Clinton John
I’ve known Clinton John for a little while but I never got to feature him on my blog, until today :)
He recently released the music video for his smash single “Fresh”. Directed by John Peters and Clinton John, the video celebrates queer love.
Clinton John is, without a doubt, a brilliant artist who delivers catchy pop records while creating visuals that perfectly represent who he really is. Inspiring to see :)
Clinton will be releasing his debut EP Embarrassing on November 19th. The EP will feature “Fresh”, “Cry” and his upcoming single “Cool B4” - out this Friday.
Thank you so much Clinton for the conversation :)
“Fresh” is out now !!
Photo credit: Ash Hurst
Introduce yourself - what's your story?
My name is Clinton John I’m at pop artist currently in Nashville. I moved there when I was 17 to attend Darkhorse institute which is an audio engineering school. I think I always know that I didn’t want to be an audio engineer, but I wanted to grow my understanding of making music past Garage band which I had used since I was in high school to make tracks. I have lived in Nashville for 8 year growing up gaining life experience, networking with photographers, videographers, producers and songwriters really trying to find my myself as well as who I wanted to be as an artist. Luckily finding myself and who I wanted my music to sound like came together at the same point and I started writing music from a personal very honest perspective of my experiences in love and life and that type of honesty is what I value most in all my friendship and relationships. I have taken my time releasing music because I wanted to be sure I was in a place where I felt confident that the content I would be releasing felt genuine to me and could be music that I looked back on in 10 years and still felt a connection to.
What did you grow up listening to?
I grew up in a Christian household so we didn’t listen to a lot of secular music until I was in high school but the four albums that we did listen to were Carole King Tapestry, James Taylor Greatest hits, The Beach Boys, and The Chicks Wide Open Spaces album which now makes sense to me with how much value I put into great chorus and catchy melodies because all those artists’ music had that.
When did you start writing songs? What made you want to write in the first place?
I started writing music at 15. Initially I started writing because it’s what I thought I should do. I had watched so many E! True Hollywood Stories where I saw artists like Katy Perry and Taylor Swift beginning to write at a young age and I thought I better get started if I wanted to get good at it. I quickly fell in love with the process of writing and trying to produce music like I heard on the radio but I would say I really started writing music till I came out at 19 years old and started writing more personal music because that’s when the writing process really felt genuine and cathartic.
When did you know you could sing?
I think I first knew I wasn’t completely tone deaf when I first learned how to do harmony to my mom in the car but I don’t think I had a specific moment when I realized that I could sing. Solely singing has never really been my passion it has always been singing in connection to the music I’ve written.
At what point did you know you had to become an artist and release your original music?
I have always known that I wanted to be an artist and release the music that I wrote from the first time I wrote a song at 15 years old. I knew I wanted to write for and with other people but I never had a moment where I thought I would only be a songwriter behind the scenes. I took so long to release music because I wanted to be very confident in the music I released to start my career but release music as myself was always the plan.
What's the inspiration behind “Fresh”?
Fresh was inspired after my first relationship ended and I felt like I was never going to feel something for another guy like I had for my first boyfriend. I’ve never been the type to “catch feelings” quickly and I kept looking for the same exact feelings my ex gave me and after a year started to worry, I wouldn’t feel that way for someone else again. The moment I realized that I was falling for another guy I remember it felt so different than with my ex but I still had those exciting, nervous, overwhelming rush of emotions in it just felt fresh and new in the best way possible.
When did you start working on "Fresh"? Could you describe the songwriting/production process? Who helped you create it?
Fresh was in the works for about 3 years before it was finished. It was started in a BMG pop songwriter camp that Noreen Prunier organized, and I wrote the song with Robyn Dell’Unto and Kat Saul. The song really scared me at that point because it was so direct and referencing things like being drunk in someone’s shower on Saint Patrick’s Day and though I was very comfortable with my friends in Nashville thinking about releasing it for everyone I’ve ever known to hear was scary. The song stays as just a demo recorded the day of the songwriting camp for a few years but I always came back to it and got great feedback anytime I played it for someone so I reached out to Robyn who produced it and asked if she wanted to take it to full production. Thankfully she said yes, and we redid a lot of the production recorded new vocals and have the final version you hear today.
What's your favorite thing about this song?
My favorite thing is the line “We were drunk in your shower on Saint Patrick’s Day” for me it was a really liberating moment of writing music exactly how I experienced it and not being afraid of what anyone thought.
What can you tell us about the music video?
For the music video we really wanted to capture queer love and celebrate it in an unapologetic way. I think often queer love is still represented in being in the shadows or having a big coming out moment but we wanted to shoot a short of documentary style video showing two people going on a date that evolved into spending the whole day with each other like you do when you fall for someone and just want to spend all your time with them.
What can you tell us about your upcoming EP?
The upcoming EP is my introduction as an artist. I wanted there to be a visual component for each song because as a pop artist visuals are very important for me and I wanted people to not only hear my music but also see who I am as artist visually too. The EP is both and opening and closing of doors. It is opening me up to people getting to know me a lot better but it also is a peaceful closing of the door on my early 20’s and the mistakes and embarrassing things I did as I was growing up which is why I wanted to call the EP Embarrassing.
As an artist, what is the hardest part? And what is the best part?
As an independent artist the hardest part is funding your music. With the time it takes to make money to fund your music it is also taking away time from creating and it can be a tough balancing act. The best part though is having creative direction and being able to make all the decisions yourself. For this EP I was involved in writing all the music, choosing which songs would be released, created the treatment for the videos, did all the set design, styling, directing, casting, and made all the editing decisions with the help of my co-director Ren McConnville. I’m so happy to have been involved with every step because it was an amazing learning experience and also gave me so much pride in the finished product because I know exactly all the hard work that went into it.
What are your thoughts on today's music industry? If you could change one thing, what would it be?
I think the music industry has gone through a massive change in regards to how people consume music and with any major change it takes years for things to work out and people to be equally represented, paid, and given credit so I think we have a long way to go in navigating this new frontier of streaming. It great in some ways because it gives so many more people access to your music, but artists and songwriters are making almost no money for the work that they have poured themselves and their own funds into. I would love to make enough money off music that I could focus on creating full time and I think really talented people have given up along the way because they cannot financially afford to make music which is incredibly sad.
In your opinion, what would make the world a better place?
I think the world would be a better place if we could have more open and honest conversations with a genuine intent to understand each other. Isolation creates division and I see so many people who are unwilling to even attempt to connect with someone with different views or go into conversations with the intent to change someone’s mind. I think that something can be learned from everyone. Every person has walked a unique life on this early and is valuable and I think as a society we have gotten so caught up in political affiliations and viewpoints that we chose to focus on our differences and I think that can drive us to a really dark place.
What advice would you give to the LGBTQIA+ community?
My advice to the LGBTQIA+ community would be to find your group of people and love on each other. I made it through my 20’s because I found an amazing community of queer people who loved and supported me and got me through extremely hard times and I owe my life to them.
What biggest life lessons have you learned so far?
The biggest lesson I have learned so far and continue to have to remind myself every day is that I am on my own journey and the best I can do is try my best. In today’s social media world, it is so hard to not compare yourself to others, but it does absolutely no good and will steal your own joy as well as make it difficult for you to be happy for others. You have no idea what type of support, training, connections someone has, and trying to compare yourself to them wastes so much time and can kill your own confidence. The best thing I try to do is keep my head down, find what works for me, and what makes me happy and stick to that.
Connect with Clinton: