Pleased To Meet You: Claire Heywood

In our newest segment “Pleased To Meet You” we ask artists who are on the come up to answer a few questions and send us an authentic selfie.

Who are you and where did you come from?

I’m a songwriter, and I grew up in Denver. After playing solo sets around Denver and Fort Collins starting in 2017, I met some wonderful musicians who formed my backing band. In 2019, I self-released an EP called The Wind, It Howls.

I start the songs by following an emotion or hashing out a lyrical idea, alone with my guitar. Then I take those structures to the band and we discuss where it wants to go. The band melds elements of pop, soul, folk, and rock.

My band is Wes Barton (Drums), Trevor Vader (Bass), Michael Sandoval (Guitar) Duncan Britt (Keys) and Rebecca Hannigan (Backup Vocals). You can hear each of their musical personalities shining through the songs, and they each bring a lot to the project. Once the lyrics and melody are written, we have a somewhat flexible composition process that accounts for a talented band with good ideas.

Who is your favorite poet, and what was the last piece you read of theirs?

Lately, my favorite is Rilke. The last piece I read is Want the Change, in Sonnets to Orpheus.

When is your next release and can you tell us what to expect from that?

Keep an eye out for an announcement soon about release dates for new singles this spring. We’ve been recording in my guitarist Michael Sandoval’s home studio and at Avalanche Recording Studio.

The new material shares a voice to a degree with the first EP, but they were written in a different era of my life. I’ve been writing songs for four years now instead of two.

As a band, we know one another more now, and genuinely have the best time playing together lately, and I think you can hear it. I think the new songs are a bit less steeped in darkness than the first EP. They’re still from the bottom of my heart.