Times Out

Instead the singer struggled to cope with fame, and relied more and more on alcohol to escape her problems.

Five years later she has returned with a new album, and a new outlook on life.

“I did know from a young age that I had issues, but I didn’t change it because I was happy being out of it all the time,” she says.

“It’s such a cliché but life is so much better when you’re not that, and you’re aware of things and you have self-worth. It’s something I’m still working on, and being more positive, but it can be powerful. It changes the way you work and your relationships with everyone.

“Sometimes you can feel like you’re a victim and everyone is against you, but if you can change how your mind works then people will change towards you, too.”

The turning point for Clare came when she woke up and realised she’d drunk a bottle of rare champagne her old producer had given her as a gift. It embarrassed her into seeking help, and going into rehab.

At one stage she was warned she only had weeks to life, due to the amount of drink she’d been taking for years.

After two months she was able to move back to her home in London, and slowly started making music again. However the Birmingham native knows that she hasn’t put all her problems completely behind her, and that it’s an ongoing struggle.

“A couple of months ago I had a real crash emotionally, but I knew that would happen at some point,” she admits.

“When I got sober the whole focus became the album, and then it went, so when you’re not doing stuff then everything catches up to you. But now I feel better than I’ve done in years – I feel I needed to go through that, and I’m so grateful to the people who support me and to the position I’m in now.

“With me, I knew I had an issue even before I got into music, and I knew it was going to be bad at some point. I think music probably saved me in a way, because if I’d stayed at home it would just have got a lot worse and I’ve never have tried to fix anything.”

Prior to that, Clare had been hailed as the next big thing in music, with attention focusing on her huge, powerhouse voice. However for Light After Dark she found herself working with other writers and producers, and eventually releasing a record that submerged her own personality.

With this year’s Stranger Things Have Happened, which she brings to St Luke’s on Thursday night, she feels she has found more of her own identity, toning down her voice in favour of a quieter, almost confessional tone, with more emphasis on the piano.

She believes the album’s lead single, Elizabeth Taylor, was key to that process.

“Elizabeth Taylor was a dance song to start with, actually,” she says.

“I was writing with someone else and really liked it, and it came to a point where I was writing folky stuff by myself on the piano at the same time, and I tried it that way too.

“So I liked it both as a dance track and as a piano track – I just really liked the sound we got with the piano, and I thought it was the right thing to do with the album as a whole.”

This does leave one problem, though.

The singer loves a noisy crowd, but she’s now worried that the album’s quietness will put audiences off making noise. So she’s encouraging Glasgow to make some noise tomorrow.

“I did Oran Mor on the Light After Dark tour and it just remember it being funny,” she recalls.

“Everybody was dancing all the way through and there was a lot of jokey heckling. That really makes a difference – I even like being heckled, because when things are a bit rowdy it’s a better gig.

“When I started touring this album I was like I’ve put out the wrong kind of record for the gigs I like, because it’s quiet, and I think people maybe feel they can’t say anything. So I’m always like ‘you can say anything you want’ here – I’m encouraging people to be a bit mental, basically.”

Clare Maguire, St Luke’s, tomorrow, £10, 8pm