Clayton Frick

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ There was no television where songwriter, Clayton Frick, grew up. Instead he turned to the radio and his parents’ pile of LP records to make the evenings feel shorter in that 1960s colonial small town. His mum used to have to bribe him with chocolate to get him to go to bed, and even then he would listen to a pocket transistor radio under the bedcovers with an earphone. He dreamed about being able to play music, so his parents sent him to piano lessons, which he hated because he had heard Little Richard do “Long Tall Sally” and the teacher was making him play juvenile classics. Thus piano lessons soon fell by the wayside. Years later at high school, he borrowed a mate’s nylon string guitar and quickly learnt to strangle out a few chords until he could get a reasonable “House of the Rising Sun” or “Blowing in the Wind” happening. A week later he wrote his first song. “It was some soppy love song in sad old D-minor for an ex-girlfriend at a nearby girls’ school – guess I’ve been writing the same song ever since, ay?” he chuckles. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ At college he formed The Flaming Firestones, a blues band that had the tongues wagging and hips shaking in the late 80s Cape Town. After a three-year stint in London to dodge military service, he started a live music venue, the Smokehouse Blues Club, and formed The Blues Stones in which he was the singer and guitarist. After migrating to Australia in 1992, his next project was the formation of the Sydney Blues Society in June 1992 and he played in the Suitcase Blues Band. Moving down to Wollongong in October 1993, the Claytons Blues Band emerged and did monthly residencies at the Oxford Tavern, the Great Southern Hotel in Berry and as house band at the Blues Society jam sessions at the Rose of Australia pub in Erskineville. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ Returning to Cape Town in May 1997, he wrote his first novel, “Blues on the Road”, and began to play acoustic music. “There came a day when I just couldn’t play Blues anymore because I didn’t want to sing those ‘baby-done-left-me’ mantras anymore. Soon I began to find a new voice for the music and it was back to my roots – acoustic folk music. That’s when the song writing really began.” After coming back to Sydney in November 1998, yoga and philosophy took him to a town high up in the Himalayas in India for the first time in June 2001. By this time he had completed his second novel “Journey From the West” an epic tale of a man’s search for the meaning of love. “It was very much a sojourn though Western concepts of love and life, with references to quantum physics and Jungian psychology, but by the end of it I concluded that the best answers for life’s big questions lay in the East.” Returning from India, he immediately set to work on his first proper CD, which he recorded at home in Bronte on an eight-track machine, titled “The Bronte Bhajans”. Today he chuckles at the naivety of the exercise. “I did everything so haphazardly and never bothered with second or third takes to get optimum performances. I used the ‘wrong’ mics, there were plenty of bum notes and lacklustre singing. However, I did receive a lot of feedback, both positive and negative, from all sorts of people and in the process I learnt so much about music – the recording, the mixing, the production, the arrangements etc and also the architecture of sound – placing the instruments into a three-dimensional space before the listener.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ By that stage his songbook of original material was growing, but discouraged by the Bronte Bhajans experience, he never touched the eight-track again for three years. In the interim he spent much time in Bellingen and it yielded his third novel “Flowering the Lotus”, a karma and reincarnation mystery. September 2005 saw him release a CD “Funeral Rites for Sorrows”. “The response to it has generally been very good even though it is so much darker than the Bronte Bhajans, but I guess we relate to each other’s human pain more easily than spiritual rapture, particularly if it has raw honesty. I guess it’s my ‘break-up’ album, which I never intended, but that must be the way the muse willed it. Whenever we create, there is so much occurring on a subconscious level. When we recognise it we realise that there is a lot of magic in this universe and that we are not alone. So the feeling of loneliness is merely a non-constructive habit we have acquired”. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ Music producer Bertrand Lalanne, who had mastered both CDs, expressed a strong faith in the quality of the Funeral Rites opening track “Carnival of Dreams” and invited Clayton into his studio to record it on top-class equipment. In the warm up, Clayton sang five new songs live in the studio and along with the more heavily produced title track, they now form a new EP “Carnival of Dreams”, which is being distributed more widely with the aim of procuring radio airplay. The three albums to date present 32 of his songs and yet there are more than 100 others still waiting in the songbook for their time to be heard. “That will be such a satisfying moment to hear one of those songs finding its way wider into the world.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ Contact Clayton on (02) 9389-094 or (m) 0400 547-001 or [email protected]