She has the voice of an English choir girl, the dance moves of a hell’s angel and she performs as though the world is about to end.
She styles herself as a soul trip-hop looper, her vocals and melodies a unique blend of gospel, classical, electronic and Celtic.
Her name is Clara Pople and on the pub and indie venue scene in London, her name is hot.
Now for the first time Clara is taking her talent, her band and her act on a UK-wide tour, with 10 shows in venues from London to Edinburgh and back.
The third stop on this tour will be the Farmer’s Arms, Lowick Green in Cumbria on March 13.
Clara, who was born near Kendal and has her home in the Howgills near Tebay, said: “I am incredibly excited to be bringing my music to my home turf. The Farmer’s Arms is a really cool art-centred pub and a great setting for my music.
“For the past two years, I have performed at Kendal Calling. This gig will be an opportunity to look familiar faces in the eye and show them what I have been working
on.”
Clara embarked on her performing career in 2021 and since then, she has recorded and issued two EPs.
She has given over 200 performances in London, the southeast and at festivals including Kendal Calling, Wibbly Woods and Keswick Mountain Festival. She has featured on BBC Introducing Cumbria, BBC Introducing Lancashire and on Radio 1 when her voice was likened to that of London Grammar’s Hannah Reid.
In 2023, Clara won DHL’s Fast Track competition which led to her recording at Abbey Road Studios. In 2024, she appeared at Glastonbury, had a sell-out headline gig at St Pancras Old Church and hosted seven Boat Gigs on the Humber barge she lives on in Rotherhithe.
She also began to work as a performer for the musical charity, founded by Yehudi Menuhin, Live Music Now.
All of Clara’s songs are her own, written on the loop pedal that helped her to evolve her multi-layered, ethereal sound.
Occasionally her lyrics are written by her mother Charlotte Fairbairn – and it is one of these songs The Lark that will form the centrepiece of her upcoming tour.
This magical, deeply moving piece was written as a tribute to the violinist Ricky Friedman (brother of Maria & Sonja Friedman) who was the leader of her father Ross Pople’s London Festival Orchestra.
The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams was one of the orchestra’s most successful recordings, and it was Ricky who played the solo.
Following Ricky’s death in 2023, Clara was asked to write a song for his memorial concert.
The Lark depicts a man in tailcoat with bow and fiddle coming on to the stage, lifting fiddle to chin before the hush of the audience, bringing the magic of the open fell and the rising lark into the auditorium as he begins to play.
The Lark will be available to buy via vinyl and Bandcamp, along with another new song, Ballad of the Lovesick River.
