Clare Bowditch: Winter Secrets

Putting a slight twist on her next tour, Clare Bowditch will not only be hitting the road minus The Feeding Set, but she doesn’t even know who the special guests are who will be sharing the stage with her. July sees Clare touring the country on her Winter Secrets Tour. She promises us intimate evenings of songs, stories and special guests.

Her special guests along the way will be the winners of a competition that she has been running, where musicians are invited to do their own version of Your Own Hands from Clare Bowditch and The Feeding Set’s album And The Moon Looked On. Those whose versions she likes the best will be invited to join her at various venues along the way.

“The contest concept seemed like a great idea” Clare said. “And it’s great to expose yourself to other talents.”
There have apparently been some interesting entries already, with still a few weeks left until the competition ends. But being a bit of a last minute person herself, she’s sure there’ll be an even greater assortment of entries before the competition closes.

The random nature of this concept means that every show on the tour will be special and unique. But it also means it could go either way. “The night could be amazing, or it could be a car crash.” Clare mused. But either way, it will be interesting to see how it works with what will be a very diverse range of people participating.

Besides guitars and loop pedals, there will be a remarkable array of rather unusual instruments on the tour. “It’s great to be playing around with these different sounds.” Clare said. The concept is similar to that which she tried out on a European tour in 2006.

Clare sees her solo shows as a fun and independent way to tour. Not that she’ll be alone. She’s taking Hot Little Hands (featuring Tim Harvey from The Feeding Set) with her and Old Man River will be joining her in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. And then there’s the family.

Clare is mum to 3 beautiful children, and the family tours together whenever they can. “Life on the road with the kids can be interesting, but we make it work.”

Summer was a lot of fun, with Clare touring with John Butler and The Waifs on the Union of Soul Tour.

“Altogether we had 9 children with us on that tour.” Clare adds. This was a little hectic but extremely rewarding and things were never dull.

Touring is a vital part to surviving in the Australian music industry and by taking the children with her, it means she doesn’t have to spend long times away from her family. With the set up of the current schedule, she will mainly be playing on the weekends, leaving a few full days off each week to spend with them.

Summer was pretty full on, and the next tour will see her on the road for 2 months. While she has been enjoying the break between tours, she hasn’t exactly been sitting around relaxing. There have been lots of rehearsals, and she has just finished making a video with The Feeding Set for the song Your Other Hand which will be released shortly.

While she may be road testing a few new songs on tour, Clare will be mainly be playing songs off And The Moon Looked On along with a few old favourites.

This may be our last chance to see Clare for a while, as after the tour ends her and the family are off to Berlin, Germany for a few months at least. They leave during the second half of September and will definitely be there til the end of the year.

It won’t be her first time away from our fair shores for a length of time. In 2000 she was invited to study ethnomusicology/writing in Canada for a year. It was here she started to develop her guitar playing and decided to become a musician. Hopefully Berlin will be an equally inspiring place for her to be.

Having her family with her, and friends in Europe it should be an exciting few months. She is looking at releasing over there, and touring around Europe and is hoping the place will provide new inspiration for her artistically.

But while we wish her a wonderful time, let’s hope Clare doesn’t like it too much over there and she doesn’t stay away from us for too long.

Share this article on Facebook