio photoshoot. That very day Clara played what would eventually become “How to Dress” and Steward picked up his guitar to riff along – an instant connection. In fact, the idea of fully self-producing a future project has already taken root.

“[In the past] I would bring a demo and then whatever the men I was working with [said] should be on it, I was like, ‘You must know better.’”

While Clara may have initially intended for her debut to release sooner, the years put into the record were well worth the wait. Soft-rock “Daydream” and the darker, piano-driven “Glory” question relationships and reality, pulling you into her orbit with their textured riffs, soft synths, and gloomy notes of piano.

I wish you‘d tell me I understand you
Because I know I don’t understand you
I see the details on the skin of your hand
But never the intricacies of your land.

– “Daydream,” Alicia Clara

“I personally really like when something is imperfect,” Clara says. “But it kind of becomes perfect by the fact that it’s imperfect.”

A centuries-old basement piano, untuned and untouched, lent its few usable keys to the opening track. Serene, soothing sounds glisten in the morning sun as soft whispers surround and sing, “I heard you through a dream I had” (“Heard You”). The chirp of crickets during a Montreal summer is forever immortalized amongst lyrical improvisation, gentle harmonies, and a touch of clarinet (“Around the Corner”). Fingerpicked guitar and the slight squeaking of strings sits among softly sung confessions in “How to Dress.”

I wanna believe I am somewhere else
I wanna relive the life of someone else
Can you relieve the weight which, I confess,
I don’t wanna leave behind, else I’m a mess

– “How to Dress,” Alicia Clara

Nothing Dazzled drifts in between spaces of genre and form, leaving a lingering impression long past its 37-minutes. Clara’s songwriting adds a critical depth that makes the album more than just a pleasant collection of songs. It allows for tenderness and honesty and in return your own emotions might just be echoed back as the album comes to a close.

“I just want people to find reassurance that they’re not alone in the weird feelings,” she says. “I’m always gonna be here feeling weirder maybe.”

Clara has already started playing around with some songs for her next project. This one might even be entirely self-produced… (if we can hold her to that).

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:: stream/purchase Nothing Dazzled here ::

:: connect with Alicia Clara here ::

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A CONVERSATION WITH ALICIA CLARA

Alicia Clara: I knew from the age of six that I wanted to be a singer one day. But then it’s gone through a lot of different phases. At first, I just wanted to sing. I didn’t really know what songwriting was. Then I discovered songwriting with Avril Lavigne when I was 10, when she released Under My Skin, which was probably one of the most formative albums of my life. Still to this day when I listen to it it’s just really emotional.

This summer I played a pretty big festival in Quebec City (FEQ) and I was playing the same day as Avril Lavigne. I went to see her set after… [and] I was really emotional. I just kept my calm the whole set but then at the end she played, “I’m With You” and I was just bawling.

I’m always just inspired by whoever’s music I’m really into and kinda draw from that and learn what there is to learn about the music industry through the artists that I admire.

Alicia Clara: Oh, God. Um, probably boys. [laughs]

I didn’t keep many songs from that era. I feel like over the last little while though, I’ve not been writing about love that much. More about what it is that makes us human beings. And the questions, the intriguing things about that.

Alicia Clara: Ooh, that’s a tough one. My answer might have changed since last time. I think initially more of a lyrics person, but I am trying to… I’m challenging myself. I think I’m gonna self-produce my next album, so I need to become a sound person. [laughs]

Alicia Clara: Recently I was picking apart stems from some songs from the album to show one of my bandmates who just joined this summer. We use the premixed tracks and stems to show her the parts and some of them were even demo stage [so] some things have changed. Some of the things that were there before that may have been my decision [to cut] I actually really liked and I was like “Maybe this didn’t need to go necessarily.” I’m taking from that and learning to trust my gut and my intuition regarding the creative process.

I feel like for a long time, especially early on, I would make demos, bring them to a producer, and then I would kind of agree to whatever changes they wanted to make ’cause I assumed they knew better. I’m trying to learn that maybe they don’t, or that simply there’s not a better or worse way, there’s just different ways and that my way is fine.

I think there’s also definitely a trend towards more DIY sounds going on right now that I’ve been noticing where people actually value this feeling like you’re entering the studio where the artist is kind of trying things out. And you’re hearing something really authentic that hasn’t been cleaned and processed. I personally really like when something is imperfect, but it kind of becomes perfect by the fact that it’s imperfect. And so, I think this is a mixture of these things that made me say, you know, I should self-produce ’cause I’m capable. It’s not gonna be super polished, [but] that’s also not what I aim for in general.

Alicia Clara: A lot of the time it’s just random sentences that come to my mind and I just write them down in my notes and then I maybe put them together. “Around the Corner” I wrote the riff on the guitar, and I was like, “Oh, I have a melody, so I need to sing something.” The first verse of “Around the Corner” is pure improv. I was just like, “One more time around the block.” And then I was like, “Well, I’ll just keep this as a placeholder.” And then I was like, ‘Oh, you know what? Kinda sounds good.” [laughs] And I wrote the rest of the song based on that. I wrote this in summer three years ago and I used a field recording of crickets in Montreal and so I was kind of thinking about summer in Montreal.

Alicia Clara: Lyrically, I think “How to Dress” is one of my favorites. Maybe “It’s Getting Old” too.

 “I Hang My Sweater in May” is a funny one. It’s the last track I wrote on the album. I wrote it on September 1st two years ago ’cause I had just received a newsletter from a writer in my inbox that was like “Summer’s already gone and I did nothing.” And I was like, “F*, me too…” But also it’s kind of hard sometimes to motivate myself to just leave it all behind and really go outside. It’s a recurring theme in my life and so this song is really just about that.

I personally really like when something is imperfect, but it kind of becomes perfect by the fact that it’s imperfect.

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Alicia Clara: Funny thing about “Nothing Dazzled” is that I wrote that one four years ago… I had gotten rejected for this grant and they were like, “Your song doesn’t rhyme enough.” It had rhymes and also why does it matter? So in spite, two months later, I started writing “Nothing Dazzled” and I feel like I got some nice rhymes on this one: “Five in the morning I wake / To a fading earthquake / Bed didn’t move an inch, I bet / The moon didn’t even flinch.” I was like, “That’s super cool. Did that!” [laughs]

In “Glory” there’s a similar one: “I never wanted to / Single you out and do / Everything I despise / Watch myself turn into / A fine player in disguise.”

 But other than that I don’t really have a favorite, necessarily. I think they all came from the heart so they’re all just honest.

Alicia Clara: The first that came to mind I didn’t create myself, my co-producer (Chris Steward) did. But I really liked some of his guitar parts in “Daydream.” There’s something about that synth in those guitars that just sounds so nostalgic. I’ve never been able to put my finger on what it is it reminds me of, but I really love it. I never get tired of it.

And then I think the best thing that I created myself that I really love is the piano line in “Heard You,” which I recorded on my parent’s piano back home in Switzerland. It’s an old piano from the late 19^th Century that we haven’t tuned in probably 20 years. It’s also sitting in their basement, it’s not being used at all. But I liked the quality of the sound. Some of the keys are way too f*ed to play on so I kinda just limited myself to a set of keys that still sounded okay. But it has that really vintage feel that has no effects on it.

Alicia Clara: Well, with the challenge of self-producing the next stuff… I’m always going to be putting something out that’s not necessarily perfect, but I think I want to treat my songwriting like an art more. I wanna really just focus on the craft itself. Maybe learn a bit more about music theory ’cause I don’t know that much about it. Just really dig deep into music as an art form. And yeah, it won’t necessarily be perfect, but it will be art.

Alicia Clara: Oh yeah. As we do, right? Because in five years a lot can happen. I think it also helped me because it’s a very introspective album. As I said, there’s illusions to love but it’s mostly about me and dealing with myself. And also, the weirdest time, it was COVID and I had just moved to Montreal. It was extremely strange for me.

When I was making this album, I didn’t really know where to reach for. What’s my life like? What is my purpose? What am I supposed to do? Whereas now it’s a lot calmer, which is good, but I am also starting to get the itch to change things around. I need to be challenged and to kinda just change something in my life.

I want to treat my songwriting like an art more. I wanna really just focus on the craft itself… It won’t necessarily be perfect, but it will be art.

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Alicia Clara: I think you just have to pull the plug at some point. I was trying to find the moment where I’d feel like everything’s done, and I feel like at that moment just never really came. I was having a conversation with friends about it last week and we were like… you know what, it will never feel ready. In university I studied photography, and I had a professor say, “If one day you wake up and you like your art, you’re doing something wrong. You’re always gonna feel like there’s something more that could be done.” At the time I was like, “That sounds a bit dumb.” Not to say that you need to hate your art, it’s just that as an artist there’s always going to be endless possibilities, endless things you can do. Everything could just change constantly. And so, you just have to be like: Enough is enough.

Alicia Clara: Honestly, whatever people might relate with, I’m happy. It’s strange ’cause it’s a very, very personal record, right? But I also feel like it’s a pretty universal theme. It’s questions that everyone asks themselves. I just want people to find reassurance that they’re not alone in the weird feelings. I’m always gonna be here feeling weirder maybe.

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:: stream/purchase Nothing Dazzled here ::

:: connect with Alicia Clara here ::

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 © Taryn Fleischmann

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