Clemency: The brothers duo !
by Alisha Uppal
Originally from Oklahoma, the wonderful brothers Jason and Paul Watkins began their musical career at a young age. The sibling duo picked up their instruments together and began the music making process in high school. Now based in Nashville, Clemency’s latest release You’ve Got The Fire displays the bands phenomenal talent.Clemency’s most recent project uses very thoughtful ideologies, merging them together into some brilliant ideas. Two records ago, the brothers decided to do a video for every song as part of an artistic concept, which told a story that provided visuals for the music. Having always loved cinema and story telling, they aimed to add another element to their music. They believe this kind of project has been a vehicle for people to discover. On this last record, You've Got the Fire, Clemency was brainstorming on how they could continue the videos but also up the ante. When they wrote the album, they noticed that the songs had similar overarching themes that lent themselves to the same story. What if they actually tied all the songs together and made a story out if it? So the album would instead come out to be a series of mini films.
Clemency’s musical atmosphere has grown and transformed over the past years. Watkins explains the phenomenon of musical metamorphosis, “It’s like anything else, a trade or craft, it takes some time to hone it and develop it and we’ve evolved and grown as writers and artists. With every album it’s been a progression, and it’s continued to get better and grow. When we first came to Nashville I wouldn’t say we were the band that we are now. We really discovered what art we wanted to make. Even with the last two record we landed on a sound that we’re really happy with and love, and making the art that we want to make.” Essentially, the band’s musical aim is to create beautiful music; this involves a unique degree of freedom and creativity, not bound by the confines of the industries’ stereotypes.
“Our goal is always been to make beautiful and meaningful art. When we put our music out, we want people to smile and feel good, it’s been intentional on our part. People have enough struggles and worries; we didn’t want to add to that we didn’t want to make music that was negative. So, hopefully we’re making joyful beautiful music.”
The Watkins brothers grew up in a musical family, and proudly continue this wonderful tradition. Jason reflects on his relationship with his brother, “I think we’re blessed. Not everyone has the opportunity to continue his or her relationship in such proximity. I think that bond and relationship is always there, but not everyone has the opportunity to work alongside their siblings”. They lived together for a lot of years till we got married and are fortunate enough to depend on one another. “There are probably times where we want to kill each other,” Watkins laughs, “but at the end of the day its kind of cool being in a band with your brother because despite all the differences or disagreements at the end of the day you’re blood. You’re committed to one another.”
“It’s always fun and we love seeing new cities and meeting new people. My favorite part of it is the people you meet and get to hang out with”.
In response to a question about the music making process, Watkins elaborated, “We’re always working together but for us it’s always starting with a melody progression or a musical idea something that inspires us, that might be me coming up or Paul coming up. We get around a table and say hey I have this idea the lyrics are usually the last thing to come. I do most of the lyric writing although its really great melodies collaborative. We build it, and we always do demos first using Logic, which is a recording software. Once they’re finished, we show them to our producer and start the recording process”.Recording music in a studio is one experience and preforming in front of an audience is an entirely different, equally wonderful opportunity. Jason narrates a touching story, recollecting the wonders of music and performance, “For our release show for the last record here in Nashville, we had a lot of close friends come and a lot of people from town. One of the actresses the main actresses in our videos, Melissa Green, came to see us. We were preforming “Heaven in the World We Know” she was in front and I could see her when I looked out-she was crying during the song. That just really touched me it was amazing to know that something you wrote had such an impact on someone’s life. I talked to her after, just giving her a hard time “It looks like you’re crying; you trying to make me lose it?” And she said, “You just touch people, man. It meant a lot to me.” It’s amazing to think that what we worked so hard to create meant something to some people”.The band is currently considering changing their style for a while and trying something new. While the brothers would like to continue to make Clemency records, they are also currently in the process of writing with a good friend in Nashville. Jason gives enthusiastic endorsement of his friend, Matthew Martin, exclaiming that Martin is a great musician whose an extremely talented writer, drummer, and guitarist. Collaborating with Martin, the brothers have been constantly writing and now have couple of songs ready that they are looking at releasing next year. Though the members don’t yet have a name for their band, their collaborations are all in the works. It’s going to be a different and exciting experience for the Watkins brothers and their fans alike!Clemency hasn’t looked much into 2016, so their tour schedule is quite open at the moment. The brothers are focusing on writing and recording new music so its pretty open right now. As Jason explains, “We might need to get down to Emory!”
Check out their website or like them on facebook! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XShgU_0ceYs