Claire Mortifee

After witnessing local Vancouverite Claire Mortifee’s badass musical set; opening for The Grouch and Eligh at Fortune Sound Club, I knew HUSH had to speak with her. She carried the confidence of a veteran to the music scene while still exuding a fresh spirit.

Claire and I met at Clough Club in Gastown, where she performs an impressive three-hour weekly set, every Thursday. I found myself asking how I had not heard of her before her performance at Fortune a month ago. Having just finished writing a seventeen page application for the Red Bull Music Academy she told me ‘ they asked me everything, from what I had on my bedside table, to when the last time I cried was, to what I’d accomplished musically in the past 12 months – so I am ready for this!’ And just like that, Claire solidified how much of a beauty she really is.

Claire feels like music really chose her – before her experiences were even memories she was drawn to the stage like a magnet. It can’t hurt that her aunt’s Jane and Ann Mortifee are professional singers as well, but even with her family members being who they are, she has managed to find an authentic sound of her own. Being born and raised in Vancouver has also helped her appreciate the importance of nature, as she quickly told me how she is so often inspired by the beauty surrounding her in this city.

Claire’s music taste has significantly evolved over the last few years as her musical spirit has been awakened to the likes of vocalists such as Erykah Badu and Laura Mvula. When I asked her if she was heading to the Bone Thugs concert that weekend she responded with, “you know, I just can’t stomach misogynistic lyrics. Whenever I hear anything that’s oppressive to me or my community, I can help but skip to the next song. So you tell me, how misogynistic are they?” Wise beyond her years.

This feminist has no signs of indifference or fatigue, just a bright fire in her eyes. Not only does this 21 year-old have her solo project, but she also performs with a band called The Mothership and is half of an electronic duo, Phirefly – plus she finds time to help volunteer whenever she can. Claire has worked with Sweatshop Union, Moka Only and David Morin, just to name a few, and has just finished recording her debut EP ‘Past Paragons’ in North Vancouver at Creativ Studios. She has multiple music videos in production, and is putting in work to ensure a Canada-wide tour in the foreseeable future.

Claire is enlightened, ending all her emails to me with a ‘Bless Up’ signature and that is exactly what she is doing. “I am trying to break my old thought patterns and get rid of the fear behind them, I am trying to stay as grounded as I can. Music gives me a voice for change and I want to encourage my listeners to be themselves. It has to come from an authentic place though, I have to start by being ME.”

Girl, you’re on the right track. - Hush Magazine

Kosmichemusik (Jellyfish Recordings)

Kosmichemusik, the third collaborative EP from Montreal beatmaker AstroLogical and Vancouver producer Nick Wisdom’s Potatohead People project, doesn’t home in on the electronic krautrock experiments of its possibly Popol Vuh–indebted title, but its synth-jazz soundscapes are mind-expanding nonetheless.

The six-song set is bookended with instrumentals, with the title track opening with fluttery softcore keyboard blips, some mildly wub-wubbed synth sounds, and ’90s trip-hop rhythms. The closer finds the perfect middle ground between New Jack Swing’s party beats and a terrifyingly oscillated John Carpenter soundtrack.

The rest of Kosmichemusik features a handful of guest vocalists, from Moka Only bringing his Sugar Bear drawl to the light and bouncy organ swirler “It Gets Good,” to veteran Detroit MC Frank Nitt, of Frank N’ Dank, dropping lines about his best girl on the lovely, electro-funk-flavoured “Back to My Shit”.

Vancouver soul singer Claire Mortifee takes the EP in the wildest direction, though, on “Blossoms”. Atop a new age–style bed of bird chirps and fluid guitar picking, the singer lists off her likes as if she’s taking part in an ’80s video-dating service (number one on her list appears to be “long walks alone around my neighbourhood”).

As previously noted, Kosmichemusik doesn’t quite live up to the title’s krautrock connotations, but it’s more than ready to send you on a cosmic journey. - Georgia Straight

Vancouver, BC – Timbre Concerts brought a couple of West Coast Living Legends, The Grouch & Eligh, to Fortune Sound this past week on The Tortoise and The Crow Tour. Local openers A-Ro and Kapok with a few sassy babes, Ashleigh Eymann and Claire Mortifee gave the crowd something to scream about before G&E took the stage.

With their latest album The Tortoise and The Crow literally dropping the same day, the duo played a mix of classic G&E Music cuts, some solo joints and of course some of that new new. Check out the photo gallery by our boy Jamie Sands below. - Hip Hop Canada