Clear Conscience: The Thought Process Behind the Band

For most people when you think of the words "work experience" you picture yourself doing the odd bit of filing for a company or something along those corporate lines. Not here at Ragged Moon however! We took on five brilliantly talented musicians: Kally Hefferman-Jockel, Saskia Owen, Sam Judd, Immie Harrison and Rory Thomas-lawton and we set them quite the challenge. We wanted them to end the week with a fully realised track that was created by them as well as a music video to accompany it. Sounds daunting but this group of determined students were eager to tackle this task head on.

Their first mission was to come up with the lyrics to this future smash hit of a song. They put their heads together intently and before we knew it they had the words ready and raring to go. As a band they drew on the different styles of music they liked to listen to individually to come to a consensus on what direction they wanted to move forward in stylistically. Jazz, R&B with a pop twist was their chosen vision and so they began to work towards this melting pot of genres.

With all these ideas and harmonies buzzing around in the studio it was time to begin committing these sounds to something more permanent. Kally and Saskia provided the main vocals and harmonies. The unison between the two created such a memorable and catchy blend together they had us humming along around the office in no time. Then came the instrumentation. Sam had come up with some brilliantly groovy bass riffs and guitar licks that gave the track that much needed jazzy offset. Whereas Rory kept the pacing and the tune solid throughout with his excellent piano skills. To round off this insatiably catchy tune we needed the help of Immie and her fabulous flute which really added another dimension to the whole production. 

After listening back over what they had produced in the studio the band been to tweak and add new elements. The most effective of which was the wickedly impromptu rap like interjections courtesy of Kally that were added between the harmonies. That was the missing R&B piece to their multi-genre puzzle. All of this composing and recording happened over the space of three days, which is quite the achievement! Once the track was completed the next big task loomed, finding out their band identity.

It took some intense brain storming and many a bourbon biscuit but the band finally had a name: Clear Conscience. Similarly they looked over all of their lyrics and decided to name their debut track "Yellow Cars." Their vision then continued onwards to the concept of their very first music video. Wanting a cross between polished studio footage as well as fun and carefree shots out and around Stroud it was going to be a challenge to make. 

Enter Millie Baker video maker wiz-kid. With her direction and guidance Clear Conscience filmed and edited together their music video within a day. It was an amazing feat and the end result looked very professional. Now all that was left to do was to reach out via social media to push this debut as far as possible. We set them the rather imposing goal of achieving 1,000 views on YouTube by the end of the weekend. From the moment "Yellow Cars" had fully uploaded they all valiantly shared and posted the video as much as they could. By the end of the week we were so proud to see that they had reached the goal with an awesome figure of 1,074 views.

All in all we want to say a huge thank you to Clear Conscience for all the dedication, effort and hard work they have put in over the past week. They have consistently been excited and driven in all that they've put their minds to. It has been an absolute joy to watch them progress into a fully fledged band in such a short amount of time. To celebrate their debut effort make sure you check out their music video for "Yellow Cars" below.

By Melissa Tucker