Serious Songwriter: Clare Cunningham
Clare Cunningham
Location:
Nasvhille, TN, USA
Tell us about yourself:
Clare was born in Ireland which gives her that distinctive Celtic tone and she touches a lot of souls with her emotion when she writes about home. Coupled with her gritty raspy voice she’s got a very unique sound that hasn’t been going unnoticed. Especially overseas.
Name of your most recent release:
Why are you a songwriter?
I’m a songwriter because I love touching people emotionally and using it as a platform to speak about real life matters especially mental health subjects and using my platform to help people heal, and be a voice for those who can’t/won’t speak. I also love connecting with people all over the world and giving them parts of my soul and culture through the universal language that is music. It’s so powerful.
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
I’m proud of a lot of things I’ve achieved so far in life and musically. The main one that springs to mind is finding out my visa for america got approved 3 years ago so I could be here as a writer and performer. It took almost a year to obtain and because of all the successes I had in my career so far it opened the door for me to be here. To date in 2020, I’ve taken home best alternative song (Carry Me) at the World Songwriting Awards, songwriter of the year at the International Singer Songwriter Awards and Folk/Americana Artist of the year and Folk/America Song of the Year (Angel of the Emerald Isle).
Share the most interesting writing experience you ever had:
Myself and my great friend/co-writing partner Rhonda Funk went to mc1 publishing to write with Corey Lee Barker (aka ‘Christmas Corey’) where it was actually his first day with the company. In August 2019, we started out writing a sleazy/funny xmas song and it turned out completely left field after Rhonda (who’d just been in a serious car accident) said ‘guys I need to make money so let’s write a hit’ and we ended up writing a song called ‘Holiday With You’ - which ended up getting recorded by T Grahame Brown and BB King’s daughter Claudette King. It is also being released this coming Christmas. When we all left the session that day we knew we had something special!
What makes you unique as a songwriter?
I would say my uniqueness lies in the fact that I merge a lot of styles together to create a new sound - especially Celtic music fused with other styles. Being from Ireland, I bring my roots to whatever style I write and my songs are predominantly only ever from the heart and about real life matters touching on subjects that people need to hear including mental health awareness.
If you could write with anyone (dead or alive) who would it be and why?
I’d have loved to have written with Prince or Michael Jackson - just because they were such amazing all-rounded talented musicians, composers, had amazing style, and spoke about real life.
How can the Serious Songwriter community help you?
I think it’s an amazing platform to connect with other songwriters, mentors and likeminded people in the world of songwriting. By connecting with different people, genres, backgrounds, cultures and styles you can only grow!
What can you help the Serious Songwriter community with?
Similar to last answer - just connecting with like-minded individuals and learning to grow through the art of songwriting!
Fun fact about you:
I worked with an Indian dancing company when I lived in London and taught school kids how to Indian dance!!