Andy Clark releases his debut album this month

Andy Clark
Photograph by Robin Bleech

Andy Clark’s debut album I Love Joyce Morris will be released on August 30th. His sound is similar to Animal Collective’s hit ‘My Girls’, or Tom Rosenthal’s ‘Just As’ and Andy allows space for sharing experiences of entering parenthood through his captivating songwriting.

Having released two singles ‘Welcome To The Party’ and ‘But For You’, where both sound and lyrics fit timeless classic singer-songwriting, the album I Love Joyce Morris serves as a time capsule, offering singer-songwriter fans of all ages to rewind ones own actions, goals, dreams and heartache. While Andy Clark is not shy to reflect upon both the triumphs and disasters in life, he also bakes it with an ingredient of wittiness. In the album title I Love Joyce Morris, meaning his children and refers to the saying “You’re the apple of my eye”, he uses the name of the local apple orchard Joyce Morris, inviting the audience to solve the code of the album title.

When I was a kid I wanted to be a dad. Now I’m a dad, my kids remind me daily how beautiful it is to be a kid and as I inevitably morph into a strange yet entirely predictable amalgam of my parents, as parents tend to, I begin to feel less a product of their influence and more an alternate expression of their respective beings; a necessary incarnation of consciousness

For me, being a parent feels somewhat like I have stepped out of time and perceived the conversation between past and future, where the points of intersection we call the present glow luminously and demand my attention. Where the notion of “me” seems at once a little silly and inexorable. What fun.

Being a parent has prompted me to confront myself\and to consider the environment to which I have become\so accustomed and moreover, it has called my attention to the now. I am reminded daily that my knowledge and understanding are both merely the sum of my experience and as such, are entirely arbitrary and often, quite distracting.

Why do I fixate on the minutiae of everyday life, when these small details do nothing more than to convince me that reality is one dimensional and centred around me? How boring. How insular. How separate. Not fun. My kids’ knowledge and understanding seem innate, infinite and worldcentric. How exciting, rejuvenating and extraordinary it is to be a dad; to have so coruscating a connection to the universe through your children, whose perceptions of the world are still unfettered and still aligned with the Great All; and whose love for you, for everything, is automatic, unbounded, immeasurable and mirrors the true essence of your own. So, I suppose to be a good dad I have to try at least, to be a good kid. Oh well. Here’s to trying.

To our apples Rory and Phoebe, who are made of love. I love you more than the universe,

Daddy

Andy Clark has previously played shows in the US, Germany and UK, where he opened for Bob Geldof and played Glastonbury Festival. Following the release of the album, Andy Clark will continue on the I Love Joyce Morris Tour playing Europe.

Artist’s website: https://www.andyclark.org/

‘Welcome To The Party’ – official video: