New Song Of The Day: Jay Clarkson & The Containers – Far

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Happy Groundhog Day! Today we’ve got a new song for you that you’ll want to put on repeat…it’s Jay Clarkson & The Containers with Far.

Here’s a little something from Jay Clarkson. Don’t know her? Here’s how Audioculture describes her:

Jay Clarkson sits uncomfortably in the South Island indie continuum. She didn’t play the folk pop card, thump the garage rock drum or end up shaping sound or free noise. Her path was a determined and singular one.

A prolific songwriter who time and time again found the players to bring her music out in bands They Were Expendable, The Expendables, Breathing Cage, The Matches and solo, Clarkson’s songs are still revealing their worth over 30 years on.

Here’s the record company blurb:

“Certain chords, certain progressions can spark counter melodies or complimentary riffs
or beats and some musicians seem to hear more than others and by simply immersing
themselves in the music they create a new aspect to it – a kind of magical way of
enhancing a song.”

This is one way composer/guitarist/vocalist Jay Clarkson describes
presenting a new song to her current Dunedin based band The Containers. “That’s the
whole beauty of a band – each member doing their own thing for the song. The song
comes first. It’s satisfying and can be even somewhat rapturous, actually!”

The Containers consists of, in alphabetical order:- on drums MIke Dooley (Snapper,
Toy Love, Dri Horrors, The Enemy, Pop Up Toasters, The Snares); on keyboards Alan
Haig (David Kilgour & The Heavy 8s, The Chills, Snapper, Chug, Verlaines, Song
Bong); on bass Tenzin Mullin (Suka, Heka, David Lynch Mob, Lars von Trio).
Between them (Jay Clarkson included) they have recorded around 30 albums and 25
singles and been released via 20 record labels.

“After the release of the Over The Mountain album (a collaboration between Jay and
musician Johannes Contag; out through Archhill) in 2006 and a lovely wee NZ tour with
The Matches to promote it I had a bit of a lost patch for a few years – musically
speaking…” continues Clarkson “I played mainly solo gigs., not booking any myself but
making myself do them whenever I was asked.

With the exception of in 2011 and 2015, when I was part of Creative NZ sponsored gigs in New York and then Glasgow and Edinburgh to be honest it had gotten to where I wasn’t writing songs… Then a musician friend, David Glynn, who in 2017 was living round the corner from me in Waikouaiti, said to me one day: “Write a song, Jay. Go on, you know you want to.” And so I wrote one (Wakey Wakey World) and then thought, well, actually, it would be good to hear a band do this song and so the Containers was formed. Turned out we enjoyed playing together so much we carried on and I got back into writing songs. That’s what happens – you start writing for the band. Well, that’s how it goes for me. It’s really good to be in a band again. I highly recommend it!”

COVID 2020. During levels 2 and 1 Jay and The Containers recorded an album’s worth
of songs at Hawkesbury Village. They are now adding finishing touches such as
backing vocals and acoustic guitar and then mixing will begin in earnest. Powertool is
to release the “FALLING THROUGH” album in 3 formats: vinyl, CD and digital.

Independent Woman Music is also to release a (vinyl) single Wakey Wakey
World/Tangled Up & Bleeding. And, Covid-willing, the vinyl release of Jay’s much-loved
1999 solo album KINDLE will happen this March/April through Melbourne based label
Rose Hobart.

Jay Clarkson is currently writing her memoirs which will cover a music career spanning
3 decades, and several bands: (Playthings, They Were Expendable, The Expendables,
Breathing Cage, The Matches, several duos and now The Containers.) “So much has
changed within the NZ Music scene over the last 20 to 30 years. But, hey, I’m no
historian so I’m just writing a few yarns dotted with special people and events, my own
reflections and probably a few lies.”

Marty Duda
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