When Joey Clarkson’s mom enrolled her in vocal lessons it wasn’t because she wanted her daughter to become a singer.
“I had a really crummy voice. I was growling all the time and so my mom put me in choir when I was five to fix my speaking voice,” Clarkson told the News Bulletin. “Not with the hopes that I would turn into a singer, but with the hopes that I would turn into a person with a regular speaking voice.”
Eventually the vocal lessons began to have an impact on Clarkson and she became more involved with music as she grew older.
“I really really liked it and I stuck with choirs all through my upbringing and that’s what really started me being in love with music,” she said.
Since falling in love with music, Clarkson, now 25, has gone to release two albums, win various competitions and tour overseas.
On Saturday (Jan. 17) Clarkson will be performing at the Cambie with Vancouver-based singer Kieran Strange.
“I am exciting to play,” Clarkson said. “Mainly because I am playing with Kieran Strange and I really respect her music and her attitude towards the music business and how it links in life and how it affects people. I am really excited to play with her.”
Following her performance in the Harbour City, Clarkson will head to Southern California, where she will make three performances at the Anaheim Farmers Market.
“It is mainly a songwriting tour,” Clarkson said about her upcoming trip to California. “I am hoping to get my foot in the door down there because I would absolutely love to have that become a regular stop if not a more permanent place for me and my music to be.”
Clarkson grew up Courtenay and began playing the guitar at the age of 12. She explained that shortly after playing the guitar she began songwriting.
“My dad used to do some writing when he was a teenager and nothing that he took too seriously, but he does have some nice stuff,” she said. “So he had a guitar kicking around and I picked up his guitar when I was 12 and taught myself how to play it. Then I started writing as a natural progression after that.”
In 2010, Clarkson released her debut album titled, Joey, after she placed second in a local singing contest.
The Vancouver Island Music Award nominee explained that her debut album was simply just a sample of her songwriting and singing abilities and was a learning experience for her.
“The first one was really a lot of experimenting and just a chance to showcase the different kinds of songwriting that I could do at that age,” she said. “It didn’t necessarily have much of a focus because at the time I was stubborn and I didn’t grasp the concept of having an album that tied into itself.”
Clarkson’s most recent record, See You, Love You, Behave Yourself was released in 2013. Clarkson explained that the album was inspired by her travels overseas and has a greater focus.
“My second album was more focused around songs that made sense with each other and had a more unified sound,” she said. “The songs that I focused on in that album were songs I mainly wrote on the road while I was touring around and playing my shows overseas.”
In 2012, Clarkson spent roughly two weeks touring Great Britain and brought along videographer Chad Weber, who documented the tour. His footage was eventually turned into a documentary at the request of the BBC.
The Comox Valley native, who was a regional winner for Canada Music Week and Astral Media’s 2012 RadioStar competition, is planning on returning to the United Kingdom later this year and has already booked a show in Boston, a town located roughly 210 kilometres north of London.
“I am really excited,” Clarkson said. “The United Kingdom looks very small, but they have so many different communities. Touring over there for a musician is very efficient because it is so compact.”
In addition to touring, Clarkson is looking forward to releasing some new material later this year.
“I am going to be recording a new single at the end of March,” she said.
Clarkson performs with Kieran Strange at the Cambie at 8 p.m. For more information, please visit www.joeyclarkson.com.
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