Clare Cunningham is an incredibly talented songbird who possesses a voice that is simply captivating. She first caught our attention back in 2014 when we reviewed Rock and Roll Disaster, the debut album from Sweden’s Thundermother. Fast forward to 2023 and an artist caught our attention one day. We read about an Irish singer who won an award for her song “I Swear” which is about mental health awareness. The song is incredibly moving and the voice telling the story is so compelling. I decided to look into this singer because there was something about her that I just couldn’t place my finger on.
I pulled up her history and soon realized, much to my surprise, that she was the singer of Thundermother on that debut album we had reviewed! She’s no longer in Sweden, but currently in Nashville and the voice is stronger than ever. She’s no longer rockin’ out, but on a much different path from a higher calling. She’s won quite a few awards on her new path which she will tell us about. She’s currently an independent, non-country artist who is about to mark off one of items on her dream list of things to do. Pull up a chair and check out our very passionate talk with Clare.
How did you get from Thundermother to Nashville?
Clare Cunningham: By choice; I decided to leave the band and then looked into the process of getting a visa to go to America. I had already started branching off as a solo artist. It was never my intention to do Thundermother, it was just the way life led me at the time.
So they are polar opposites of each other as far as the type of music that they are. Were you looking to do the style of music that you are doing now before you got the call from Thundermother?
Absolutely not, I thank Christ and everything with me has changed. I went from singing about the devil in rock and roll to singing about mental health and finding help. Nothing that I have ever done has been like this. I have felt and gone where the Holy Spirit has led me.
So when did you actually get to Nashville?
2018.
You’re on this new journey and then Covid hits. Where were you in the creative process when Covid hit?
Like everyone else, my life came to a hault. I couldn’t tour, but I could write and that’s where my writing really started to excel. I was on my own and I couldn’t write with anyone anymore. The Lord really gave me a lot of messages to share with people. That’s where my mental health awareness song “I Swear” was born, out of a time that was so unknown.
There were two words that I wrote down when I first listened to that song and they were powerful and beautiful. Mental health awareness is a very important topic to address right now. People think that celebrities have it all and then suddenly we’re shocked to read the headlines that they committed suicide.
People who are in the public eye are people with a message to give. They often come from abuse. They are the most hurt and come from trauma and we have a gift to communicate with others. Songwriting, for me personally, comes from huge places of pain so that’s why it’s really hard to be honest about these things. Music is a great connector no matter what language you speak. Everyone goes through something in life; everyone has a story and a journey. Anytime you read someone has gone through something in a book or see it in a film or hear it in a song, you no longer feel like you are alone. Connecting with people over happy themes is one thing, but connecting over themes of trauma is different. When people have gone through similar situations as you and they can see that you’re okay, that is a huge connecting tool. People feel more understood and heard because there is somebody else portraying what they have been through.
Speaking of connecting through music, I heard some of the UFC fighters are using one of your songs to work out to. How did that happen and how did you find out about it?
Here’s the weird coincidence with that and I always say coincidence is God’s way of staying anonymous. It just so happens that I follow a lot of UFC fighters but I don’t follow John Hutchinson on Instagram and he is the head coach of them. A friend of mine is a boxer and she was out in Thailand on vacation. She was training and went to one of John’s classes. She follows him on Instagram and saw when she was there that he had posted a video with the heavyweight champion of the world ANATOLIY MALYKIN using my song. She tagged me and said that is was so weird that she was there but just happened to hear it on Instagram. I thought she had said something to him but she didn’t and they did not even have a conversation. So I messaged him and I said thanks for using my song and that a friend of mine just took one of your classes. He actually wrote back and said ‘I am so glad I found it. I don’t know how I did, but it’s awesome and I’m going to share it with the boys.’ Dylan Moran, Connor McGregor’s sparring partner, used it in a video. It’s always been a dream of mine to have a fighter to come out to the ring using something like “Eireann i mo chroi.” He said ‘we will make this happen. The guys are saying this is an amazing song and I think a lot of people will connect with it.’ It’s my go-to song and I’m going to do it at The Opry. It’s not until I moved to America five years ago in February that I actually wrote it. It’s crazy what it’s doing right now but I feel very, very blessed.
Out of the millions and millions of songs floating around the world, he has no idea how he found it?
No, but that’s where I know God intervened because there’s no way my random song is just going to start showing on his page for no reason. I can only attest that to the Lord having his hand in that one. It’s mind blowing and normally I wouldn’t post something like that but I just find it fascinating that something like that could happen. You always hear about things like that, but this is something that everyone has connected with me over all these years. There’s no way that I could even do The Opry as an independent, unsigned, non-country artist without him. People are dying to do this so it’s just crazy. I know I have to give the glory to God for these moments because there’s no way this happened otherwise.
Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when you found out you were going to be playing The Opry?
I was in Nashville and I had been talking to Brenda Willis. That’s the person who is putting it all on the Music City Irish Fest. I actually reached out to her and she had mentioned something prior. She had not secured anything so I never thought anymore of it. When I messaged her to say something about St Patrick’s Day, because it’s the day before, she said ‘well I may have a surprise for you.’ I couldn’t say anything about it straight away. She put me in contact with the team at The Opry and I am still unsure who I would be playing with. It was quite a surreal moment, but I couldn’t share it with anyone until it was made official.
I don’t know how often something like that happens for an independent artist much less non-country artist so that’s pretty amazing.
And I have no team; I do everything myself. I am my agent, I am handle my bookings, create posters. I do not have one single person that helps me with anything. People think I have someone replying to emails but it’s me. People always say how busy I am but I do the job of at least 10 people every day. I mail out everything; I go to the mailbox and mail out the CDs. People have no idea what goes on behind what I do.
I don’t think most people really know the struggles and what indie artists have to do on their own and you are literally doing it on your own.
Nope, they don’t. People don’t realize how many different hats I have to wear because the workload can get intense. I do love it, but I also know that I will need a team to help me out with things soon.
Can we back-track for a minute and go all the way back to the beginning? Some artists when they saw The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, that was when they were bit by the music bug. What about you? When did you know this was for you?
I know it sounds cliché but from the get-go. When people used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up my answer was a rockstar. I knew of nothing else and I had this real want to do music. The Lord knows when he gives a gift what he wants it to be used for. I didn’t always use it for the greater good. I think it’s put on your heart to really want nothing more than that and I think that’s the truth with me. I never wanted anything else. I never could see myself doing anything else. It was just the most important thing to me.
When you were in the bedroom looking in the mirror with the hairbrush singing, who were you pretending to be? Who influenced you?
There really wasn’t one particular artist that I wanted to be. Even from a young age, I was off doing me. There were so many influences. I look at Michael Jackson as one because his lyrics and his messages always resonated with me. There are a lot of Irish artists that I grew up with that you guys would never have heard of but I loved songs with real messages. Alanis Morissette was my first cassette tape. She was an influence on me; she had so much power. I know it sounds weird because a lot of people say that I want to sound this or look like one person. When something was trending in school or in life, if I didn’t feel it, I never went with it. I was always going the other way. Some big fighters or anybody in any athletic, creative or entrepreneurial field are typically on their own pathway and that’s not a bad thing. I don’t want to be a carbon copy of somebody else. I did get bullied when I was young because of that, but I didn’t care. I just went for it; I always followed what I found to be true inside of me.
You paint with a lot of colors from your musical palette. You are quite diverse and definitely not a one trick pony. You really can’t be contained to one box or label.
Thank you for saying that because a lot of people say I’m wrong for doing that. A lot of record labels say you need to box yourself so they can sell you but I tell them good luck because I refuse to. I refuse to do so to make someone’s job easier so they can sell me and then shelve me. They say I would be so much more successful but people’s ideas of success are completely different than mine. I’m not chasing a pipe dream to make money. I’m looking to connect with people and move them with my lyrics. I’m very open and I love constructive criticism but when you tell me I need to change who I am to fit your narrative then that’s where I refuse. I could be signed with a major label right now if I decided to go down one of those roads but that wouldn’t make me happy. What makes me happy is making other people feel like they’re not alone. I want to be the voice for those who feel like they don’t have a voice. It’s important to me that I maintain my integrity so that I can give to others because I’m not doing this for me. I am on this pathway so I can connect with people so that they know there is light at the end of the tunnel. If I can show them that I have endured through the struggles and pains myself then I know I’m doing my correct jobs. Labels don’t want that and I understand because they want numbers.
Labels want to make you the 7th version of something that’s already sold because there seems to be a formula.
Yes there’s a formula to that and it works and it sells. But when something comes outside of that box, they are like we don’t know what to do with this so we’re not going to take it. It only takes one person to see the vision. Don’t get me wrong, I get so many offers every day and I have to weed out the bad ones because I don’t want to be just a number. It can cost you your soul because you’re going to be singing ‘about topics’ you don’t want to sing about.
I commend you for standing your ground and for fighting for what you believe in because a lot of people wouldn’t do it. I appreciate substance in my music. I like fluff and it’s fun but every now and then I want some meat to go with my potatoes.
You’re right and people know what’s real. Your audience can smell BS. Fluff really does play its part, like you said, but there’s definitely something special about someone who can bring something so real to the table. We’re in a different industry now and people are more accepting of a multi genre artist. I believe there are no rules because the four-minute mile was never achieved until it was achieved. That year, so many others broke it because they realized oh this can be done. I think it’s not even seeing the bigger vision but it’s feeling it. I know I’m being led by the spirit and I can’t go wrong.
People in this industry phone it in way too often these days and like you said people can smell the BS, I know I can. There’s nothing quite like hearing music that can actually move your soul and give you goose bumps. You don’t get that enough these days.
You really don’t; it’s funny because this information by numerous folk. Nashville is a 10-year town that’s one, you won’t be successful if you’re not country that’s number two and number three is you won’t be taken seriously if you don’t have an area code 615 number. You don’t have to be country because this is an ever growing place. It’s Music City not Country Music City and if somebody doesn’t want to take me seriously because of my area code number then I don’t want to ever work with them (laughs). These limitations don’t just apply to Nashville, they apply to life. People are always trying to put limitations on others because they don’t want to see them succeed or because it gives them an excuse to be slow with what they want to do.
Nashville has definitely changed a lot since I was little. It’s not your mom and dads’ Nashville anymore. It’s not just twangy country; there are a lot of rock artists who have moved there and a lot of 80s artists.
There is so much going on there. It is very diverse and I think there’s a beauty of not being a country artist in Nashville because I think you’re going to stick out a little bit more. If you’re going to stick out you have to stick out for the right reasons and not the wrong reasons.
Yeah, I don’t want to read about you in the tabloids or see you on TMZ for doing something bad. I see we need to start wrapping this up, but before we go have something called 3 For The Road. These are the really tough questions since we got you loosened up with the other ones. First off, who was your first celebrity crush?
Usher (laughs)
Was it the music, the dancing?
Everything, part dancing, part singing. Usher was the man; I know that’s surprising.
We really do get some surprises with this question. Question number two is do you remember your first tattoo and does it have a meaning?
Yes I do and it’s the smallest one that’s on my body. My younger sister Laura actually said we need to get matching tattoos that say sister for some reason back when I was around 18 and she was 16. We decided to get it as a Chinese symbol (laughs) because that was the thing to do back then. It was so tiny and it’s almost covered by one of the bigger ones now. It’s on my left arm and it’s not even the size of a nickel. That was my first one and then it spread, so I blame my sister (laughs).
The last question is if you could have anybody, actor, actress, cartoon character, whoever, be your inner voice, who would it be?
The first thing that comes to mind is Morgan Freeman. He has such a tone and way of communicating that is beyond a lot of people. It’s very spiritual.
It’s amazing to think he started out on The Electric Company. Clare, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. Congrats again on The Opry and I can’t wait to hear all about it!
Thank you Johnny and I appreciate your interest. If there’s anything else that you need, please let me know.
Interview by I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price
Connect with Clare Cunningham Online:
Facebook: Clare Cunningham | Facebook
Twitter: Clare Cunningham (@clarecofficial) / Twitter
Instagram: Clare Cunningham (@clarecofficial) • Instagram photos and videos
You Tube: Clare Cunningham – YouTube
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Clareofficial
