Clare Maguire at The Glee Nottingham

Clare returns with ‘Elizabeth Taylor’ single & ‘Stranger Things Have Happened’ album

Clare Maguire listens to all sorts of artists; they have only one thing in common. “They are true to themselves,” she says. This, more than any genre or sound or era, is all that matters to the 27-year-old singer-songwriter right now. “It’s a certain attitude that I’m really drawn to,” she explains, “and it really doesn’t matter what music it is, and it doesn’t matter who the person is. That’s the inspiration for me.”

This much is clear in Maguire’s new music. After a moment away from the spotlight, the Brummie chanteuse is back in full force – still with that amazing, swooping, haunting voice, but with more raw, fragile vulnerability. Clare wrote the majority of this album at home on her piano, listening to everything from Rihanna to Johnny Cash, “If it sounds a bit rough around the edges, it’s fine,” she reasons, “because that’s who I am.”

She posted a series of songs online herself over the past year to high praise from the likes of Pitchfork, Fader and Rookie. These beautifully fragile tracks also caught the attention of Christopher Bailey, head designer at Burberry who invited Clare to perform at multiple runway shows across the world, a creative relationship which continues to flourish.

A true artist and musician, Clare wrote the entire album herself and was heavily involved with the studio recording process drafting in modern British greats like pianist Sam Beste (best known for his work with Amy Winehouse) and producer Blue May (Kindness, Robyn).