BC - How I Feel w/Interview
Brian Clarke, known by his artist name BC, is a musician from Dublin, Ireland. BC finds inspiration from acts like Status Quo, Queen, AC/DC, ABBA, Michael Jackson, U2 and Rory Gallagher. After years as a member of multiple bands, BC has recently struck out on his own to develop his solo career. Today we are pleased so share our interview with BC as well as our review of BC’s second single, “How I Feel”!
From the outset, “How I Feel” has a certain in your face kind of energy to it, opening with some aggressive guitar work and never switching the octane off. Throughout the track, we are treated to the high energy flair of BC’s vocals; through his vocal performance, it is easy to hear the sounds of oldschool hard rock as BC does an excellent job of channeling the same kind of spirit that some of his influences like Queen and AC/DC have in their music. Impressively, despite many aspects of “How I Feel” feeling like a callback to the golden days of hard rock, the track’s melodic structure feels modern and relevant, making it both an all-out assault yet still danceable at the same time.
Thank you for being with us today!
“Thanks for having me!”
You have a lot of hard-rocking influences. Can you share the story of how you got your start in music?
“I remember when before I had even started school, I became obsessed with this band called Status Quo. There would be videos played in our house of them and I would grab a tennis racket and pretend I was someone in the band. Then when Queen were on our TV, I’d grab a brush and pretend to be Freddie, if other bands were on I’d sometimes play drums on pots and pans, or if a Michael Jackson video was on MTV, I’d embarrass myself trying to dance. So even before I picked up an instrument, music just spoke to me. It quickly became my best friend. Obviously new music comes into your life and you are exposed to different artists and different styles and it influences your playing or writing but, the love of music and performing has always been in me
I started gigging when I was 18, joined my first band when I was 19. I was very shy and reclusive around people though so it took me awhile to come out of my bubble. Since then lots of songs, lots of gigs, two bands, one big adventure and now here I am, on my own. I’m at a place where I want to be.”
How has your experience in other bands through the years helped shape your budding solo career?
“Well, obviously with bands come different personalities. Sometimes that can be good, sometimes not so good. But the important thing through each experience is to learn. Take with you from each experience what to do and what not to do. I had some great experiences in the bands I’ve been in and I’m incredibly thankful to those people, in those bands for them. I’m also very grateful for the bad experiences they gave me too because it made me grow, not just as an artist/musician but, as a person too. I was happy being the guitarist, playing the solos and riffs whilst necking beers at the side of the stage. But for certain reasons, I grew disillusioned with being where I was. There was far too much bullshit going on for my liking and it was starting to affect my daily mood and it was putting me in a bad place. So I left and here I am. I’m happier and more in love with music than ever. This is me now and there is no pretence. What you listen to, what you see is real and I love that!”
Can you walk us through your writing/recording process? How is it different for you compared to what writing music was like in a band setting?
“One thing I can do now is that I can implement my song writing philosophy, which is to let the music tell you how the song should be! Let the music take charge and let it guide you in completing the song. I’ve seen it far too often where people change songs or they put some form of shit in there that doesn’t belong and it just takes away the magic that was in the song to begin with. It’s my view that no ego should ever get in the way of the song! You’re not the boss, the music is the boss! Music controls your thoughts, feelings, body movements, your heart and your soul and you want to try dictating it? Music is magic; let it do its thing!
Before, it was more collaborative, which was brilliant but, when you’re dealing with egos it can be a nightmare. I’m fortunate to have two amazing musicians, Eddie Mann and Ciaran O’Brien, playing on How I Feel and on future releases. But one fundamental difference now is that, my lyrics are my own experiences, my voice is my own emotion. It was never like that before.”
"How I Feel" is your latest single and absolutely rocks hard. Did you have any particular goal when you set out to write this track or was its creation more on the spontaneous side?
“Not really. I wrote the music back years ago and I do remember just wanting to write a tough, hard rock song because there was none around at the time so if there was a goal, it was that. But, I didn’t touch it again for years until last Christmas and I just written this poem about my thoughts and feelings towards this girl I know. For some reason, I thought it would be cool to work them together and I’m happy with how it turned out.
There’s my rock and punk influences on there. If you listen carefully to the choruses, there is a little arpeggio I do on guitar that adds some light to it. You can head bang to it, you can rock out to it, there is an attitude to it but you can also dance to it. It’s got groove as well as balls. I do smile sometimes that the lyrics are this heartfelt message to this girl and how wonderful she is, but it’s wrapped up in this macho, unprocessed, balls to the wall, guitar laden rock song. Where are the strings and the fucking grand piano, man? Haha.”
What's next for you?
“I have a video on the way for How I Feel. That will be out in the coming weeks. The Covid aspect delayed that slightly, as it did with my previous single. Then after that, I have another release planned for late June/early July. I hope to have a very special guest playing on that one. How I Feel was hard rock, as was the one before it but this one will be going down a different route. I had thought about releasing an album/EP but, since there are no gigs, the single format is cool with me.
Once COVID calms the fuck down, I can’t wait to get performing. I’d love to perform in New York City next year, if restrictions permit. As I said earlier, the theatricality of performing has always been in me and I just can’t wait to unleash that! I want to give everything I have on whatever stage I am on. I want to make people go home from a gig and for them to remember it. I want to give people an experience.”
Is there anything else you'd like Which Coast readers to know about you or your music?
“I’m BC, stream (or download) the fuck out of How I Feel, enjoy it and future releases, follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, shoot me a message anytime you want and have a good one!”
After our interview, it is very easy to see where BC is coming from with his music and I feel as though “How I Feel” is an absolutely phenomenal representation of who this artist is and what he can - and will - deliver with his music. You can keep up with BC through his Facebook and Instagram accounts and as always we have “How I Feel” embedded below! We hope you dig this track and enjoyed our time speaking with BC!
