By Will McGuirk
Pain around rhythm, melancholy and melody, solace at the heart of soul; Shannon Clark and the Sugar possess it, a “1000 Times’, and a thousand times more.
Darke County, Ohio, couple, Shannon and Brittany Clark played in bands, until tragically they lost their second daughter and music was folded away and grief unfurled.
However music moves the darkness towards the light, the music eased out and eased back in, wrapping the couple in its healing embrace and over time the couple eased back out, and with the company of their other daughter Navie, Shannon Clark and the Sugar, became the conduit for a family to regain each other.
Mark Howard has an instinct around a song, he knows when to step aside and let the song do the talking. He studied with Daniel Lanois, who has an instinct for the spiritual. Howard has produced the debut album, ‘Marks on the Wall’ for the Clark family band and he lets the spirit walk, and the spirit talk.
Slowcity.ca talked via email to Shannon Clark and the Sugar about the track, ‘1000 times.’
Slowcity.ca: This comes to me in such a complete manner, but I doubt it just came that way, tell me about the evolution of your sound, where did you pull the strongest inspirations?
Shannon Clark and the Sugar: “This song particularly is one of my favorites on the record because it was different from everything else. It was not originally suppose to be on the record . I had held it back from my original demos I sent to Mark but on our fourth day of tracking I woke up that morning and something told me I had to show this song to Mark . It was only half finished at the time . Mark heard the first verse and chorus and he said “ We have to record that today , that’s a hit “ . So I spent the next 30 minutes with everyone trying to finish the lyrics. The sound evolved for this song much different then I had originally wrote. It was first written as a slower soul song, with a lot of minors and jazz style chording. We nixed that idea . Went with a more ambient Americana sound . Inspirations were Gary Clark Jr., Prince , Fleetwood Mac and even a little Smoky Robinson and Anderson Paak.”
SC: What really grabbed me on ‘1000 Times’ was the click drumming, it’s a good, if unorthodox, hook for an accomplished roots number, where did that idea come from and how much of a discussion was there around it?
SCS: “The drum machine track was all Mark ! He loves adding beats behind real drums . He’s done it on a lot of his projects . We fought him on this at first . I’ve always and only ever had organic drums for two reasons , one, drum machines have no soul and two my beautiful wife is the drummer of our band lol. Mark insisted and I trusted him and after it was done , I was like wow ! I love it !! It’s hybrid.”
SC: You are working with a Grammy winner, Mark Howard - His book, ‘Listen Up!,’ is great, have you read it - he seems to have a very loose style - how was it working with him and how did it come about that you did?
SCS: “I have read Mark’s book. I loved it ! He has a new one coming out soon as well which I’m excited about getting . I have followed Mark Howard’s career as well as Daniel Lanois for a longtime . I’m a huge fan of their work together. Mark does have a loose style , that’s what I love about him . We play live in a room , as a band and record from the heart . Once he thinks we have the arrangement we do two to three takes at most and we pick the best one or the one that speaks to us . It made the process so much fun and it wasn’t like we had to be perfect ,it was capturing the moment . I think we, at times, nowadays, we strive for a perfect vocal take or perfect timing but to me it sucks the life out of the music. We came to hook up with Mark on a whim by emailing three Grammy award winning producers and all three wanted to work with us which was beyond flattering but for me, Mark was at the top of my list because of his amazing resume of great records “
SC: “I am sorry to hear about the loss of your daughter; music is the great healer, now more than ever we need the healing power of music, and we see its power as a gatherer and a balm - can you tell me about your journey, your daughter, if not too invasive a question, and how your family came through it via music?”
SCS: “A journey in life defines us, it can build or take away . Losing our daughter did both of those things for us . It brought us closer as a family , it tested my faith but somehow made it stronger . My Wife and I met playing music , we feel in love playing music and it had always been a cornerstone for us . When we lost our daughter that changed for sometime . It made us stop playing and writing . Eventually we missed it and our other children wanted us to sing and play music with them and as we did that more and more it created that desire again and now we get to share that with our kids and our oldest daughter Navie plays with our band . It’s special to us.
Covid had presented many challenges and we have had a hard time booking a tour for this record because of it . Many venues are either gone or aren’t open yet. We do all of our own booking so it can be discouraging but we are trying our best . It had given us time to rehearse more and write more and that’s been a plus . We have a busy June coming up . We will be filming at Red Barn Radio in Lexington KY followed by a few dates in West Virginia and Tennessee. We also won a Bands in Residence contest for the 2nd year in a row at Cedar Point (Amusement Park) . We were chosen out of over 600 Bands and we get a week of shows at the park. It’s exciting for us.”