London-based multi-disciplinary artist Clara Mann will release her debut album, Rift, on March 7 via state51. The record charts a course to explore the in-between spaces in our lives, the polarized emotions we feel, and the hope we can find in our darkest hours. She illuminates the themes of her work on recent single, “Driving Home the Long Way”, an acoustic breeze about battling to stay in control while knowing that sometimes you just have to take your hands off the wheel. There’s a shiver in her voice, a hesitancy, doubt growing out of fear and anticipation. It’s a gorgeous ode to letting go, to making the decision to be okay when you’re not the primary acting force — to be free to focus on other things and to know that this adjustment can be beneficial.
“I’ve always been so attached to my independence, so fiercely protective of it,” she explains. “I’d drive thousands of miles alone to prove that I could, that I didn’t need anyone- and then one day I just realised that I wanted to be able to let go of the wheel and not feel like everything was going to fall apart. I wanted to let someone in and not feel like I was losing part of myself, because they loved me as I was: free.”
She goes on: “In the end, when I’m really in love with someone, it’s because they feel both like freedom and like home in equal measure. These days, I know that I want to share the journey, because freedom doesn’t mean anything on its own, on MY own. I want to sit in the passenger seat and watch you drive, I want to feel limitless, alongside you.”
Listen below.
Rift is due out March 7 via state51. You can pre-order the album here. Follow Mann on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
