ARTIST TO KNOW : RILEY CLEMMONS
Singer-songwriter talks to tour with Mandisa, playing the Dove Awards and new Christmas EP
Photo by Ben Pogue
In January, Riley Clemmons posted a thought-provoking picture on Instagram pondering the moments in life when it feels more like you’re asleep than awake. She posits those moments can be dark and confusing, but crucial in leading to an awakening
“What aspects of my life am I allowing myself to press snooze & go back to sleep? And what does it mean to truly wake up?” she wrote. “Those are massive questions (!!!), but I think the process of figuring out the answers is when the awakening begins.”
Undoubtedly, Clemmons experienced her awakening in 2019.
“Fighting for Me,” Clemmons’ breakout single which she released in April, has over 4.5 million streams on Spotify –– at least four other songs of hers also have over a million streams. She was nominated for a GMA Dove Award for New Artist of the Year, is currently on tour with gospel legend Mandisa and released a new four-song Christmas EP on Friday (Oct. 25).
Her singing can be powerful, easily fluctuating between roaring highs and soft lows while matching the intimate, deeply emotional harmonies of her piano. When Clemmons wrote “Fighting for Me,” she was at a vulnerable place in her life after experiencing heartbreak and felt the need to be honest with her audience, turning to them to share the feelings she was experiencing.
“I remember walking into the studio being like ‘I don't know how to write this I'm doing great, kind of song. You can't do that today,’” Clemmons says. “[I had to] write about the need for a love that is not temporary and something permanent and something that gives you true strength.”
But it can also be empowering, capturing the teenage angst many other 19-year-old women feel about life and relationships to create a platform to empower women experiencing similar situations. “As a young woman, given this amazing platform, I think my priority now especially, when there seems to be so much tension [in the world], would just be pouring out love and being a role model when it’s difficult, confusing and hard,” Clemmons says. “More so than anything, just making it more about community … no matter what you believe there is more strength and more power when we’re together.”
Clemmons’ latest single “Free,” which was released on August 30, speaks to that mantra. Compared to “Fighting for me,” which she wrote during the song is an uplifting dance anthem inspired by the freedom she experienced flying across the country to perform her music.
“There is a world outside, so why do I hide when you tell me I am free?” she sings over a synthy drum and bass beat. As the song builds up to the drop accompanying the chorus, Clemmons’ tone changes, becoming optimistic and excited about shaking her restraints and chasing whatever’s coming next.
“I see the open door /, Yeah I know there’s more / But I’ve been too scared to leave / But I’m ready now / I’m letting go / I’m leaving all the prisons I have known / I’ll follow you,” she sings out. Suddenly the beat stops and comes crashing back in as if it’s a manifestation of the awakening she so desperately wanted to feel. “Cause I believe it’s time to start living, living like I’m free,” she cries out.
The single shows Clemmons’ growing maturity as an artist and that she’s closer to finding a balance between her personal and private life, though she still lets her own experiences permeate into her music.
But Clemmons has always been ready for this, handling life as a teenage artist with ease.
Clemmons grew up playing piano and says her first exposure to singing was as a child watching her mom warm up to sing in their church’s choir on Sundays. She quickly followed suit and began writing music at a young age.
After accidentally meeting who would later become her agent at a middle school choir concert when she was 12, she was being schlepped to the studio after class as an eighth-grader. She had her first professional co-write by 13.
Fast forward six years and the teen singer’s career has progressed remarkably fast.
“I’m still operating in the realm of speechlessness,” Clemmons says. “Whenever it comes to creating music and content and putting anything out into the world and giving it to an audience, the priority has always been being honest and being vulnerable and being so young, like I just always want to tell an honest version of what my story looks like now.
I think that that honesty is where people are like, ‘Oh, I get it. I got makes sense to me.’ That's where the connection happened. My mind is blown, and more so than ever I just feel this need, to be honest in whatever I keep putting out.”
Though she’s a pop-infused Christian musician –– she’s signed with Capitol Christian Music Group –– Clemmons says her influences span from indie giants Tame Impala to classics rockers Elton John and Billie Joel, to pop stars like Brittany Spears and Ariana Grande.
But gospel and Christian music have played the largest role in her musical development. Growing up around church and gospel music, Clemmons fondly remembers attending one of Mandisa’s shows as a kid and looking up to her as a role model.
“If you would have told 10-year-old Riley that I nine years I would be opening for her, it’s just one of those pinch-me moments,” Clemmons says. “It's been such an honor to get to play ‘Fighting for Me’ every night to have that moment. For the first time, I'm seeing people sing along and know the song, and have it be part of their story. I think that's what has made this tour so special is getting people connected to the song like I never really have before. And seeing people singing along with the set, and see people get emotional I see people dance. It's been really special.”
Photo by Ben Pogue
To top it off, Clemmons is fresh off a performance and artist nomination at the GMA Dove Awards on Oct. 15. Having attended the awards ceremony as a child to watch the stars that would ultimately influence her career, she couldn’t believe it when she was nominated and asked to perform.
“To get that opportunity to play a personal and meaningful song on a piano, in a dress, at the Dove Awards, among artists and writers that I admire and love and have grown up listening to was an honor and it still doesn't feel real,” Clemmons says.
As her young career continues to develop, Clemmons is excited for whatever comes next. Right now, that means her new Christmas EP, featuring an original, “First Christmas” as well as covers of “Silent Night,” Wham!’s “Last Christmas” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
Throughout our interview, Clemmons kept coming back to the word “honest.” Be it in her heartfelt ballads or Christmas music, she wants the audience to know she’s singing about her true unfiltered self, not about what her label thinks will get the most streams.
“What I’m learning right now as a young person is just the value of creating honest work,” Clemmons says. “No matter what that looks like. I think that for me, I'm just really excited to keep putting out music that's truthful to what the young person I'm in the middle of.”