Bumping into... Shawn William Clarke

Bumping Into... is a series of mini-chats with a variety of peeps that you might run into in some of our local music communities. (There's a bit of an intro and my thoughts behind the series here.)

---

How are you? Where are you?

I'd say this whole year I've been mostly good with moments of existential dread.

What have you been up to since March or so?

I've been home mostly. Thankfully there's been some Gov money to stay there and try to stay safe. I reignited my passion for cinema, and learned how to knit. Those two things frequently go hand in hand these days.

Have you found any new ways to do old things? How are you feeling about the shifts in how music is being made/shared/listened to?

I had some recordings from a few years back that I've been sitting on. Being home all the time, I was able to get creative and remixed them into a project called "Spectral Acoustics Vol 1" that I'm very proud of.

Pre-Covid, me and some friends used to get together in the basement of Wenona every Sunday night to put on shows, be creative, commiserate. We moved that to online with a mixtape project called In Basements On Sundays, it was about being creative using our limited means at home and there are some really magical songs on those comps. We also managed to raise a good chunk of money for the TOArtist COVID-19 Response Fund.

Personally I can't get into live streaming. I've only watched a handful, and performed a couple myself. As for listening I jumped ship from Spotify to Tidal, since Spotify is the worst. Tidal pays the artists a little more than the other major streaming services, so until there's change I'll keep using that as a consumer (even though their playlist situation is dire, and the search function is embarrassing).

Any works of art that have been a light for you in these times? Anything that's just been a good diversion?

I've spend the last three months digging into Italian Giallo / Horror films from the 70's /80's. I can't quite explain why this sort of stylish trash has been speaking to me, but it's doing the trick. The soundtracks to these films can be fantastic too, so I've been digging deeper into the genre music from Ennio Morricone, Goblin, Bruno Nicolai, etc.

How are you feeling about 2021?

Not great. I don't see there being any shows for most of the year, nor do I see there being many opportunities for travel. I also imagine financial support will dwindle as the months roll on, forcing more people back to work where they can catch and spread whatever is going around. It seems like people are expecting bad things to stop when the clock rolls over into 2021, I'm not so optimistic.

Creatively, I do have another album in me, so hopefully I can find ways to work on that. But dang, I'd be great to hang with people again.

Anything else we'd chat about if we bumped into each other?

I'd ask you how your night at Wenona is going. Since that's not happening anymore, I guess I'd be curious as to how your community is keeping it together.