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MC: So what do you think is the weirdest thing on Blak And Blu?
Clark: The weirdest?! (laughs) I don’t know how to answer that, man. It’s all me; I’ll take full credit for it. But songs like “You Saved Me,” “Black and Blu,” going from something like that to “Next Door Neighbor Blues,” I’m just really excited to show the range, to put it all out there musically. They don’t sound like what people might expect, which is cool. It’s like a surprise: here’s something else that I’m doing! But those types of things have been in me a long time. I’ve always wanted to do them, so to just let it go is a big relief for me. I’ve been driving myself crazy with it for so long, I’m happy to put it out there and see what happens.
MC: Does the breadth reflect your upbringing? Did you grow up in a musical household?
Clark: I did. My grandmother had a piano at her house and my aunts and uncles were always playing and singing. My parents played around with music and singers and had a wide variety of records––funk, soul, rock & roll, jazz. I had an older sister, four years older than me; I really looked up to her and she’d bring home the hottest albums of the time by R&B groups or rock & roll bands. I kind of soaked up all that, just being in the next room and hearing her blasting it loud and pissing me off. (laughs) So there was that, and then being wtih my friends and listening to all kinds of stuff, like hip-hop, R&B. So I was around [music] a lot, a lot, a lot. I was in choir at school. I wanted to be in the jazz band but they already had a drummer. Anything that made noise I gravitated towards.
MC: How did you decide music was “it” for you?
Clark: I think I was five when I first started being really conscious of and aware of what swirled around me. But what clinched it was I was a huge Michael Jackson fan when I was a young, young kid. I still am. My folks surprised me and my sister and my cousins and we went to see him in concert in 1988, on the “Bad” tour. I just remember him coming on stage and the energy and the crowd was just going crazy. I remember thinking that I would love to do that, and it was always on my mind after that. It was a big moment, but I was always kind of shy about expressing how I wanted to be a musician. All the other kids would say they wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer, but I wanted to be on stage.
MC: What got you over the hump?
Clark: I guess the seventh grade talent show. I was in this group with my buddy, Robbie, and we had this song called “Young Soul”; that was the name of our group, too. We were 11-, 12-year-old kids; it was just me and him. And we sang this thing a cappella at the talent show. I remember I was really nervous, but after it was done I was like, “Wow, that felt great,” just the energy of expressing myself and getting some love back kinda changed it for me. Instead of being so freaked out about it, I got a little bit more comfortable.
MC: And you started playing...
Clark: I decided on guitar the next year. My friend played in that talent show, too; she had a band and they played a rock & roll tune. I thought it was cool. They had live instruments––guitar, bass, drums––like a loud trio. She had a black Stratocaster and a Fender Twin, and I said, “This chick is awesome! I want to play guitar, too.”
It just so happened she lived down the street from me, so we’d hang out and listen to rock & roll and blues and stuff. Then we started going to blues jams when we were 14, 15. That was her idea. I don’t know if I would’ve gotten into the whole blues scene if she wasn’t like, “Hey, want to go play in this blues jam on Sunday?”
