Name: Imogen Clark

Nationality: Australian
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current release: Imogen Clark's holiday single “I Got Dumped for Christmas” is out now.

If you enjoyed this interview with Imogen Clark and would like to find out more about her music, visit her official website. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter. 

For an interview with one of her songwriting partners ("Enemy"), check out our Alex Lahey interview.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

For me, songwriting is almost always autobiographical. I have written fictional songs before (for myself or for others), and I’ve written songs extrapolated from a small piece of a real-life event, but they always seem to have some part of my own experience tied into them. I feel like the best way to write a good, authentic song is to write what you know.

Songwriting is the therapy I need to work out how I feel about something – it’s cathartic and helps me put what I’m feeling into words. Sometimes it helps me say things I never got to say to someone, or say things more eloquently than I would in real life. Relationships of any kind and being on the road are the two things which will always pull a new song out of me.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

I start songs in a lot of different ways. Sometimes they start as a basic concept with no music or lyrics. Sometimes I have a song title and nothing else (which was the case for my latest Christmas single “I Got Dumped For Christmas”). Sometimes it’s a melody that came to me in the shower, or a chord progression I’ve been wanting to use for ages. The fact that it’s always so different makes it still so mysterious and I think that’s why I’m still so in love with songwriting after all these years.

When Demi Louise, Sam Phay and I got together to write what would become my single “Nonchalant”, the song started as a visualisation of a love story set at an 80s high school prom – all powder blue eye shadow and puffy tule.



There are “mirror balls” and “last dances” in the lyrics, and the guy in the story (who of course was based on the dude currently wreaking havoc on my life) leaves me “waiting on the mezzanine”. It’s everything I picture in my head when I imagine an 80s prom.

Sometimes setting a visual scene in a writing session is very important to make sure the audio landscape stays as true to the theme as possible, almost like a Pinterest board for your Protools session.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

I try to go with the flow, as much as an incredibly neurotic, anxious songwriter can really do that!

I used to need things to be “just right” before I could get writing, but that’s way too limiting. I have a “drop everything” mantra with songwriting – whenever I possibly can, I drop everything I’m currently doing in service of getting the idea out. It’s my job and top priority! Otherwise, you blink and it’s gone. If you require everything to be perfect before you start, it just means you write less and less.

As long as I’ve got something to write chords on (guitar, piano, dulcimer, a laptop with midi), something to write on/with (laptop, phone, pen and paper) and something to record a work tape (thank you, iPhone), I can write a song. I try to keep it that simple.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

Coffee is obviously very important and if I’m hungry, I will not write anything even close to good quality. I can pretty much write anywhere, but it does help to be feeling like you’re in control of your words.

By that, I mean I like to warm up my songwriting muscle in the same way I’d warm up to go for a run. I like to free write in my journal for maybe 20-30 minutes before going into a session, or at least read part of a book, just to feel like I’m getting the cogs turning in my creative brain.

I have Leonard Cohen’s pocket book of poetry which I adore and which has given me inspiration many times when I’ve felt stuck.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

Sometimes the first line is the one that comes to me while I’m driving or on a train, and that’s the springboard which kicks off the rest of the song. If it’s not the first thing I write, it can be hard to come up with a first line because they’re so important!

At the same time though, if I think too hard about it and put too much pressure on it being perfect, it’ll ruin it, so it’s all about finding the balance and letting it happen as authentically as you can.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

Sometimes I write lyrics first as poetry and set them to music later – this is how I wrote “Inside Out”, one of my favourite tracks from my EP The Making of Me.



Sometimes lyrics come after almost the entire melody has been sketched out. Lyrics are my favourite part of songwriting because I’ve been a literature nerd my whole life and my Dad is an English teacher, go figure! I think lyrics should grow with the music, and sometimes a song wants to go one place musically, but the lyrics don’t seem to match that destination.

Someone once told me that “The answer is always in the song”, so I try to let the song dictate where it wants to go and I just listen.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

To me, good lyrics are lyrics that perfectly sum up a feeling you’ve had but never been able to put into words. They’re lines that give you goosebumps, or observations about the human condition which are so achingly real that you feel like some secret has been blown wide open, while still sounding like a whisper in its revelation.

I always try to find a balance between lyrics that are conversational and metaphorical – too much flowery language ends up sounding forced but too much casual language sounds a bit boring and naff.

My favourite lyricists are Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Jason Isbell, Paul Simon, and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

I definitely like to follow where the song feels like it wants to go. I have a general idea of what I want from the song, but if I walk into a session wanting to write an upbeat, fast-paced, pop song but the co-writer and I stumble upon a great idea for a heartbreak ballad and the mood feels right to write that song, it’s important to follow that feeling and not force your original idea.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

Normally when I’m writing, either alone or with co-writers, I’m in a constant state of word vomiting into a google doc. Most of these ideas won’t get used, which is totally fine. Sometimes they’re just a jumping off point.

The discarded ones go down the bottom of the page and sometimes I go back to these for other songs ideas at another time. Just because they didn’t work this time doesn’t mean they won’t work for another song.

It’s important to know how to “kill your darlings” – even if it’s a great standalone line, you have to get rid of anything that doesn’t serve the greater purpose of the song, or work with its overall concept.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

These days, I’m writing with a lot of producers, which means we can build up a soundscape for the song to live in from the moment it’s being written. That’s the most exciting way to write for me, especially as I move into a more pop world, because there’s no need to guess what the song will sound like eventually with lots of instruments added – it’s already a long way along by the time you leave the writing room.

My single “Compensating” was written with wonderful songwriter / producer Xavier Dunn, and at the end of our writing session, we had a demo so good that we ended up keeping 95% of it for the final track.



I love to have a role in production and I’ve co-produced some of my own songs and albums. Engineering, mixing and mastering are things I can give feedback on as the artist but certainly not things I’m skilled in personally. I leave those to the professionals!

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I don’t tend to feel emptiness when releasing, but I do feel fear. I worry that I’ve put my heart on the line, created a snapshot of myself at this point in my life, spent so much time, money and effort on this creation, only for it to go completely unnoticed or even worse, disliked by those who hear it. (Just anxiety girly things!)

I try to instead focus on celebrating the achievement of putting a body of work together, the excitement that comes with sharing these stories and the connection I get to feel when people message me or tell me at shows that the songs helped them through something.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Writing songs is a skill like anything else – you get better the more you do it, and the more you study the greats. When I listen to music that touches me deeply, I think “what is it about this song that makes me feel this way, and how can I employ that in my own writing?”

Songwriters should always be learning and observing. I think songwriting has allowed me to express how I feel about the world, what I observe of what it means to be human, and to say things to people I couldn’t or wouldn’t usually. When I haven’t written a song in a while, I get agitated – I feel frustrated and pent up.

It’s because songwriting is my one passion and my truest form of expression and therapy – the healthiest and happiest I feel is when I’m writing a lot, exorcising all the demons and getting the emotions out. I honestly don’t know who I’d be without it, and I don’t want to know.