One of Scotland’s best-kept musical secrets, CHARLIE CLARK, is pleased to announce a brand new single: “Don’t Have A Cow, Man!”.
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The track offers a first glimpse of Clark’s forthcoming debut solo album: ‘Late Night Drinking’, to be released later in 2021 via Alan McGee’s latest label venture It’s Creation Baby.
A multi-talented songwriter, musician, promoter and more who first rose to prominence as a founding member of acclaimed Glasgow indie-pop foursome Astrid, Clark has been a pro-active presence in the underground music scene for over two decades. From his role in Scottish supergroup The Reindeer Section to his own projects Broken Arrow and MJ12, Clark has earned a cult status amongst public and peers alike, becoming a go-to guest musician to the likes of Mogwai, Arab Strap and Snow Patrol in the process.
Finding a new calling in Los Angeles in recent years as one of the city’s best regarded promoters, Clark comes home in 2021 to display some of his most erudite songwriting to date. Summoned from life’s hardest lessons, his new single “Don’t Have A Cow, Man!” offers a first glimpse of his new direction.
“Don’t Have A Cow, Man!” was written as the songwriter found himself facing a major crossroads in life and embattling a growing addiction problem. Torn between a prospering new life in the States and a family crisis in Scotland, life and death; the track finds Clark facing down his demons and the make-or-break choices laid out before him. Speaking about the single, Clark says:
“I wrote the chorus of ‘Don’t Have A Cow, Man!’ just before moving back to Scotland from Los Angeles and finished it in Stornoway… I came home to help care for my father who was terminally ill so I had some serious s**t to get together.”
With sunshine gilded melodies indebted to his time on the West Coast, “Don’t Have A Cow, Man!” is a classic jangle pop record on the surface, but imbued with an innate sense of Northern melancholy which has connected Orange Juice through to Teenage Fanclub and Belle & Sebastian.
“A friend said it’s like “Sit Down” by James on very strong sedatives!” adds Clark. “Having said all that I also wanted it to have a good groove and make people dance! It’s a slice of indie pop definitely inspired by more 60’s style pop. I hope people see it as a positive message as obviously I chose to live!”.
Bearing his irreverent sense of humour and obtuse, yet earnest lyricism, “Don’t Have A Cow, Man!” sees Clark deliver a song of endearing openness and moving sentiment that offers a promising forecast for his 2021 solo album: ‘Late Night Drinking’. Something of a happy accident that followed a period of intense personal upheaval, the record sees Clark opening up on a variety of themes that defined his road to recovery and led to the place he finds himself standing in now. As Clark explains:
“I honestly had no intention of making an album but when I moved back from LA permanently I wrote 11 songs that told a story like a journal. 10 years of living in California, the breakdown of a relationship, losing my father, relapsing after a decade of abstinence, working for 7 years at Harvard & Stone in LA. The only venue I’ve worked at where the staff are more rock n roll than the bands. The songs told that story and there’s a very positive message underneath it all of hope and love.”
With additional appearances from Astrid compadre Willie Campbell on vocals, Calum Buchanan from The Sea Atlas (on “general weirdness), plus his brother Kevin Clark of The Broken Ravens on drums, ‘Late Night Drinking’ has been produced by Jason Shaw from Cambodian Space Project and mastered by Mark Gardener from RIDE. 
CHARLIE CLARK – “DON’T HAVE A COW, MAN!”
OUT 5 FEBRUARY 2021, VIA IT’S CREATION BABY
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