David C Clements calls time a blessing and a curse. In the eight years since the release of his debut album, he has toiled through creativity's long winters and now offers up 'The Garden', an 11-track alternative folk record featuring songs written with Iain Archer and Jacknife Lee. In spending the best part of a decade writing and recording 'The Garden', Clements has "accidentally journaled" the key moments in his life. He began close to home with long-time producer Michael Keeney (Foy Vance, SOAK) in Bangor, County Down, meeting one evening a week to experiment with new songs. Under the guidance of Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol), Clements was encouraged to take his time, and to explore co-writing. In 2018, he flew to California to the studio of Jacknife Lee (Snow Patrol, U2, The Killers) where deep outside his comfort zone, surrounded by vintage synths and fairy lights, 'Life In A Bad Dream' took shape. "Jacknife pushed me to be honest in my writing, to just say what I wanted to say instead of expressing myself through metaphor. It was only sitting in the airport on my way home that the penny really dropped, and I fell in love with this new take on a song I’d been sitting with for a while," says Clements. Collaboration with Iain Archer (James Bay, Snow Patrol, Noah Kahan) was auspiciously timed, first meeting in late 2019 to write 'Contrast'. "I’ve been a fan of his for years and was really excited to work with him," says Clements, "Iain has a real knack for connecting with people and drawing songs out of you." When Clements met with Archer in March 2020 to work on 'Little Outsider', neither knew that it would be their last studio session for a while. Lockdown was "not compatible with the creative mind," but the partnership continued from afar; Clements sending Archer melody ideas from under a duvet in his bedroom. Eventually, he set up a makeshift vocal booth in his garage, forced to pause every time a car drove by.
