Clare Follett

Clare Follett gave herself quite the project in 2016 — She did it all on her own.

The ambitious teenager set out to cover the complete discography of her favourite band, Marianas Trench, by producing a YouTube video each week.

"I thought it would push me really hard as a musician to be a lot better. And I think it did that, and I'm very happy with it," she told CBC Radio's Weekend AM.

Follett is a 15-year-old student at St. Bonaventure's College in St. John's.

In December 2015, she realized Marianas Trench had released a total of 52 songs. The following January, Follett decided to learn and cover each one.

She set up a YouTube channel for the project and started uploading the songs every Friday in the order they were released by the band.

For every video, Follett wrote arrangements, sang vocals and played all the instruments — including different types of guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. She also produced, mixed, and videotaped everything herself.

"I would figure out what was in the original and then figure out what I wanted to change, and then I would go through the process of recording all of those and then making them sound good together," she said.

"Not just a bunch of individual tracks, which is sometimes the hardest part."

At the beginning of the year, Follett would spend three or four hours on each video. Once the project progressed, she set her aspirations higher.

By the end of the year she was spending 25-30 hours per week on each production.

"I think even if you go from the beginning to the end, there's a huge difference in the sonic quality of the recording and the recording quality and the mixing," she said.

"So that was pretty hard to get together, but it was a real push and it made me a lot better."

While Follett admits there were times she wanted to skip a week, a commitment to the project kept her going.

"I just said 'I've come too far to go back now. I've committed to this, I need to stick with it'," she said.

Her perseverance paid off.

Marianas Trench found out about Follett and her efforts and posted her YouTube channel to its Facebook page and Twitter account.

Lead singer Josh Ramsay tweeted to his 174,000 followers that he was touched, impressed and honoured by Follett.

So how can Follett top her 2016 achievements?

This year she plans to release an EP of her original music.

While the project was time consuming, Follett is proud of her accomplishment.

"I have a whole new appreciation for their music and what they do," she said.

"It was a lot of work, but I think it was worth it." - CBC

Clare spent much of 2016 covering the band’s entire discography of 52 songs. Starting with “Primetime” on Jan. 8, each week she posted a video of a new cover to her YouTube account.

She said the project started after she fell for the band’s latest album, “Astoria.”

“One of my friends said, ‘you should cover this whole album.’ It was a joke, and we were all laughing. And then it wasn’t anymore, all of a sudden. I actually considered it, and I took on the challenge.”

Using a guitar, a bass, a microphone and a MacBook, Clare took the challenge a few dozen steps further and covered every song the band has recorded. All but the final video, “End of an Era,” were done solo; she invited her family and some friends to join her for the finale.

Sunday, the band shared her work on social media with high praise.

“So there’s this girl named Clare Follett who basically kicks ass,” the band wrote, with a link to her YouTube channel, on the Marianas Trench Facebook page. “Nicely done. Please share!”

Clare said she wasn’t really expecting that.

“That was very cool. I actually left my phone for like 15 minutes, and I came back to my phone with 20 new followers,” she said. “I checked it out on Twitter and they had tweeted me. That was pretty crazy.”

Fans of Marianas Trench had a lot of encouraging words for Clare.

“Wow somebody sign this girl. I like a couple of her versions better than the original. Sorry guys,” one commenter wrote.

The challenge is over, but the multi-talented musician — who also plays trombone and piano — has plans for 2017, too. With about 140 original songs to work with, she’s hoping to record an EP this year. - The Telegram

Clare Follett is a one-girl band. The 15-year-old St. Bon’s student caught the attention of Marianas Trench when she covered their entire discography. NTV’s Ryan Harding reports. (Video at link) - NTV News