Q&A: meet CLEWS, they’re iconic, personable and paving the way

Meet Lily and Grace Richardson, the sister duo behind the 90’s inspired mastermind CLEWS. After originally coming from a one-school town in the New South Wales south coast, the two girls now set the stage in Sydney, where they’ve been found to support the likes of DMA’s and Tash Sultana. CLEWS are well on the way of earning the stance of Aussie legends themselves too, with two sold-out headline shows at the Lansdowne under their belt.

Our sister girls from upstate have blessed us with a new track that gets the blood pumping. Want You That Way flirts with a pop sound that is driven by its textured vocals and 90’s rock vibe. The two musicians bring a freshness to what is usually an intensely energetic genre. We love what they’ve created, absolutely a huge mood. This track takes us back to Pyramid Rock Festival circa 2010 suckling on a goon sack and rocking out in the mosh pit, good vibes only. 

CLEWS influence on music is bubbling and with growing traction in both the UK and Australia it is easy to see why. The band’s natural approach and free will in their live performances transcribes across into their studio recordings, creating a unique sound that is oh-so cool yet in a nonchalant way.

We chatted to CLEWS about their new track, sister-acts and what it’s like to be women creating rock today. 

Read all about it below:

Tell us all things CLEWS, how did you get to where you are today?

Grace and I are sisters, and we grew up in a very musical family where music was always made, talked about, listened to. Lots of harmony-heavy bands like Crowded House and The Beatles. Grace and I gravitated to our own favourites from mum and dad’s CD collection from an early age; Grace always picked Beastie Boys and I picked Jeff Buckley. Maroon 5’s Songs About Jane album was also played shamelessly on every road trip; mum and dad love big choruses you can sing to that’s for sure. Grace and I knew we wanted to be in a rock band, so we started CLEWS as soon as Grace finished school. We didn’t overthink it - we just started gigging in pubs and bars and added drums and bass to our lineup once Grace taught herself lead guitar. But we were birthed into good fortune; a creative path was very visible to us and we work with lots of cool, supportive people. We’re lucky enough to be living out the rock and roll dream we always envisioned.

How did you fall on the band name Clews?

It struck me like divine intervention. I called Grace as she was walking into school one day and said ‘if we’re ever in a band together I think it should be called clews’. It’s just a nice sounding word without too much connotation - like the word ‘pulp’ or ‘blur’. Funnily enough as things move more and more online and people have been going down internet rabbit holes during the pandemic, a few different geezers have emailed us whose last name is ‘Clews’, just to connect and say they like our music. One guy from the UK told me it’s a Welsh name that means ‘valley dweller’, but it has a few different meanings. It’s the name of the ball of thread Theseus uses to guide him out from the minotaur’s cave in Greek mythology. Either way I like that it’s an old English word; we have lots of family history in that part of the world and I’m very sentimental about connecting with that sort of thing.

Your new track Want You That Way feels very 90s rock – what’s the inspiration behind the song? What or who influences your music?

It was less intentional on this song, but it seems our band sound always lends itself to the 90s rock vibe. That’s the sort of music that became a common thread through our writing and performing when we first started the project. The grungy, fuzzy bed of guitars that hold down iconic 90s rock bands like Oasis and Hole is such a cool starting point to put big, clean vocal harmonies over, so that’s the idea for our sound. Want You That Way is the first song we made with Dylan Adams, a producer we worked with last year. He captured really magical drum sounds and put lots of sparkle on this song. This song had been part of our live set with our band (we have a drummer and bass player) for a while so already had the live energy to push it to a poppier place in the studio. Lyrically, it’s about how relationships with different people have so much influence over how you feel in life, with the realisation that you can’t hold on to all of them.

Growing up in Mollymook, how do you think that’s influenced your music?

As a teenager, growing up in a surfy fishing village influenced my songwriting in particular. I used to quite literally write about trees and the seaside (my Hotmail at the time was mermaid_ocean_95 which is honestly less cringe than my songs from that era), but the small town made me appreciate external inspiration. Grace moved to Sydney as soon as she could after school so we could start making music together, so to me Clews has always been synonymous with Sydney and with living in the city.

What’s it like making music with your sister? Did you always want to make music together?

It’s great, wouldn’t change it for the world. We get along well as sisters, as friends, as bandmates, as business partners and everything but at the end of the day we just love singing together. Our voices literally have a twin energy that makes it feel like we’re tied to each other with golden string when we sing. Spooky, but so cool. I write most of the lyrics but thank god I have Grace because she does just about everything else. She has an amazing ear for melody, writes all the guitar leads and is much more switched on in the studio!

You’ve been on tour a few times with some big Aussie names like Holy Holy and DMA’s what was that like, did you feel any pressure or excitement?

Everyone we have been lucky enough to cross paths with in the band scene have been amazing to work with, and we learn a lot every time we go on tour. It’s exciting supporting bands we looked up to as teenagers and now get to be mentored by, which is something I don’t take for granted. It’s lovely being friends with lovely people and that makes working in music so enjoyable.

The rock scene for years has been heavily male dominated – what’s your opinion and experience on this?

I’m doing my honours thesis on this very question, so I’m a little scared about how much brain power will be demanded of me this year HAHA *glances at growing pile of papers I have yet to read*. The rock scene is a microcosm of the music scene, is a microcosm of broader society - so gender disparity is an issue that is felt in most industries. Like most women, Grace and I have both had many different experiences of different degrees that all speak to a culture of male dominance in music. But so much work has been done by amazing women before us and the scene is still changing for the better. Nothing makes me happier than visibility and representation and I just want younger girls to know what it feels like to shred guitar on a sweaty stage - whatever that stage is for them.

If you were reincarnated into a piece of furniture, what do you think you’d be and why?

I would be a nice mid-century side cabinet, one with glass doors. I’d house bottles of whiskey and gin and be the thing that everyone gravitates to at dinner parties.

What’s something you’re randomly low key really good at doing?

We’re great at giving unsolicited relationship advice.

What can fans expect to see from y'all in the upcoming months?

We have a lot of music coming out this year, more so than we have before. So we’ll be releasing a bunch of songs and might even be hitting the road.

Okay, YES to being a mid-century side cabinet filled with booze! In all seriousness, these lasses are absolutely kicking goal after goal with their music and fresh sound. If they hit the road later this year you can count on seeing us there.

Does anyone else want to low key be their best friends after this Q&A? You can peek inside their minds by listening to their track below or head to our Rock This Way ⚡ playlist to hear more songs like it.

By Jasmine Tsiatsias.