Bilingual, Hamilton-based, indie-pop singer-songwriter Mary Clements releases her sunny debut full-length album, COME WITH ME, out on November 4th and it will be available on all platforms. She’ll be celebrating the release with a concert and party on November 17th at The Staircase theatre in Hamilton, Ontario.
Mary Clements is a singer-songwriter based out of Hamilton, Ontario, who uses her music to explore the world around her. Rooted in piano and voice, her songs can sometimes sound like indie-folk, pop, classical, or even country. Her sincere vocals combined with the textures of her production create a simple, authentic experience.
"I draw inspiration from artists like Ben Folds, Sarah Slean, and Rufus Wainwright but also of course, from the world around me," says Clements. She's also greatly influenced by her degrees in Classical Voice and French. While French has played a big role in her life through the French education company she founded in 2009 called Les Petites Pommes, she's now very excited to utilize the musical part of her education.
"This is just the beginning! I’m excited to see where my musical explorations take me… it will probably take at least another 10 years just for me to try all sorts of new genres and see where
On her debut album Come With Me, Mary Clements draws equally from '90s indie guitar rock, Adult American Alternative radio style, and 2022 vulnerability.
The title track "Come With Me" extends a warm, open invitation -- in both English and French -- for us to join Clements on her musical journey.
Driven by the electric guitar and Clements' ringing voice, the country-ish "Farmer Song" tells the tale of a farmer's son torn between his joyful memories of living and tending to a spread of land that's been in the family for generations, and the weight of having to consider the possibility of leaving it behind.
"Algonquin Song" is a winter forest song. Clements says, "I wrote it as a reflective moment for a regular day but it could also be appropriate for a funeral." The layers of instrumentation represent the energy and sounds of nature.
Two of the tracks have "Bonne Nuit" and "Dundurn & King" have been released as singles to high acclaim, with the former, as with the title track, sung in French.
Speaking of the moody, atmospheric "Memories," Clements says, "This song is about those quiet moments when all of your thoughts just appear in your mind like a movie, whether you are inviting them in or not." Here, she astutely uses a more narrow vocal range like a stream of thoughts, while the band provides colourful accents to represent both positive and negative images appearing.
"Possibilities," the focus track for the album, talks about when we make a choice in life, it means that the possibilities and outcomes of different choices are now gone. This song is literally for mourning all possibilities that never got a chance at all.
"Something More" is about fully committing to a romantic relationship. "I wrote it for my husband before we were married," says Clements, "and presented it as my decision that he was the one I wanted to build a life with."
Clements wrote "Sudbury Song" about one of the first times she ever went solo-camping, in Killarney Provincial Park and the adventures she had as she pushed the boundaries of her comfort zone. "My favourite line from the song is “C’est dans le nord que je trouve la paix extraordinaire. (It’s in the north that I find extraordinary peace)," says Clements.
"This is just the beginning! I’m excited to see where my musical explorations take me… it will probably take at least another 10 years just for me to try all sorts of new genres and see where I land!"
