Andy Clockwise
After dazzling critics and fans alike with his double-album Classic FM, Australian singer-songwriter Andy Clockwise is living in Los Angeles and set to release his second full-length album, The Socialite.
“It’s about me trying to find some sort of state of grace in the cult of celebrity,” says Clockwise, who was based in London when he came to LA for a two-week visit in mid-2007 - and decided to stay.
“I’m not really one who likes to embrace a scene, but I ended up finding LA incredibly interesting.”
Clockwise has co-produced the new album with Daniel Rejmer, whose recording credits include The Kills, Billy Bragg, Björk and Nick Cave.
Classically trained, Clockwise cites influences as diverse as Charlie Chaplin and the prime-time news media, and is renowned for the massive range of musical styles which surface in his song writing and performing. In addition to writing all of his own music, Clockwise plays every instrument on his recorded tracks.
His reputation for daring on-stage showmanship has garnered Clockwise a fervent live following; his unpredictable and electrifying live shows have sold out venues across Australia, London, New York - and more recently some of LA’s most iconic venues: The Hotel Café, The Viper Room and Spaceland.
Born Andy Kelly, Clockwise emerged after years of gigging in and around Sydney. Single-handedly writing, recording and producing his debut EP in 2002, the release of Song Exhibition spawned a couple of high rotation singles on Australian national radio station Triple J ('Song for the Unemployed' and 'Every Song'), a healthy dose of critical claim and an army of new fans. The mini-album reached number three on Australian indy music charts, and spent seven months in the Australian Independent Record charts’ Top 20.
“Ambitious”, “thrilling” and “unpredictable’’ are just a few of the superlatives critics reached for to describe Classic FM, a double concept album written, produced, engineered and mixed by Clockwise in his own studio and released in 2006.
Written about an imaginary radio station, Classic FM quickly became one of the highest rotating albums on Australian independent radio, with hit singles including ‘Alice May’, ‘Mr. Taste Maker’ and ‘Taking Over the World’.
The success of Classic FM led to Clockwise touring with INXS and former Stranglers front man Hugh Cornwall, before headlining his own national tour.
After sell-out concerts in Australia, Clockwise left to play New York, Texas, London and Los Angeles, where he now based, and where he has recorded, co-produced and mixed his new album, The Socialite.
The new Clockwise album was recorded at the iconic New Monkey Studio in LA’s San Fernando Valley.
Owned by Elliott Smith for three years before his death in 2003, New Monkey has become a mecca for artists pursuing the kind of big, round rock sound associated with the studio’s treasured recording gear, including a rare console made in the early ‘70s, rumored to have been used by George Harrison on his “All Things Must Pass” album.
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What the critics said about Classic FM:
“This is an incredibly audacious, prodigious, powerful debut double album from a local indie artist with talent to burn. There is a word that starts with ‘g’ and rhymes with ‘abstemious’. It’s in the range of his voice, his multi-instrumental expertise and the sheer scope of his genre-hopping swoops from satirical jester to sentimental bloke and back again … The man also known as Andy Kelly can do just about anything … He’s so good, it’s almost unfair.”
~ The Daily Telegraph
“Andy Clockwise doesn’t know any backwards steps … Classic FM is the sort of double-disc set that’s easy to put on and disappear in.”
~ Rolling Stone
“This one-man band has multiple personalities, all of them listener friendly.”
~ Who Magazine
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