Liddy Clark is a songwriter on the rise. Her previous singles, ‘Do I Miss You’ and ‘Nothing Like New York’ showcased her knack for creating personal, engaging lyrics underpinned by smooth vocals but it is on new song, ‘Austin’ (out today, May 20th 2022) that she really steps up a level.
‘Austin’ is a commercial Pop-Country song that tells a tale of missed opportunities and of guys who just can’t see what’s right there in front of them! The lyrics really pull you into the story. ‘I used to think he was going places, but he’s wasted all he could have been,’ Clark sings, and you can really hear the frustration in her voice!
Currently based in Los Angeles, Clark relocated with her family to South Florida (Parkland), just before first grade. Inspired by artistic family members like her cousin, Drew Womack (formerly of Sons of the Desert and the writer of Kenny Chesney’s first number one hit “She’s Got it All”) she has written, played and toured music since her early teens. In 2018 the tragic school shooting in Clark’s hometown of Parkland, Florida inspired her to write the very powerful ‘Shot Down (Stand Up)’ and the release of ‘Austin’ takes her one step closer to completing the album she is currently working on.
We were thrilled to catch up with Liddy to talk all about ‘Austin’ and much more besides!
Thanks for speaking to us today. We’re loving ‘Austin’. The production sound is huge and the story very engaging. Is it a real story or have you fictionalised elements of it?
I’ve definitely fictionalised a little of it. All my songs are based on real events that have happened to real people. In this song I’m talking about a guy who, essentially, just won’t leave Austin even though he had all these big dreams and big plans. That part is VERY true!! (laughing)
Austin is a fun town, it’s a great place but he just needed to get out of there in order to get his life moving but he’s still there, unfortunately. I wrote the song with Marty Dodson out of Nashville and I brought in the idea of ‘he said he was going to leave Austin, he had eyes you could get lost in,’ and we took it from there.
We really drilled down into that idea of needing to leave your hometown, not just for romantic purposes but for your own growth and development too, so it’s not just a love song.
It reminds us a little of Priscilla Block’s ‘Like a Boy’ song in terms of it being about a man-child who just can’t grow up. Do you see that in lots of guys?
Totally! (laughing) 100%. I live in L.A. so, you know, there’s a lot of those type of guys out here! Men emotionally mature a lot later than women, I don’t know how true that is, necessarily, but I’m not saying it’s not true either! (laughing)
How did you end up in L.A.?
All my family is originally from Texas but we moved to Florida when I was pretty young. I came out here to Los Angeles for college, actually. I just graduated from USC out here – the music industry program was incredible and I decided to stay. I’ve made some really good connections and met some stable, kind-hearted people who want to see each other succeed.
Nashville is still on the cards, potentially, for the future but as of now, I’m really happy in L.A.
Do you see yourself in any one musical genre or pigeonhole or are you just writing what you feel is you right now?
I feel like I’m just writing songs that make sense to me right now. One of the great things about L.A. is that it is a huge melting pot of all different genres. There’s a lot of interesting sounds here that are helping me to develop as a writer rather than just listening to all Country, which is what I did growing up in Florida.
I’m not trying to make a specifically ‘Pop-Country’ album. I want each song to be produced in a way that benefits the song, even if that means ‘spreading out’ a little bit, genre-wise.
When did your love of music first emerge?
I do have a bit of a musical family background. My dad’s cousins were in the band Sons of the Desert back in the 90s. They had some big hits back in the day! I think my dad also has a lovely voice so I think I might have got it from him.
When I was 7 we moved from Texas to Florida and I was feeling a bit lonely and trying to figure out who I was going to be in this new place. My grandma had traced our family line back through history and found we were distantly related to Pocahontas so she was on our family tree somewhere and I really loved that movie and the ‘Colours of the Wind’ song so I used to sing that and then became interested in my school’s talent show and sang that there! I got involved in musical theatre after that, learned how to play guitar and learned how to write songs! (laughing)
Which artists were you inspired by growing up?
Oh man! We drove all over Florida doing competitive cheerleading for a time and it was albums in the car like Shania Twain, John Mayer, you know? I loved Taylor Swift too. As a teenager I became more interested in Country music and as I’ve got older my influences and tastes broadened to include artists like Phoebe Bridgers and the whole Indie-Pop scene that is taking off right now. I love her writing but I also love Maren Morris too.
Most newer artists these days aren’t trying to just exist in one genre, the lines are much more blurred than they were even a decade ago. I find that super interesting.
Tell us about your very personal and powerful song, ‘Shot Down (Stand Up)’.
That was tough to write. I grew up in Parkland, Florida and I was in my freshman year of college when the shooting happened there. My parents live less than a mile away from the school and I woke up that day and was very distressed. Some of my younger brothers’ best friends have suffered PTSD because of it and have never been the same.
Before hand I was very pro-gun control and I am now, even more so. The song was written in response to me being asked to play an awareness event at the Parkland amphitheatre where they had the memorial for the shooting.
I really like your song ‘Sorry Mom and Dad’ – what do they think about that one?
(laughing) Yeah, that was a really fun one to write. I started that one as a joke but the more I wrote the more I thought it was a cool concept to explore! I wrote straight from the heart there.
The first time I played for my parents my dad started to cry! He was, like, ‘you don’t really feel like this all of the time, do you?’ (laughing) My mom, however, was really angry about it at first but she got on board with it eventually!! (laughing)
Nashville has a big co-writing community – does that exist in L.A. at all?
That Nashville vibe is super-great and it does really get you experienced with writing more songs. L.A. doesn’t have that same vibe but it’s still there if you want to use it.
I still do a lot of co-writes over zoom, especially with people from Nashville, I love it! Let’s normalise zoom co-writes, they work so well and are so easy to manage! (laughing)
If you could sit down tomorrow and write your next song with anyone, who would you choose?
I really love Emily Weisband’s writing, she’s one of the most interesting people around right now. I’d also love to write with JP Saxe, who is more of an L.A. based artist and writer. They would be two very different experiences but I would be very into it!
What’s the plan for the rest of the year?
To finish off the album. I only have 3-4 more tracks to finish off before it’s ready. We’ve been trying to release each song as a single upfront so that when the album drops I already have a bit of an audience. Hopefully, there will be a full album by the end of the year.
I’ve already started work on my second album! (laughing) I’ve already got a mood board, concept and track listing for that beginning to emerge for that!
