Written by: Oliver Heffron
On her debut album, Diva 98, Independent Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Tess Clare is done waiting to be married—metaphorically. “This sounds weird, but I feel like I'm like performing like a solo wedding,” Clare says. “It feels like this is the biggest thing I've done with my life. So I'm just kind of going all out.” Centering Clare’s booming voice and songwriting talent on tracks like “One Of Your Ghosts,” “Hit List,” and “Circles in the Valley,” the album is a defiant reclamation of romance and self-worth amid the complexities of being seen.
After releasing EPs and singles for a few years, Clare felt ready to take on her first full-length, but struggled with a sense of “imposter syndrome,” worrying if it was the right time and feeling as if she had to be “somebody” before she could share an album with the world. “I had a weird moment where I was like, ‘I feel ready,’ and yet I don't feel that externally I've shown people like who I am as a true artist. Like who is Tess Clare?” The answer, according to Diva 98, is a powerful pop chanteuse, whose soaring, smoky voice and romantic songwriting turn the album into a romantic dance on a ballroom floor.
Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, music has been at the center of Clare’s life since she started writing songs at 10 years old. She went on to attend the renowned Interlochen Arts Academy in Traverse City, Michigan, where she developed her songwriting craft through years of formal training. It was also where she first realized that she owned being a “diva” after she and a classmate were crowned “Biggest Divas” in their senior superlatives.
She explains, “The interesting thing to me psychologically was I took it as a compliment, but this other person like cried. She was so embarrassed by being called that. So, I think it's really interesting how people can either embrace a term, or it can, like, bring out a certain insecurity in them. You either embrace being called this, in a way, a bossy, powerful type of person who knows what they want, or do you feel like it's an insult?”
The album’s emotional core is the title track “Diva,” which sees Clare trying to reconcile her inner pop-queen child with the insecurities and anxieties of growing up and the struggle of being an artist, while “Hit List” sees her fully embrace the power of her alter-ego. “‘Hit List.’ That one feels like it embodies the whole diva-coded alter ego mind. This kind of like villainous, vengeful woman going after people who've like wronged her.”
The track “The Siren” manifests the doubts and fears of entering the next stage of a relationship, as it was written a few weeks after moving in with an ex-significant other. Clare explains, “I was feeling so stressed out. Because a big part of my identity is being very independent. I have this fear of losing myself in relationships. I also have been in relationships where people—I call them ‘energy vampires’—want to take your energy away, so that’s what ‘The Siren’ is about, where it’s this certain power imbalance and struggle within certain relationships.”
Photo Courtesy of Ayo Adepoju
While songwriting is clearly at the core of Clare’s musical identity, she makes one exception on her stunning cover of Édith Piaf’s “La vie en Rose,” embodying the diva-mindset with a triumphant cover of an untouchable classic. Fluent in French, as displayed on the ode to unlived possibilities, “Paris (All That I Could Be),” Clare explains why Piaf’s song had to be included on her debut album. “That's like my favorite song of all time. Like, I think it's like a perfect song,” she says.
Clare goes on to explain how her cover of “La vie en Rose” also had a personal motivation. “The first relationship that I was ever in was seven years with this guy in France, and that song also was my favorite song,” she explains. “He taught it to me, and so I was very connected to that relationship. Then after we broke up for like a couple years, I wouldn't sing it. I kind of got mad at myself because I'm like, why did this relationship like, ‘why do I like associate this my favorite song that was my favorite song before him, with himg’ It kind of felt like I was like giving him the power, and like I'm like I don't want him to like ruin my favorite song, so I started like singing it again—reclaiming it.”
After hearing Tess Clare perform “La vie en Rose” live, this music writer couldn’t be more grateful that she reclaimed her favorite song. One of many highlights at her album debut show at The Virgil in Los Angeles, Clare celebrated her debut album with a hair-raising vocal performance backed by a live band. At one point, the music writer’s friend turned to him and said, “This might sound crazy, but she sounds like Amy Winehouse.” It doesn’t sound crazy—more diva.