Musician grew as pandemic lingered
Claude releases intimate debut album ‘a lot’s gonna change,’ featuring dreamy, atmospheric pop
“I definitely think that as you keep doing something more and more, you become a little bit more sure of yourself … even though I’m still very insecure in a lot of ways,” admitted musician Claudia Ferme, who performs as Claude. “And I still second guess myself.”
Yet despite the push and pull of her creative self-doubt, Ferme has just released her debut album, “a lot’s gonna change” on American Dreams Records. Filled with dreamy, atmospheric pop music, the album is nothing short of a sonic achievement in composition and ambition. Yet the road to the album release was particularly long for the musician.
Ferme approaches her craft holistically. All parts lead into one another. Many of the songs on “a lot’s gonna change” were written years ago and Ferme said she has since gained a deeper understanding of how she wants to present herself as an artist. “I know how to achieve the things that I want a little bit better in regards to how I want my music to sound or to look like,” Ferme said.
For some artists, it can take many years to achieve this creative cohesion, but for Ferme, all it took was a little pandemic.
“Honestly, I’ve learned a lot from TikTok,” Ferme admitted. Although she is not well-versed in the history of fashion, she’s always held an appreciation for clothing and dressing up. Diving deep into the micro-communities of the content creation platform during the pandemic
unlocked new sources of inspiration. “I feel like I’m always learning from the things that I see around me. [TikTok] got me interested again in dressing up.”
She cites a video of the John Galliano 1993 readyto-wear spring collection as a particularly strong source of inspiration for the video for the track “twenty something.”
“I guess I’m just always learning about new ways to wear my clothing that I had no idea about. Just being exposed to so many different things that I don’t think I would have come across otherwise. Even in terms of photography. Sometimes I’ll get stuff for different
things like photo shoots, posing. A lot of things that I’ve incorporated into my daily life, but then also music stuff,” she said.
Still, everything wasn’t perfect for the artist. She admitted that making music, the actual heart of her creative process, was difficult during the last two years. While some artists felt creative freedom for their music due to the forced isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ferme said it was often stifling.
One of the songs for the record was crafted as far back as 2017, but most were written in 2018 and 2019 between the ages of
22 and 24 and during the same period of time as her EP “Enactor,” which came out early last year. Leaning into other creative outlets that enhance and elevate the music she has already created has been a welcome, maybe even necessary, solution during a particularly difficult moment for the world.
“I keep saying that period of time, like your early 20s, in that moment, they felt so formative, but after, the last three years that we’ve all gone through, I feel like I’ve grown even more ways I didn’t even know were possible,” she said.
From climate collapse
to the end of Roe v. Wade, Ferme said the onslaught of bad news and worse news has had a significant impact on her creative process. “The world just feels like a really, really dark place. I feel a little bit hardened by the world in ways and the things that have happened to me,” Ferme said.
Ferme said she also learned a lot about her interpersonal relationships. Around the beginning of the pandemic, she navigated a challenging romantic relationship. She also faced changing friendship dynamics in the pandemic’s “new normal.” When conditions were safer, she prioritized being intentional with her friendships and the value of her time. “There’s certain people that didn’t really have your best interest or that weren’t really true friends or that only hit you up for certain things,” she recalled about that time. “So there was a lot of growth in that aspect, too.”
Despite writing the songs for the album well before her world (and the world in general) began to change, Ferme said her new music reflects her current approach to life. If the EP was more outward-facing, “a lot’s gonna change” is an intimate coming-ofage album about how she navigates changes and challenges within herself. “With each song on the album, I can correlate it with certain experiences I had,” Ferme said. “I was going through these things that felt immediate to write down.”
Every element of the record sounds precise and perfect. Lead single “twenty something” is reminiscent of the late ’90s and early aughts New York City-based band Ivy, which stoked a path by sticking to their creative instincts. Ferme operates under a similar distinct path, with a sound and an aesthetic that is gorgeous and assured, meditative and memorable. In an algorithm-driven culture, Ferme, despite her use of content platforms for other sources of artistic expression, firmly makes her music her own.
“You work on something for so long and then you just put it out, and then it’s out there and it’s not really yours anymore,” Ferme said about her album’s release. “At least I don’t feel sad about it or anything. I’m excited. It just doesn’t feel real.”