Alex Clare Talks About His Music and Love for Stevie Wonder

Mike Calendrillo

UK singer Alex Clare will be performing at The Belasco Theater in downtown Los Angeles. He first burst onto the music scene in July of 2011, when he released “The Lateness of the Hour” on Island Records in the UK. But it wasn’t till the following March that the biggest hit on the album “Too Close,” really started to make its mark with its release in America. Following the song’s use on the campaign for Internet Explorer 9, “Too Close” debuted at #68 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and later reached #7, becoming Clare’s first Top 10 Hit.  Now almost two years later Alex Clare is back with his latest album, “Three Hearts,” and the debut single, “War Rages On.”

Entertainment Voice: On October 8, you and Jim Duguid won the ASCAP PRS for the 2013 Music Writer of the Year. What was that experience like?
Alex Clare: It’s very nice to be honored. I wasn’t actually at the award dinner, because of Rosh Hashanah, I was with my family that night, but it was wonderful to be honored. I mean “Too Close” was everywhere, all over the radio in America, all over the world. It was fantastic.

EV: Did you ever expect “Too Close” to become such a huge success as it was?
AC: Nope, never did [laughs].  It really was great though.

EV: Was “Too Close” always going to be used by Microsoft for their Internet Explorer 9 campaign?
AC: No, they actually made the spot, and had other music originally. I was living in Israel at the time, and got a message, like dude, Microsoft wants to use one of your songs for their campaign. Of course, I said yes, and the rest is history.

EV: Listening to your new album “Three Hearts,” it really feels like a great mixture of soul, rock, electronic. What were some of your influences?
AC: All those three things, man; very eclectic. You know, when I write a song I tend to let the song write itself. The genre kind of just makes itself up as we go along. It’s very interesting to sit down and say hey, let’s write a dark–set song. It’s all about how the music comes out. If it sounds good, it sounds good. Very eclectic, the problem is that it makes it hard for people to put a division on me. But that’s cool [laughs].

EV: The first single off the new album is “War Rages On.” What caused the stirring lyrics for this song?
AC: Basically, when everything hits the fan and you feel like you’re most alone, if you just know what someone is there with you, through it, like a good friend, your partner, it’s amazing to have someone there with you through it all. Not a literal war, a metaphorical war, and we all have our wars in life, in that complex. So we come up with someone that’s important to us, someone who has our back, it’s a good thing. And that’s what ‘Wars’ is all about.

EV: Have you decided what will be the second single off “Three Hearts?”
AC: Yeah, I think it’s going to be “Never Let You Go.” It’s actually the first track on the album and it’s a big song. I think people will like it. When you come to a live show check it out!

EV: Most definitely, we will. Speaking of your live show, what should we expect from your set list? Anything you surprise the audience with?
AC: Yeah, occasionally there is the first song I ever learned on guitar, “Goodnight Irene” by Leadbelly, I often play that. Sometimes I play “Dance On” by Prince. We have a couple of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted To Love” which turns a lot of heads [laughs], like what are you doing covering Robert Palmer’s “Addicted To Love?” It’s a classic and he was a pretty cool dude, so it makes the song work.

EV: I also know you’re a huge Stevie Wonder fan. If you ever got the chance to play with the icon, what song would you want to recreate?
AC: Oh, I love Stevie! Wow. Either “Have A Talk With God,” I love that song, it’s a beautiful song, the production, it’s got so much going on with it. Also “Loves In Need To Love Today.” I love that song. If I feel sad, I listen to “Loves In Need To Love Today,” and I’m like, you know what, it’s all good. I’m happy [laughs].

EV: Now religion plays a large part in your life, and being an Orthodox Jew, how does that affect your career?
AC: The trickiest thing as a musician is that I don’t play on Friday nights, so that’s been the thing to work around. It hasn’t been a hindrance at all. It’s been challenging, some unique challenges to overcome, but challenges are there for a reason. It gives you strength and you get over them. It gives you a lot of purpose; it makes you understand what we’re doing in the world. We all do our thing; we’ve all got our own individual ambitions and purpose. And if mine is to make music, then that’s what I have to do.

EV: That’s a beautiful sentiment and we can’t wait for you to come and rock out Los Angeles!
AC: We’ll see you there on December 1st at The Belasco Theater!