Allie Lauren

ALLIE LAUREN – THE STORY BEHIND SPITFIRE
Jessica McKim January 21, 2015


Today, Allie Lauren released a new single “Spitfire” into the world. Along with the track release, a video was also delivered to go along side it and to give listeners the chance to hear the story behind the song.



A personal Thank You from Lauren Nicole Clare:

“Every once and while someone approaches you simply because they want to be a part of what you’re doing. This film blossomed out of one such relationship that began over Cuppies & Joe coffee. Rachel Renee Bryan (rachelreneebryan.com), an Oklahoma City Creative, did me the honor of putting together this time capsule that is The Story Behind Spitfire. Additionally, I had the honor of filming with Tatiana Clare of OX Studios (ohex.me) in Nassau, Bahamas to film footage in front of the very place I wrote Spitfire. This song is the story of my life and this film serves to hopefully help others who might be struggling in the same ways that I have.

Massive thanks to Rachel, Tatiana & Heather (howtobefancy.com) for helping me put this together! To Sara Kate Studios (sarakatestudios.com) in Downtown OKC for the location. And always, David, Michael & Jose for making music alongside me.” - NakedCity Magazine

ALLIE LAUREN “SPITFIRE” EXCLUSIVE
Jessica McKim January 20, 2015

Oklahoma City native singer-songwriter, Lauren Nicole Clare, has a big week ahead of her. Her newest album "Spitfire" is set to be released to the world on January 21, 2015. NakedCity OKC is excited to share exclusive early access to hear Allie Lauren's "Spitfire" album in its entirety before it is released.

Allie Lauren is an alternative piano led project packed with the alluring & emotional vocals of singer-songwriter Lauren Nicole Clare and an eclectic mix of backing artists. Defying genre lines, the impulsively passionate sound seeks to take its listener to a place that only seems familiar, while inspiring thought that transcends what music is often told to be. Her debut album, Tales of a Glass Heart, hit the market on October 17, 2012 followed by Tales of a Glass Heart :: The B-Sides on April 17, 2014. Some of her influences include Fiona Apple, Lykke Li, Corinne Bailey Rae, Florence + the Machine and Norah Jones.

You can pre-order her newest single on iTunes by clicking on the picture below.



You can listen to “Spitfire” in it’s entirety below - NakedCity Magazine

Oklahoma musician Lauren Nicole Clare finds her fit as a ‘random puzzle piece.’
Through her art-pop/jazz project Allie Lauren, the singer/songwriter/pianist released last year her debut album, “Tales of a Glass Heart,” and already is working on her sophomore record.

Lauren Nicole Clare has learned to embrace her music’s fit as a “random puzzle piece.”

Through her art-pop/jazz project Allie Lauren, the singer/songwriter/pianist is cultivating a distinctively expressive sound that snaps into a sweet spot where her family roots, personal experiences and place of origin converge.

“Growing up in Oklahoma, it’s been a lot of fun. I feel like we’re kind of the underdog state. I have a lot of family on both of the coasts, and whenever I would go visit, people were always like, ‘Oklahoma, where’s that?’ or ‘you don’t sound like you should be from Oklahoma’ and ‘do you guys still live in teepees?’ and the whole nine yards. I feel like now that, you know, we have a (professional) basketball team and all this, people are finally like, ‘Oh, I know where Oklahoma is, cool,’” Clare said in an interview this week at the OPUBCO studios.

“It’s really fun kind of being from a state that is sort of an underdog state because I’ve always kind of felt like an underdog myself. Then, at the same time, I feel like I kind of have a sound that you wouldn’t expect to come out of Oklahoma. So that’s kind of fun for me; I kind of like being that random puzzle piece.”

Oklahoma City singer/songwriter/pianist Lauren Nicole Clare, who makes music as the art-pop/jazz project Allie Lauren, plays during a video and photo session at The Oklahoman Monday, December 2, 2013. Photo by Doug Hoke, The Oklahoman
Oklahoma City singer/songwriter/pianist Lauren Nicole Clare, who makes music as the art-pop/jazz project Allie Lauren, plays during a video and photo session at The Oklahoman Monday, December 2, 2013. Photo by Doug Hoke, The Oklahoman
Musical family

In some ways, it seems the Oklahoma City native, 30, was destined to become a musician. Her maternal grandfather, Hal Roberts, was a big-band trombonist who played for jazz great Lionel Hampton, while her grandmother, Birdie Roberts, was the organist, pianist and choir director at Tabernacle Baptist Church. Her mother, who studied ballet at the University of Oklahoma under Yvonne Chouteau, sings and grew up playing piano.

“There’s a rumor my dad played the tuba once,” Clare said laughing. “I don’t know how good he was, but he’s not musical at all and will be the first person to tell you he’s not. … But he and I used to stay up all the time watching like old Motown movies and documentaries on different musicians.”

Her parents started her in piano lessons around age 2, but she dabbled with the violin, flute and alto saxophone as an adolescent. The Casady graduate also struggled at that time to discover her identity as a person and musician.

“I was sort of in this box but didn’t feel like I fit in the box. Then I think compounding that I was trying to figure out who I was as an individual racially – I didn’t feel black enough, I didn’t feel white enough, I’m part Native American, I didn’t feel that enough, I’m a tiny, tiny bit Mexican but I don’t relate to that at all – and it took me until like 18 to figure out ‘OK, I’m just myself and it doesn’t really matter where I fit in,’” she said.

She studied voice at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, earned her masters in vocal performance at Oklahoma City University and started her music career singing with a local jazz group and church band.


Label launch

The musician combined her great-grandmother’s first name with her own for her music project, Allie Lauren. In 2011, Clare launched her own HALBird Records, named for her influential grandparents.

“I wanted to form something where I could be sure to have creative control over what I was doing. … Eventually, I would love to bring on other artists down the line, but right now, it is just sort of my back-end to what I do. It’s an interesting process, though, learning the business side. My husband’s very business-oriented so that’s been extremely helpful,” said Clare, who now divides her time between Oklahoma City and Bentonville, Ark., where her spouse, Gene, works in Walmart’s corporate office.

She released “Tales of a Glass Heart,” her debut album and initial offering under the Allie Lauren moniker, a year ago. Recorded at Music Group Studios in Edmond, the music has strong jazz bones fleshed out with vivacious pop storytelling and production.

“The record is really a story of a period of my life spanning about five or six years. It starts … in a little coffee shop in Tulsa,” she said. “The concept was really making each song its own. I really wanted each piece to exemplify the emotion and the feeling that was in that piece when I was writing it.”

con't.... - The Oklahoman (NewsOK.com)

Allie Lauren is an indie/pop/jazz collaborative packed with the alluring & emotional vocals of singer-songwriter Lauren {pronounced luh-REN} Nicole Clare and an eclectic mix of backing artists. Singer Lauren Nicole Clare has been quoted as saying she wants her music to take ‘the listener on an emotional roller coaster with a fairy-tale ending’ and her new album certainly does that. Released at the end of 2012 the debut record ‘Tales of a Glass Heart’ reached the top twenty on the iTunes new pop release chart and tells the story of unrequited love through beautiful lyrics and original melodies that you can’t help but get addicted to.

IF: Have you always known that you wanted to be a musician?

AL: I have. I come from a family of musicians so I feel like it was inevitable for me to be drawn towards music. My grandfather was a big band trombonist in the 50’s for Lionel Hampton and my grandmother was a church organist, pianist and singer. My mother sings as well. I was always around rehearsals and such as a kid and my grandmother taught voice and piano from a home studio so naturally I would try and mimic what I saw. I think once they realized that I was trying to play songs from the television and mimic my grandmother while she played from the organ they put me into piano lessons at 2 1/2. My grandfather restored a vintage piano for me (which I still have today) just before he died and I guess you could say, I became obsessed with all things music from that point on.

IF: If you had to explain your music to someone who had never heard it, what would you say?

AL: To sum it up in a phrase, I would say the sound is jazz inspired pop. There’s a great deal of scatting and improvisation in my vocals, but the accompanying instrumentation truly draws from everything that inspires me. There are jazzy upright bass lines, big band horns, soaring orchestral elements, quirky percussive sounds and beautiful strings, to name a few things. We really worked to produce each song like I heard it in my head when I wrote it. There was no pre-meditated ‘I want this type of sound’; we produced for the music and for the music alone.

IF: What first inspired you to make music?

AL: My first inspirations to create my own music really came out of trying to make practicing classical music interesting. Don’t get me wrong, I love classical piano and enjoy playing, but I always had this insatiable urge to play how I felt and not how the page told me to feel. Writing poetry and lyrics came a bit later… I wrote a lot of short stories and what not as a child, but I didn’t really get serious about writing poetry until after hearing Fiona Apple as a teenager and coming across Jewel’s A Night Without Armor book.

IF: Who would you site as your influences in terms of music?

AL: I would have to say my biggest influences outside of my grandparents are Fiona Apple for her depth, Jimi Hendrix for his courage to be different and Corinne Bailey Rae for always performing so in the moment. I love when it’s as if you can feel an artist’s soul and these are the three that truly set that standard for me.

IF: What is your career highlight up to this point?

AL: I would have to say the day that Jewel happened to be at a show we were playing. I had no idea she was there until just before bed when I checked our Twitter to find that she had tweeted, (@jeweljk) “Listening to @allieLtweets here in Bentonville- check her out!http://Allielauren.com”.

IF: I love the record! ‘Think I’m Something’ was probably my favourite track, do you have your own favourite from the album?

AL: First, thank you so much! That’s so nice to hear. My favourite tends to change with my mood actually… but, I have a real soft spot for ‘Because I Am’. If there was one song to encompass the journey I experienced as a late teen/young adult, it would be that song.

IF: What era or decade of music would you say is the best if you had to choose?

AL: Ooo gosh, that’s hard. I think overall I’d have to choose the Jazz era, only because I feel like musicians and performers from that era played because they had to; because they couldn’t survive without the music.

IF: Have you got any future projects you can tell us about?

AL: We are actually in talks of recording a b-sides acoustic version of a few songs from the album. We’ve had such a positive response to our unplugged sound that we thought releasing an EP of this sort might be a really fun project.

IF: Now time for the cheesy question, where do you want to see yourself in ten years’ time?

AL: Ah, not cheesy at all. It’s always good to work towards a master plan I feel. Last year I had the opportunity to play at a couple of venues in London and just last weekend I played our first show in New York. I’ll also be heading to Chicago, Dallas, Austin, St. Louis, Cincinnati, L.A. and Miami this year and in ten years’ time I hope to be traveling even more and sharing music with the people we meet. I had - Interfusion Magazine (UK)

NME.com posts live performance of Allie Lauren. - NME (UK)

Listening to @allieLtweets here in Bentonville- check her out! http://Allielauren.com - Jewel via @jeweljk

Check out the official video for “Think I’m Somethin’” by Allie Lauren, an Oklahoma City-based indie/pop/jazz collaborative featuring the alluring emotional vocals of singer-songwriter Lauren {pronounced luh-REN} Nicole Clare and an eclectic mix of backing artists.

“Think I’m Somethin’” is from Allie Lauren’s debut album “Tales of a Glass Heart,” released last fall.

Allie Lauren will play live Feb. 2 at the Picasso Cafe in the Paseo Arts District. For more information, go to www.picassosonpaseo.com.

-Brandy McDonnell - NewsOK - BAMs Blog

How do you like your indie music? Infused with a little jazz and pop, or genre-defying altogether? Then you might want to check out Allie Lauren’s set.

A collective of backing musicians paired with the vocals of Lauren Nicole Clare (that’s luh-REN), Allie Lauren has been featured at this year’s Festival of the Arts, as well as Norman Music Festival and numerous performances at the Picasso Cafe. Their single “Lately” is also now featured on iTunes.

You can see them perform on the Stanley’s Garage stage at 1:30 during Festival. Hope to see you there! - Oklahoma City Plaza District