Stacy Clark - September 2008 Flower-Powered Artist @ KGRL.fm.

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Official Website: http://www.stacyclark.net
Myspace Page: http://www.myspace.com/ilovestacyclark

Stacy Clark: Songwriting, Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards
Tyler DeYoung: Drums

Music means a lot of things to every individual. It can draw out a gamut of emotions or even be a “hot, hot sex” to some. But for our September 2008 Flower-Powered Artist, music heals and saves lives. The September 2008 FPA spotlight is directed towards a well-deserving indie artist, Stacy Clark.

Stacy Clark was born in Buffalo, New York. As with most artists, music runs in her family. Stacy’s mom is an accordion prodigy, while her grandfather was in a polka band. She started writing poetry at age seven, which pretty much served as her foundation for lyric-writing. Stacy joined a band at an early age and picked up her first instrument, the clarinet. By age fifteen, she traded the clarinet for guitar and piano and started learning to play it all by herself. The big push that made her pick up guitar and piano was when she saw Sarah McLachlan and Tori Amos, it was quite an immediate reaction – like she knew what she wanted to be in that instant.

At around the same age, she worked at Record Town, a gas station, and a restaurant. She had her first gig with an open mic at Stimulance Coffeehouse in Buffalo, followed the same night by a performance at another open mic at Nietzsches. She enrolled at Grand Island Senior High School (New York) in 1997, where she landed an internship at Atomic Gardens Recording Studios. She learned a lesson in creating an album and ultimately, recorded her first music project at that studio.

It was a bump in the road, and perhaps a rude awakening, when Stacy was diagnosed with a rare blood platelet disorder, called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), in 1998. This particular disorder is diagnosed by exclusion. Stacy was very lucky to be diagnosed with ITP rather than a more severe disorder such as Leukemia. She had to give up a lot of her normal activities during the treatment including soccer, which she played while studying at Buffalo State College. In spite of the limited activities, the one thing she did not give up on was music. She continued to write and create music during this time.

It took a year of closely monitoring her health before she was able to participate in the National Student Exchange program and studied a semester at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She started her first U.S. two-month solo tour playing coffee shops and bars in the summer of 1999. In 2002, she graduated from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh where she studied Arts.

Stacy decided to move to Orange County, California in 2004 to finally pursue a career in music. It was here where she met with Loren Israel who imparted more knowledge in songwriting. After a few more songwriting frenzies, she went into studio with producer Ian Kirkpatrick to record the EP, Unusual. The release of this EP in 2006 garnered Stacy a handful of awards (including Inland Empire and Orange County Music Awards) as well as multi-state radio airplay. Songs off of the EP were featured in several TV shows including MTV's series Engaged and Underaged (featuring the songs You Make It Worse and Unusual) and CBS’s show Girlfriends (featuring the song Unusual).

Aside from her musical career, Stacy started a non-profit program with her former manager Russel Hornbeek called Music Saves Lives. Stacy became the group’s official spokesperson. The program is run with the American Red Cross and is aimed to promote a positive, youth-oriented blood-giving experience. The donors receive a compilation CD with rare tracks from top indie-rock acts such as Panic! At the Disco, Jacks Mannequin, Plain White Tee’s, etc. Stacy also used her advertising partnership with friend Chelsea Davis, Chelstay, to provide all of the life-saving program’s designs and marketing initiatives at no cost.

Along with her Unusual EP producer, Kirkpatrick, Stacy went back to studio in 2007 to record her debut record, Apples & Oranges. The album was decidedly kept as a pure independent recording and was released on November 20, 2007. The album features guest vocals from artists that Stacy admires including: Tom Higgenson (Plain White T’s), Tim Pagnotta (Sugarcult) and Aaron Marsh (Copeland). Songs from the new album (Empty Bottles, Closer, Say What You Want, and Matter Of Time) were featured on MTV’s series The Hills.

Currently, Stacy Clark is finishing the acoustic version of Apples & Oranges as well as working on new songs for the follow-up record. She is also featured on upcoming record of several artists including: Jack's Mannequin (The Glass Passenger on the tracks: Spinning and Crashing) and Hip Hop artist Ivan Ives.

KGRL is very proud to present our September 2008 Flower-Powered Artist, Stacy Clark. Stacy joined KGRL in-studio for an exclusive performance shot in high-definition video and audio. Our feature is overflowing with tons of exclusive materials including: a CD review of her full-length Apples & Oranges, photos, and our comprehensive interview with Stacy Clark in video, audio, & transcribed form.

As per our usual monthly feature, we are giving away 3 signed Apples & Oranges CDs! Just e-mail me at contests [at] kgrl.fm and tell us why you deserve to win. Don't forget that you can request a FREE copy of the FPA live session DVDs as well!

KGRL had a chance to sit down with singer/songwriter, Stacy Clark, for an interview right after our KGRL FPA Live Sessions held at The Alley Studio - 07.06.08.

Watch the exclusive Stacy Clark video interview using the player below!
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Stacy Clark Video Interview (Click to launch the player!)
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Listen to Stacy Clark's responses in High Quality MP3 Stream using the player below:

Transcription excerpt from the interview:

KGRL: What were the steps you took back then to pursue music?

Stacy Clark: When I was fifteen, I worked at Record Town and a gas station and a restaurant, [and] saved all my money while interning at Atomic Gardens Recording Studios in Buffalo New York -- that's where I'm from -- and I learned a lot through the industry in how to make an album.

I also played three to four times per week, which is a lot for a fifteen-year-old. I was fortunate enough to meet Michael Meldrum, who [had] helped Suzanne Vega and Ani DiFranco out, and he took me under his wing and showed me the music industry, so to speak, in the Buffalo area. That's when I started playing a lot, writing a lot, and working a lot.

Obviously, there [were] a lot of sacrifices. You don't get to just enjoy hanging out with friends at a very young age. I've always been really social [laughs]. Ever since, I saved money. I made five albums and would tour [and] market them, and do it over and over and over, which brings us to the current [album]. In 2007 I released...Apples And Oranges. It's amazing. It's produced by this guy in Los Angeles called Ian Kirkpatrick, and I worked with Loren Israel on development. He also did development for Jimmy Eat World and Plain White T's. I had a manager for a little bit (Russell Hornbeek). Basically, through working with those people and taking vocal lessons with Roger Love, I really worked with the best and perfected my craft....[I've] paid for this all on my own and continue to be an independent artist, and...to tour and get my music out there.

KGRL: Your story is amongst those of the artists who rises above the challenges they face... You were diagnosed with a blood disorder, ITP (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura), during High School. What kept you motivated to do music despite this situation?

Stacy Clark: That was during my senior year of high school. It was back in 1998. I had just graduated [from] high school....That year (1998), all I would do is music and soccer. I was on a select team for soccer called Team Germania, and all year long (during the winter) all we did is practice, practice, practice. So my whole life was flipped upside-down when I came down with this rare blood platelet disorder....If you touched me like this, then I'd have a bruise. I was bleeding internally. I had a thousand blood platelets [per µL of blood]; the normal person has 100,000 to 300,000, and [with] under 30,000 you're bleeding to death.

After I had played a soccer tournament I noticed bruises all over -- particularly a huge purple bruise on my hip -- when I was showering and getting ready to go to my best friend Janine Greco's birthday party. So when I went to her house I showed her mom my bruise, and I just felt like a freak. It looked like something was going to hatch on my hip. At that age, seventeen, you don't really know what's going on; I just remember going straight to the ICU [Intensive Care Unit] and getting admitted, and [receiving] an emergency blood platelet transfusion. I was there for a couple of weeks, and had to go on Prednisone, which is a steroid.

It was a very hard time....At that particular time, I was working hard for music, but I also wanted to do soccer and go to college. I just felt like a girl in a bubble. Everything I knew was taken away from me, so I was blessed enough to have music in my life. Music is something I've always wanted to do, so the whole time in the hospital I kept thinking "I need to get back in the studio. I want to write my songs [and] record them. I want to tour." I didn't have the advantage of having anyone truly supporting it besides myself. My mother is supportive, but not so much toward music. She's the guidance counsellor of a high school. She always told me, "You can do anything you want. You've got to work hard for it. Why music? It's such a hard career." I just couldn't help it. I didn't see it as a challenge because at that point, life isn't worth living if you're not going to pursue something that you love. Of course we all have to balance jobs that we might not like. I've done it a million times "with what you love," but that's just how it goes.

-> READ the full transcript along with high/low quality mp3 of the Interview by Clicking Here! <-

When comparing two different items that cannot be validly compared, we use the term Apples and Oranges. In computers, it can be a case of Mac vs PC. In music, it can be a matter of varying genres. Stacy Clark’s debut full-length, Apples and Oranges, adopts the idiom and presents a relatively diversified collection of tracks that can at one point make you move to the groove and suddenly wallow in gloom the next. Allow me to guide you through Stacy’s musical garden as we pick up all the apples and oranges along the way.

The first track, Matter Of Time, serves as an invitation to take a plunge into Stacy’s electro-pop approach to folk-based compositions. While I’m not really a fan of effects-processed vocals, Stacy’s folk roots compensates for what usually would be irritating to something aurally pleasing. The track is reminiscent of Frou Frou and the silky-smooth vocal work of Dragonette’s Martina Sorbara. The addition of a mild but distinctive acoustic guitar line brings an organic feel that complements this track. The track’s highlight comes in the splendid arrangement of the bridge section that makes it impossible not to move your head along with the rhythm.

The slow and steady rhythm of Closer offers a more sensual groove that is quite sexy. While I wouldn’t have this track on plenty of repeats, it’s one of those songs that helps set the mood for intimacy. If you’re looking for music to play in the background while making out (or anything beyond that), this one’s perfect. This track features Tim Pagnotta of Sugarcult on background vocals.

Back on the upbeat, Won’t Let You comes in contrastingly with a synthesized orchestral background and pulsating bassline and drumbeats. The electronic arrangement, song production, and recording are well-polished. Once again, the addition of a subdued guitar layer and folk-tinged vocals keeps the electronic part of the track from taking over.

The intensely-melodic ballad Hello Again amazes us with such a powerfully-emotional vocal work. This time, the electronic is subdued in favor of a more band sound. This is easily one of the best songs in the album. From the stanzas to the time Stacy is belting out the high notes of the chorus to the climactic bridge back to the final chorus, there never is a dull moment.

And then the CD delivers another hard-hitting stellar track with a full-band sound in the song Peppermint Patties. The stop-and-go arrangement, with the pauses accentuated by harmonics, is sublime. The impressive vocal work is nearly flawless. The melody is so exquisitely catchy that it burrows deep inside my head and refuses to let go. Just like peppermint patties, this song makes me so sick that I keep craving it. Need I point out that there is a wonderful acoustic version of this song down there in the video section? Go for it!

A duet with Copeland’s Aaron Marsh enchants us next with the alcoholic’s anthem, Empty Bottles. The simplistic acoustic guitar and keyboards arrangement works very well with the siren and the crooner. Despite the fact that this song is not one of my favorites, this is a showcase for Stacy’s vocal tenacity.

Three tracks off of her Unusual EP are included in the full-length, all in their original forms. I guess Stacy believes in the school of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” The song Unusual is a balanced electro-acoustic mix. It’s easy to see why Stacy loves this so much as it is an easy-to-sing-along-to pop track. The second oldie from the EP track is You Make It Worse. This somber track effectively draws out such a sad feeling. Stacy makes it worse (or better) with her emotive vocal feat.

Thankfully, after crying a river from that emotional drainer comes relief. Recluse is an instant favorite. I simply love the arrangement of this track. The deep, aggressive, and resonating bassline along with the keyboards part in the chorus breathes life into this track. The bridge part is fantastic - and so are the accompaniment pauses in the chorus right after the bridge accentuating Stacy’s dazzling vocal work… simply brilliant! This track features Tom Higgenson of Plain White T’s on background vocals.

Perhaps one of the weakest tracks in the bunch is the third oldie from the EP track, Say What You Want. The vocal work gets a bit shaky in some parts. The lyrics feel a bit cheesy as well. The album closes with the lyrically well-crafted track Strange, which is relatively as weak as the track before it. Of all the tracks, these two are the only ones that I sometimes tend to skip when listening to the whole record.

Besides a couple of sour apples and oranges along the musical garden path of Stacy’s debut, the album is a basketful of exceedingly sweet and satisfying fruits of labor. If you are a fan of independent music, you owe it to yourself to check out the music of Stacy Clark. Apples and Oranges is quite an impressive electro-pop/folk record that should not be missed.

Apples & Oranges CD - Buy It Now (Click Here)!

Tracklist:

Matter Of Time
Closer
Won't Let You
Hello Again
Peppermint Patties
Empty Bottles
Unusual
You Make It Worse
Recluse
Say What You Want
Strange

Photos by Doug Sonders.
Last Photo (#6) is Stacy with Tom Higgenson of Plain White T's

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KGRL proudly presents another wonderful webisode of our FPA Live Sessions, featuring Stacy Clark. The streams can be viewed using our embedded flash player. We do hope you enjoy these wonderful exclusive videos shot in high-def video and audio.

And remember, those of you who support the station by donations can request a copy of the DVD. Click here for more information on how to obtain the DVD!

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I Understand	Matter Of Time	Peppermint Patties
Empty Bottles	Hide & Seek	Recluse

Unusual

Say What You Want

*Peppermint Patties performance is available in 720p High-Definition WMV-HD format.
Click here to view this video in HD!
(Warning: File size is 80Mb and requires WMV codec for Mac and Linux)

WMV Codecs:
For Mac - Flip4Mac
For Linux - http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/download/

Feature Credits:

Our heartfelt thanks goes out to Stacy Clark.