| Clare Bowditch | |
|---|---|
Clare Bowditch during the songwriters' workshop at The Great Escape music festival, 2006. |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Melbourne, Australia |
| Genres | Folk Rock Pop |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Labels | Capitol/EMI |
| Website | Official website |
Clare Bowditch (born 1975) is an Australian musician from Melbourne, Victoria. She released her fourth album Modern Day Addiction via Island Records on 13 August 2010. It became both 3RRR Album of the Week and ABC Radio National's Album of the Week. MDA is the first of Bowditch's album's to enter the Top Ten. Bowditch recently supported Leonard Cohen on his 2010 Australian tour.
In 2008, Clare won the Best Female Artist award at the 2006 ARIAs, and was runner up in the International Songwriting Competition (2008) in the singer/songwriter category for her song Peccadilloes. The same year, she was voted Yen Magazine's "Young Woman of the Year" (Music).
She is best known as a heart-felt songwriter, for her satirical on-stage antics, and for the Open Letters section on her website in which she chronicled her early career as it happened. Most recently, she has been approached to take on several roles as a "social commentator": she wrote an article for ABC's The Drum entitled "Mr Jones and Me", and also made her debut on the ABC's Q&A as the first panelist to also perform a song ("Bigger Than the Money"). In August 2010, she spent an hour interviewing PM Julia Gillard for MySpace Today.
She also occasionally writes articles for Rolling Stone, ABC's The Drum, and hosts summer radio shows on the ABC.
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Bowditch began writing songs early. She graduated from Melbourne University's School of Creative Arts with a BCA - a now defunct degree at the prestigious University. She continued writing in private until 1998 when she met John Hedigan, forming their first band, Red Raku. Marty Brown, today Clare's husband, produced their first EP. Bowditch and Brown had their first daughter, Asha, in 2004, around the same time Bowditch received her first recording grant from Art's Victoria's Music for the Future program. Autumn Bone was recorded in the front room of their house in Melbourne, with Libby Chow and Warren Bloomer. The Feeding Set was a name Libby coined as a joke referring to the meals Bowditch cooked for them every Wednesday night after rehearsal.
Having performed on the Melbourne pub circuit since she was seventeen years old, first with Quarter Acre Dream and then with Red Raku (they recorded two albums), Bowditch first came to prominence in 2005 with the release of her second album What Was Left, which received excellent critical reviews, and high rotation airplay on national radio stations such as Triple J, although her success can be largely credited to the strong support of local independent radio stations throughout Australia, who championed her early work. She won the Best Female Artist award at the 2006 ARIAs, and was runner up in the International Songwriting Competition (2008) in the singer/songwriter category for her song Peccadilloes. She is currently Yen Magazine's "Young Woman of the Year" (Music).
Bowditch and her partner and drummer Marty Brown, have been touring continuously in Australia and more recently in Europe since 2003. Much of this touring Bowditch has been accompanied by her band The Feeding Set, who are on hiatus for Bowditch's current album. On stage, Bowditch is known best for the beauty of her songs but also for her satirical on-stage humour, and unconventional use of everyday objects (tea-pots, bottles, old casiotone) for sound-effects.
In 2005, Bowditch was invited by Deborah Conway to take part in the Broad Festival project, with three other Australian female artists, they performed their own and each other's songs.[1] With Bowditch and Conway were Sara Storer, Katie Noonan and Ruby Hunter.[2] In October, Bowditch and the Feeding Set licensed their second album, What Was Left to EMI. The album was publicly and critically recognised, with two songs being included in Triple J's Hottest 100.
In late 2006, Bowditch gave birth to identical twin boys, Oscar and Eli.[3]
Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set released their third album, The Moon Looked On, on 13 October 2007.
An update on her official website, dated 23 April 2008, announced that she was planning a temporary move to Berlin, Germany, for 3 months to follow up on opportunities to release her albums in Europe. This move was precipitated by a sold out twenty-five date experimental solo tour through major and regional venues in Australia, where she was supported by Australian band Hot Little Hands, whose founding member is Tim Harvey of Feeding Set fame.[4]
Clare Bowditch and her band The New Slang have now completed the recording of their fourth album, Modern Day Addiction.
The album was party recorded with producer Mocky (Feist, Gonzales, Jamie Lidell, Peaches) at the legendary Hansa studios in Berlin. This album marks a decided change in direction for Bowditch, having been written on casio and piano. In October 2009 she released her first single, "The Start of War", from Modern Day Addiction. The song was co-produced by Bowditch, her partner Marty Brown and the legendary Mick Harvey (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds).
Bowditch recently signed a licensing agreement with Island Records Australia, after three years with EMI.
On 31 May 2010 Clare appeared on the ABC television program Q&A.[5] She provided her view on many political issues within Australia. At the conclusion of the program, Tony Jones invited Clare and her "Lady Garden" to make Q and A history and perform their song Bigger Than The Money.
Clare Bowditch appeared at the SXSW Festival between March 16 to 20, 2011.[6]
Modern Day Addiction was recorded with Clare's newly expanded band, The New Slang.
Clare has recorded her last three albums with her band, the Feeding Set.