'Not Scarlett O'Connor': Clare Bowen Is Back With Her Own Voice & Sound

Clare Bowen’s debut LP is a self-titled affair, in part, because she “didn’t know what else to call it”. But the Australian country singer also wanted to make sure that the album was seen as wholly her own, separate from the country starlet she played on long-running TV show Nashville.

“It’s me stepping into the world of music in a totally different way than I have before: as myself,” explains Bowen, 34. “I played a country music artist on a television show for six years. So, I had to make sure that, when I released my own album, that it wasn’t someone else’s voice. That it was just me.”

Bowen worked on the album, and its songs, over the course of five years. The hectic Nashville schedule - not just filming, but recording and touring under the Nashville banner - meant Bowen could only spend time on her music between breaks. But, spanning years, these periods meant she could find her musical identity - “my own voice, my own sound, get to know myself better as a person” - away from her onscreen doppelganger.

“I’m definitely not Scarlett O'Connor,” Bowen laughs. “We shared a body for a long time, so it’s weird that she’s gone quiet now. She was so much fun to play, and we share a face and a moral compass, but we’re very different people. I definitely didn’t want to make an album as Scarlett, it had to be me.”

With Nashville coming to an end this year after six seasons, Bowen is dealing with the sudden absence of the show in her life. “It’s weird,” she admits. “I’ve been doing it for over half a decade. A lot happens in six years. It’s been such an exciting experience. [But] the show ending doesn’t feel like a goodbye. It feels like I got to pick up a lot of the wonderful things from that experience and keep them. I met my husband in Nashville. I found a home in Nashville; it’s an amazing city, it’s an amazing place.”

Bowen has yet to book any upcoming acting gigs but is revelling in this liminal moment in her career. “Part of being an actor is living in the unknown,” she says. “Not knowing what’s going to come next, and choosing to be excited by that, rather than terrified by it. I don’t know what’s coming next, but I know it’s going to be wonderful. And it’s amazing that I get to focus on music while this other part of my life is in the works.”

With the release of her debut LP, Bowen has been playing plenty of shows under her own name. On stage, she feels like “a lightning rod, in the middle of all this electricity”, knowing that, as “the one up there in a sparkly dress, a silly hat, and no shoes”, singing songs, she’s going to be the centre of attention. But, she regards the communal aspect of performance with sweet sincerity. “When you get to sing songs, you’re reaching a hand out there to anyone who might need one,” she says. “You sing songs to make people forget their worries, then sing things to help people find the words to their worries, articulate things in a way they mightn’t have been able to, before... You’re sharing something when you sing to somebody. They’re giving you so much just by being there. So, you’ve got to give back. It’s a beautiful exchange that happens.”

On stage, and in song, Bowen likes to “talk about stuff that’s not easy to talk about”. She traces that back to her childhood experiences, where at four years old she was diagnosed with a rare form of early childhood cancer, which she battled for three years. “My childhood was completely different to anyone else I’ve ever met,” she says, simply. “It makes it easier, for me, to not sweat the small stuff, and to be able to talk about the really difficult things. Because I grew up in a big difficult thing. Because I’ve been open to sharing my story, it’s, in turn, encouraged people to tell me their stories. You kick open a door, then people burst through, brave enough to share their experiences with you.”