Joy Clark

Listening to the latest album from Joy Clark is to join her in a vulnerable and authentic journey to find her own voice—in so many ways. From her background steeped in the church to playing regularly with Cyril Neville and Allison Russell, it's taken faith and fortitude (along with an abundance of talent) to get to this point, but her meaningful documentation of it all is what makes Tell It To The Wind such a compelling and comforting album.

The good news is that Clark had some trusted help to lean on through the process, and company on the journey is often all we need. In our latest feature, we sat down with Clark to hear more about working with a musical hero to craft these songs and the bigger picture of finding her artistic footing.

Analogue: I’d love to start with the fact that I’m reading a bit about the new album before our interview and I see Margaret Becker as co-writer and producer. I grew up in the church myself and had some of her music, so imagine my surprise! What's your history with Margaret's music and how did you make that connection?

Joy Clark: Oh, wow! That's a good start. Yeah, like you, I was brought up listening to a whole lot of CCM and a whole lot of contemporary gospel as well. Growing up, that was the music that I was allowed to listen to. I was a fan of a lot of people, but I was a big fan of Margaret and loved her voice.

I remember a song of hers called “Say the Name” came on, and I was in the car with my mom. I was probably eight or nine, but I remember being quietly transfixed on the song. As soon as I heard it, as soon as the song went off, I remember saying, ‘That was a great song!’ This is me at eight or nine trying to listen closely to her vocal, to the lyrics, to the feeling, to the emotions.

I just remember that's when I became a fan. When I started, particularly when I started playing guitar, I would learn her songs on guitar, and I would sing her songs in church. If I had to pick an artist that I took their songs and played on my acoustic in church, I had to have covered at least eight of her songs.

I think it was just how she approached her song and the fact that she's also a guitarist. From the beginning, I didn't really know she was a guitarist, but once I started to get better at figuring out how to play songs, her songs were very guitar-friendly. So I figured out, ‘Oh, she plays a guitar!’

I remember I had a live tape from her that I got in the really early 2000s—just her guitar and her voice. From a lot of that, I picked out how to play her songs and then I started to learn how to perform or how to model. I modeled a lot. So I was a fan of hers, but it was more like I was learning from her.

Analogue: How’d you make the personal connection?

Joy: A chance meeting happened that was pretty much orchestrated by Jennifer Knapp, who I also grew up listening to quite a bit. She made the introduction and it was really surreal. Like I say kismet; she says the same thing. It's just something that was supposed to happen. And it was always gonna happen because I chose to stay on this path.

Analogue: That's so interesting to me because she's such a deep cut even in that world.

Joy: But see, that's what drew me to her because I felt a kinship with her. I could feel something; people have a certain way about them, whether it's judgmental or dogmatic. I don't think I realized that that was the thing that I felt. I just always felt she was genuinely kind, genuinely loving, and not judgmental. I always felt like that. I always felt like she had her own way. And she had this autonomy, like true musicianship that I connected with, you know?

Analogue: And that's something that you could sense that somehow in, you know, like reading between the lines in a way?

Joy: Yes, you know, I talk about intuition a lot and I think a lot of this album is about trusting that intuition. I think that's important for artists. You must get to know yourself. People will tell you that there's a way to do things, that there's a formula, that if you do this, then this will happen. Yes, but I feel like that won't happen until you really learn to trust yourself and learn to trust your own intuition.

Analogue: I love that treatise because that feels very congruent with the album’s subject matter. My guess would be that music is sort of the light you turn on to find yourself. That's how it feels as I listen to these songs, because you're documenting that very journey. Was that the purpose of the album for you?

Joy: Absolutely!. That's a good observation. If you're talking about “All Behind,” when I wrote that, I was on tour with Alison Russell at the time, who won a Grammy last year on a song that I played acoustic guitar on. Really proud moment with that.

At that time, I was learning and being able to work so closely with her and see her light shine. When you get to that moment where you see all the possibilities and all the people that are in your corner and the people that are giving you opportunities, you see, ‘Man, this is what I'm worth!’

I have experienced times when I felt that I wasn't valued or I put up with certain things or I doubted myself. But it's like, ‘No, I've got a new viewpoint and this old way that I used to think about myself, I gotta leave that behind.’ So that's kind of where that song came from.

But yes, I think you're absolutely right. This album is about hope. It’s about longing. And it is about finding yourself, and I believe I found my voice in this album.

Analogue: Has music always been that way for you? Like even as a kid, sort of finding your way forward?

Joy: Yeah, it's always been that way. Before I started playing guitar in school, I would have to learn these poems and I remember I would try to put a melody to the poems so I could remember. And I'd try to sing the poem, even though it wasn't supposed to be sung. But whenever I would try to sing it, there was something in me that would just feel really… like I was a ball of emotion and I'd always start to sort of tear up. It was mysterious to me. It was like, ‘Why am I feeling all these things once I start to sing?’

It was just a little taste of how I would become a little more connected to my feelings and more connected to myself. Once I started playing guitar, I kind of put the two together and I'd pick up the guitar and I’d start playing these ideas that would come. I don't feel like it was anything that I had to study to make it happen. I would just have a certain flow on the guitar as soon as I would pick the guitar up and just play. I felt like it was a conduit for my own personal feelings. It made me feel more connected to myself.

I feel like there's a bit of mystery to it, too, just with songwriting. But singing and playing songs and hearing people's thoughts and people's feelings, that has always brought me some serious comfort.

Analogue: Do you find people resonate with the reasons you had for putting out the music?

Joy: I get a lot of messages on Facebook and a lot of DMs on Instagram saying, ‘This album helps me feel l like I know myself more. I've put other people first for so long and now I feel like I'm finally getting to know myself.

VISIT: Joy Clark

Photo: Steve Rapport