claire rousay makes music the way some people keep a journal — intimately, obsessively, and with an eye for the details everyone else walks past. The Los Angeles-based Canadian-American composer and musician has built one of the most distinctive practices in contemporary experimental music: field recordings, musique concrète, spoken word, and a deeply personal emotional intelligence woven into works that land somewhere the genre map doesn’t quite reach.
She started as a drummer — math-rock, emo, church — and took a sharp left turn toward the ambient and the granular. The results have been celebrated by NPR, performed at Unsound, Big Ears, Le Guess Who, and Rewire, and exhibited at the ICA London. Her self-described “emo ambient” catalogue spans dozens of releases, from the intimate everything perfect is already here to the richly layered sentiment (Thrill Jockey, 2024).
As part of Catalytic Sound — the artist-run cooperative where musicians sell their music direct to listeners — rousay is a compelling voice for what independent music looks and sounds like right now. Here, she talks about process, listening, and what it means to make music entirely on your own terms.
Q: What has been inspiring you lately?
A: The resilience, bravery, and power of the Palestinian people. Living with an aging dog. Watching people close to me fall in love. The power of community — the communities of Los Angeles amongst the tragedy here.
Q: Favorite musicians, artists, thinkers and why (current or general)?
A: This is a current list of people on my mind. There are far too many to name but a far are: Yara Asmar, Steve Knutson, Marja Ahti, Irvin D Yalom, Susan Alcorn,
Q: Favorite films, books, etc. and why (current or general)
A: Books Currently:
- The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog – Bruce D Perry/ Maia Szalavitz
- Sociopath – Patric Gagne
- Creation Lake – Rachel Kushner
- Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates
Also, one film, (my number one choice on a long haul flight with those shitty little TV screens — “Interstellar” (lol)
Q: Favorite record no one else has listened to?
A: Feels like a slight to categorize music I love in this way. By making this selection, I do not mean at all to minimize the efforts of an artist I truly believe to be prolific, hugely imaginative, and more influential to my life than he knows. I just think that outside of a small community, folks may not be as familiar.
Prahnas – Toy Keyboard Too: Cormac McCarthyism
Q: Best thing you’ve seen on Youtube (recently)?
A: I was thrilled to find that Olivia Block’s record release show at Constellation was recorded and saved online! The Mountains Pass was one of my favorites of last year.
Q: Dream trio/quartet/quintet with historical figures?
A: Bernard Parmegiani, Harold Budd, Steve Roden
Q: Last performance you saw that expanded the way you think about your own work?
A: Getting to see Ellen Arkbro perform on the same concert as me in Berlin for CTM festival was inspiring. Not sure our musics have a lot in common but seeing her work with Microtub ensemble and experience her in a soundcheck environment was a wake up call for me to take what I do much more seriously.
Q: Record you most wish you had played on?
A: Probably a drum kit contribution to any Daniel Johnston related music. I don’t think I would have had a positive impact or anything to contribute besides a backbeat (lol) but I think to be around, especially for those early on recording and rerecordings of individual cassettes, would have been magical.
Q: Recording people would be most surprised you listen to?
A: I believe, or like to believe, that I am quite transparent with my friends and strangers about the wide range of music I listen to. Lately, I have been frequently thinking/remembering the 2006 album “Konvicted” by the pop artist Akon. The back to back hits (and respective feature verses) of Smack That (feat Eminem) and I Wanna Love You (feat Snoop Dogg) is a stand out moment.
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Enjoy claire’s Artist Profile at the Soundstream!