9q with Violet Clark of Grand Duchy (part one)

9 Aug

Violet Clark is the mama of five children, a musician, and a visual artist. After experimenting with a solo album, she joined forces with her hubby, Charles Thompson, and together they created the band Grand Duchy. Of course, we all know Charles as Black Francis/Frank Black of the hugely influential band The Pixies.

Violet is carving out a name for herself as an artist and musician, while remaining very involved in her kids’ daily lives. She’s been recording in the studio over the summer, and like many of us, getting her kids ready for the new school year. After putting the kids to bed, she kindly took the time to answer my questions and reflect on motherhood, music, art, being married to a legendary musician, and what finally triggered her to take herself seriously as an artist.

Here’s part one of my 9q with Violet Clark of Grand Duchy.

1. What are your favorite artistic media (music/visual art/writing/photography/film/etc)? Do you favor one medium or bounce from one to another?

Well, seeing as I’m in the throes of making a record right now, I would have to say sound is my current favorite creative medium. It’s so visceral and exciting! However, I was just thinking the other day, that if I were limited to only making records for the rest of my life, it wouldn’t be enough to satisfy me. I’m such a visual person. I studied interior design and art history in college, and I would die if I could not express myself through the incessant tweaking of my environment or through painting. I am particularly in love with the magical, creative power of color.

2. What are the names and ages of your kids, and how did you come up with their names?

Well let’s see, Julian is 12, Annabelle just turned 10, Jack is five, Lucy is four and Jude is two. As you can see they’ve all got solid, respectable British names. I guess I’m a bit of an anglophile.

3. How has parenthood affected your creative life in both negative and positive ways?

Well, initially, it all seemed negative! That sounds awful. Let me explain. I used to stay up all night making music, or painting, or writing. I lived in my own little self-created world pretty much, and it was awesome — nothing commercial, but just for me. And then, the day I found out I was carrying my first child, my priorities shifted completely to that baby. And after Julian was born, I just didn’t ever feel right going “into myself” which is, of course, what you do when you create. It felt greedy or selfish or something. I was really grappling with this for a long time.

I experimented with going back to get my Master’s degree, taking time off again after Annabelle was born. I managed to make my first record around this time, but it felt almost naughty to take the time for myself to do the record. I was in no way committed to promoting anything that I was doing, because I did not feel like I had the right to be that focused on myself when I had two small children needing my attention so much. Hitting the big 3-0 was a huge turning point for me. I started to feel a real urgency to figure things out, because I was exploding with longing to live a more creative life, and it was really affecting my sense of well-being.

“I am now able to say that one would actually be doing their kids a much greater disservice by not modeling a creative investment in one’s self, than by taking the time for yourself to do things you love.”

This is when I met my now-husband, Charles, who was this legendary person, a world-famous rock musician I’d admired for years. Here was a guy who was into what I was into, music, art, film, etc. He was doing things that I was doing, but on a much larger scale. I was impressed and inspired by knowing him, and yet his achievements seemed to completely throw my creative efforts into a shadow (at least in my own mind — not his). Marrying him brought out the competitive side of me in an absolutely major way, which was, in hindsight, fundamental to my development as an artist.

We had a child, and another child, and were contemplating yet another, and he was touring a lot. I was growing more and more restless, saying things like “Hey, I love being your wife, I love our life and I love these children. But you can’t always be exclusively the one who gets to travel and gets the ego strokes and gets to express yourself. I will lose my total mind if I can’t do some of that stuff, too.” I felt that my role in the relationship was to be perpetually “holding down the fort.” This left me a constant state of longing. It was affecting not so much my parenting, but the quality of our relationship. And then one day Charles sort of threw down the gauntlet, and said, “You are a really sharp gal. I support you. Let’s see what you are made of. Less talk, more rock.” And he not only encouraged me to make more time for myself, but he brought me into his creative world as well, inviting me to sing or play bass on a few albums. Soon we were just booking days in the studio and messing around with no ulterior motive but to have fun. lt was really nice to be two humans working together towards a creative goal, and not just the “mommie and daddy,” which is a rut that so many lovers find themselves in after having a child.

At some point our working relationship took on a life of its own and has snowballed into the amazing creative partnership that we have now with our band Grand Duchy. With the release of our first record last year and some great reviews and feedback, and earning my stripes touring it live, I was able to legitimize and validate throwing myself into my work a little more. Maybe because its easier to validate a “together” thing versus a “Violet” solo thing. Whatever it is, the band is a great outlet for my uncensored impulses, and a real sanity-saver. And our kids think we’re really cool! They all want to be some version of us when they grow up. They see the creative template there, in the dad and in the mom, and the team that we are, too, and they just assume that they, too, have the ability and the right to be creative. I am now able to say that one would actually be doing their kids a much greater disservice by not modeling a creative investment in one’s self, than by taking the time for yourself to do things you love.

Part two of the interview will be posted tomorrow!

Grand Duchy Rehearsal Footage 2009