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Today, AIR award-nominated singer-songwriter Imogen Clark releases her anthemic new single ‘If I Want In’. Recorded at the iconic Abbey Road Studios with members of Gang of Youths and featuring Camp Cope’s Georgia Maq on backing vocals, the stunning track is about Imogen’s journey with music and how it’s taken her from Western Sydney to the other side of the world. It’s the first taste of her new album, coming in 2024.

Listen to ‘If I Want In’ here

“‘If I Want In’ is about making the choice to go your own way and become the person you have to become, even though everything and everyone around you is trying to pull you back onto the expected path. It’s about acknowledging where I come from and how it shaped me, but I won’t let it define me. It’s about a little girl who spent her days at Penrith High School and her nights playing covers at Western Sydney pubs, dreaming of the big world out there and finding her place in it.”

Originally written on the piano, Imogen imagined the song painted on a wide canvas, an anthem of escape and self-actualisation in the tradition of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’. Booking a day in Abbey Road Studio 3, where The Beatles recorded the Revolver and Abbey Road albums and Pink Floyd cut Dark Side of the Moon, she recruited London-based New Zealander Chris Bolster (Paul McCartney, Kate Bush) to engineer and enlisted guitarist Jung Kim, bassist Max Dunn and drummer Donnie Borzestowski from world-conquering London based Aussie rock heroes Gang of Youths to play on the session.

“It was one of most invigorating and creative days I’ve ever spent making music,” Imogen recalls. “Once we got over the awe of standing where The Beatles stood when they made the music I grew up listening to, we just unlocked this incredible creative flow. Only having one day meant we were incredibly focused and the ideas just kept flowing back and forth, everybody jumping across different instruments, hyping each other up and getting it all down in record time.”

The marathon day saw Imogen and the band burn through tracking, all of her lead vocals and overdubs on a very special instrument – the iconic Mrs. Mills piano, which Paul McCartney played on songs like ‘Lady Madonna’ and ‘Penny Lane’.

After some additional production from frequent collaborator Michael Carpenter in Sydney, the last finishing touch came with Camp Cope frontwoman and singer-songwriter Georgia Maq contributing her powerful voice to the track.

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“It was 1am at a club in LA, Georgia was there with some of Amyl and the Sniffers and I just said “Hey will you sing on my record” and she was like “fuck yeah”. She brings so much soulfulness and strength to the track, and it felt so appropriate having another ex-pat muso on the song, someone who is living the lyrics and following her dreams in the big wide world”.

The song’s accompanying music video was filmed around the streets and bars where she played her first ever gigs as a teenager, cutting her teeth in the rough bars of Western Sydney, as well as iconic locations in Nashville, LA and Venice Beach and finally finishes at the Oxford Art Factory in Sydney with her band.

‘If I Want In’ is the opening salvo from a full length album to be released in 2024. While Imogen isn’t divulging too much information about the record at this stage, anyone keeping an eye on her social media will have seen her writing and recording in studios from Sydney to Nashville, Melbourne to London to LA, collaborating with legends of classic and contemporary pop, rock and indie music.

Imogen will also be taking her new music out for a spin, alongside favorites from her recent EPs and special collabs for two upcoming Holiday Hootenanny shows. For the first time since she founded the annual concert in 2020, Imogen will play a Sydney and Melbourne incarnation, with different lineups of guest artists joining her to perform her songs, their songs and one-off surprise covers.

In Sydney on Thursday 23 November, Imogen and her band will play Newtown’s The Vanguard, with guests including The Buckleys, Clews, Lindsay McDougall, Sarah Belkner and Timothy James Bowden. Tickets are on sale here.

On Saturday 9 December, Imogen and her band will take to the stage at the Gasometer with appearances from Alex Lahey, Darcy Fox, Demi Louise, Eilish Gilligan, Jess Hitchcock, Katie Wighton and Shannen James. Tickets are on sale here.

More information on the album and more upcoming shows, will be announced in the coming months.

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IMOGEN CLARK / Photo – Michelle Grace Hunder

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About IMOGEN CLARK

Imogen Clark is not just an artist; she’s a storyteller, a fighter, and a dreamer. She spent her teen years at Penrith High by day, playing Western Sydney bars at night, learning how to make her voice heard and honing her chops as an electric live performer. Today, she stands as a testament to transcending familiar boundaries, driven by her roots and an unwavering ambition that led her to global stages from the US to Europe.

Her songs, blending pop-rock and indie-pop, are like pages from her diary, capturing moments, memories, and confessions from her journey, battling anxiety and insecurity to fight for who she is and what she believes in, magnifying intimate emotions to arena level anthems.

Inspired by legends like Bruce Springsteen and Sheryl Crow, as well as contemporary artists like Maggie Rogers and HAIM, Imogen’s music is both immediate and timeless.

Nothing showcases her determined spirit more than her achievements of the past three years. Two acclaimed EPs – 2020’s “The Making of Me” and 2021’s AIR-nominated “Bastards”, her ambitious 100 Shows in 100 Days tour and her annual Holiday Hootenanny show, featuring guest artists such as Mo’Ju, Ali Barter, Montaigne, I Know Leopard, and Georgia Mooney.

A sought-after collaborator, Imogen has worked with iconic figures and contemporary indie stars alike, including Alex Lahey, Colin Hay, Jim Keltner and members of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Elvis Costello’s Imposters, Gang of Youths, Dawes, My Morning Jacket and more.

‘If I Want In’ is available across all streaming platforms now.

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Sydney Holiday Hootennany
Thursday 23 November
The Vanguard, Newtown

Tickets are on sale here