Musician and star of Channel 10’s Offspring, Clare Bowditch is bringing her annual Winter Secrets Tour to Byron Bay, coinciding with the release of her new single ‘One Little River’
The Winter Secrets Tour is truly unique; Clare takes one super-talented collaborator, this year being Spender and creates an absolutely mind-blowing show, where you, the audience gets to be her back-up band, but only if you want to. No pressure dude.
Lukas Birch was lucky enough to catch up with one of Australia’s busiest musicians, writer, actor, businesswoman and mum.
For though who don’t know you, who is Clare Bowditch?
OH LORD! WHAT A QUESTION! Well, I’m me, and you’ll get to know a bit about me by reading these answers, but you can also Google me, or find out about me on my websites. The more interesting question is, who are you? What do you want to do with your life?
Your Winter Secrets tour sees the release of your new single One Little River, what is it all about?
Courage, hope, failure, redemption, love, and being all that you actually are, rather than believing the inward or outward critics and playing small just to please people you don’t even know or respect. It’s about getting on with the adventure.
You run your Winter Secrets competition, how important is this competition to you and why?
Hugely important: the tour and the competition are all about paying homage to the fact that everybody, EVERY BODY, is creative. Sharing the spotlight and bringing attention to that simple fact in a real and sometimes hilarious way is one of the great joys of doing what I do.
What do you enjoy most about being on the road touring?
The conversations with the people who come to my shows: they blow my mind, they light me up, they inspire me.
You’ve performed in Byron Bay before, what is it about the bay that has you returning?
Again, it’s you people, your generosity, the beauty of the place, it’s the care you put into your meals, it’s the care you extend to us when we perform for you. It feels so good, and we are so grateful.
You’re a Mum, musician, write and actor, where do you find the time and energy for it all?
Are you ready for an honest answer? On a good day, I find the time and energy by excellent planning, and taking care of myself so I have energy. Truth is, the consistently “good days” are SO RARE, so I don’t waste time waiting for them to arrive!
Even though I stumble and struggle and fail my way through large parts of most days, and even though I am JUST ABOUT NEVER the all-perfect magical mystical together artist/mother/person my head tells me I should be, I believe in the power of creativity, I believe in the contribution artists and thinkers make to the world, I like being around these kinds of people, I like being inspired by and inspiring those people, and my work allows me to do that. I anchor myself with the things that I love, and the things that love me, and the idea of living a life by doing something that means something, that’s about the best advice I have.
You play Rosanna Harding on the hugely popular television series Offspring, what do you like about the acting side of your career?
For me once again, it’s about the people a job like that allows you to meet, and the experience of watching such a dedicated team work together in the most extraordinary way. Recently one of the writer’s Michael Lucas was a subject of one of our Big Hearted Business Inspiration Bombs (we do one a week) and he explains this process really beautifully: check it out.
What’s next for Clare Bowditch?
Besides the usual “chop wood carry water” of everyday like (which is my number one, always will be: what’s the point of a big career if you don’t have an actual life?), besides this song One Little River, my full working attention this year is dedicated to fulfilling my promise to build Big Hearted Business (inspiring creative people to tell a bigger stories to themselves about themselves, giving them practical tools to get on the with the work of the being the superb human beings they suspect they are). That is what’s lighting me up.
Clare’s Winter Secrets Tour arrives in Byron on the 17th of August for one night only at the Byron Community Centre.
For tickets head to www.byroncentre.com.au and to learn more about Clare and her business head to www.clarebowditch.com and www.bigheartedbusiness.com
