The Sit Down with Clover County
Athens, Georgia's A.G. Schiano or Clover County as she is better known, is a collector of life lessons, love letters, bottle caps, ticket stubs, and ones that got away. With the newfound perspective of her twenties, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter packages these memories and mementos from adolescence into her radiant debut album, aptly named "Finer Things" which was released last September through her own Undercover Lover Records and Thirty Tigers.
Living in the space between folk, americana and alternative, her sound lives in her self-proclaimed genre of "bootgaze" which she is about to bring to the UK for the first time for her own headline tour and wraps up the trip with a performance at London's iconic Royal Albert Hall at this year's Highways Festival which we looked forward to with her when she recently joined us to chat over Zoom.
Hey girl, how are you doing?
“I’m really good, it looks like you're on a tropical island.”
Yeah, I’ve headed out to the coast because we’ve got a holiday weekend over here so I’m making the most of it and just found a nice beer garden with some Wi-Fi. It's probably like the warmest day we've had this year by like absolute miles, hopefully it'll stick around like this for the next couple of weeks for when you come and see us.
“Yeah, fingers crossed because I’m on my way. I’m so excited because I've never left North America.”
Living in the space between folk, americana and alternative, her sound lives in her self-proclaimed genre of "bootgaze" which she is about to bring to the UK for the first time for her own headline tour and wraps up the trip with a performance at London's iconic Royal Albert Hall at this year's Highways Festival which we looked forward to with her when she recently joined us to chat over Zoom.
Hey girl, how are you doing?
“I’m really good, it looks like you're on a tropical island.”
Yeah, I’ve headed out to the coast because we’ve got a holiday weekend over here so I’m making the most of it and just found a nice beer garden with some Wi-Fi. It's probably like the warmest day we've had this year by like absolute miles, hopefully it'll stick around like this for the next couple of weeks for when you come and see us.
“Yeah, fingers crossed because I’m on my way. I’m so excited because I've never left North America.”
See, I wasn't sure if you may had this side of the pond before, because when I saw your surname, I get the feeling that you might have a bit of European heritage.
“I do, very much so. My dad is French and Italian, then my mom is like Norwegian and Welsh, so all the good stuff and so I'm so excited to go over there and be with my people.”
This trip’s going to be really cool then and also there’s that tiny little matter of playing your first show in London at the Royal Albert Hall.
“I know, I feel so blessed in that way and it's funny because last summer, I was supposed to go and visit, you know, a boy over in Europe while he was working but the trip kind of fell through and he dropped the ball on me a little bit but I was like, well, you know what? The first time I ever go to Europe, I'm going to be headlining a tour, or I didn't even think headlining, I thought opening, measly opening gigs would be great. Then now I get to come to headline in the UK and Ireland and then do the festival at the most outrageous venue I could have ever dreamed of.”
For people that don't know too much about you and will see your name on the posters for Highways, I guess the best place to start is where did the idea for the name come from, how did Clover County come about?
“I think as I was writing songs so early, I'd been writing them in my bedroom when I was seventeen, before I'd ever stepped on stage to perform them. I just felt like I was writing into a world, I could see this world and my dream is to write a movie soundtrack. So, I think my brain was just kind of in this whimsical little place and I thought, you know, I want people to step into this place with me. Then being in Athens, there's a lot of indie shows happening all the time and you see all these great, cool posters and sometimes they're not very cool or not very intriguing, so I thought, okay, if I'm going to slap posters up around town, I want someone to read it and think what is this place? I want to go there and just have a feeling that they were already accepted and welcome there then we would kind of figure it out together. The name specifically is like Clovers are lucky, I was born in the springtime and I feel so reborn when the sun comes back and it's spring, then my birthday comes and it just is such a beautiful time for the earth when things are coming back out of the ground after this dark period. Then the whole county thing is like, okay, it's a place, it's a place you can go, whether it's your mind or it's physical. As somebody who's moved around the southeast so much in their life, I found so much of myself in all these different places but I was always looking for more and trying to discover more of myself. It's like, the darker part to yourself or anything that you're maybe trying to run away from, they follow you to the next place, so, it's like you're always in Clover County if you're down here in Alabama or Athens, Georgia.”
When people are in Clover County, you kind of call your sound Bootgaze, how would you define what that actually is to people?
“Yeah, I would say it's like dreamy country. You know, poetic lyrics met with a little bit of a sludgy production. I think at the end of the day, a good Bootgaze song can be played with just a guitar by the campfire, or it can be played in the hippest indie rock club in Athens, Georgia with a band.”
When we see you on this trip, obviously, we said you've got the headline shows as well as that show at RAH, so what’s the vibe you’re bringing for those shows? Are you just playing on your own with the guitar or are you going to have some guys up there with you or a mixture of the two?
“It’s just me and the guitar. I think that this is such a big first for me and I feel so in control when I step on stage with just the guitar. I'm just excited to see how I feel, who I am and what I step into in this new place.”
We had your debut album come out last year and you brought a deluxe out at the start of this, I think the thing with anybody's first record, it's basically your life's work so far but more than more than anything, it tells people who you are. It’s your way of saying hey, I'm Clover County and this is who I am so when people listen to “Finer things” what do you hope that they take out of that record as to who you are and what it is that you're doing?
“That’s a great question. I hope that people take away a sense of understanding of themselves more than me because I think having songs on there from when I was seventeen and also finishing a song on the last day of the record with one of my best friends. It’s like an I grew up record and I hope that anyone else is in a period of their life of growth and regrowth is able to just kind of, like, feel okay about reflecting on themselves.”
“I do, very much so. My dad is French and Italian, then my mom is like Norwegian and Welsh, so all the good stuff and so I'm so excited to go over there and be with my people.”
This trip’s going to be really cool then and also there’s that tiny little matter of playing your first show in London at the Royal Albert Hall.
“I know, I feel so blessed in that way and it's funny because last summer, I was supposed to go and visit, you know, a boy over in Europe while he was working but the trip kind of fell through and he dropped the ball on me a little bit but I was like, well, you know what? The first time I ever go to Europe, I'm going to be headlining a tour, or I didn't even think headlining, I thought opening, measly opening gigs would be great. Then now I get to come to headline in the UK and Ireland and then do the festival at the most outrageous venue I could have ever dreamed of.”
For people that don't know too much about you and will see your name on the posters for Highways, I guess the best place to start is where did the idea for the name come from, how did Clover County come about?
“I think as I was writing songs so early, I'd been writing them in my bedroom when I was seventeen, before I'd ever stepped on stage to perform them. I just felt like I was writing into a world, I could see this world and my dream is to write a movie soundtrack. So, I think my brain was just kind of in this whimsical little place and I thought, you know, I want people to step into this place with me. Then being in Athens, there's a lot of indie shows happening all the time and you see all these great, cool posters and sometimes they're not very cool or not very intriguing, so I thought, okay, if I'm going to slap posters up around town, I want someone to read it and think what is this place? I want to go there and just have a feeling that they were already accepted and welcome there then we would kind of figure it out together. The name specifically is like Clovers are lucky, I was born in the springtime and I feel so reborn when the sun comes back and it's spring, then my birthday comes and it just is such a beautiful time for the earth when things are coming back out of the ground after this dark period. Then the whole county thing is like, okay, it's a place, it's a place you can go, whether it's your mind or it's physical. As somebody who's moved around the southeast so much in their life, I found so much of myself in all these different places but I was always looking for more and trying to discover more of myself. It's like, the darker part to yourself or anything that you're maybe trying to run away from, they follow you to the next place, so, it's like you're always in Clover County if you're down here in Alabama or Athens, Georgia.”
When people are in Clover County, you kind of call your sound Bootgaze, how would you define what that actually is to people?
“Yeah, I would say it's like dreamy country. You know, poetic lyrics met with a little bit of a sludgy production. I think at the end of the day, a good Bootgaze song can be played with just a guitar by the campfire, or it can be played in the hippest indie rock club in Athens, Georgia with a band.”
When we see you on this trip, obviously, we said you've got the headline shows as well as that show at RAH, so what’s the vibe you’re bringing for those shows? Are you just playing on your own with the guitar or are you going to have some guys up there with you or a mixture of the two?
“It’s just me and the guitar. I think that this is such a big first for me and I feel so in control when I step on stage with just the guitar. I'm just excited to see how I feel, who I am and what I step into in this new place.”
We had your debut album come out last year and you brought a deluxe out at the start of this, I think the thing with anybody's first record, it's basically your life's work so far but more than more than anything, it tells people who you are. It’s your way of saying hey, I'm Clover County and this is who I am so when people listen to “Finer things” what do you hope that they take out of that record as to who you are and what it is that you're doing?
“That’s a great question. I hope that people take away a sense of understanding of themselves more than me because I think having songs on there from when I was seventeen and also finishing a song on the last day of the record with one of my best friends. It’s like an I grew up record and I hope that anyone else is in a period of their life of growth and regrowth is able to just kind of, like, feel okay about reflecting on themselves.”
That came out in September and like we said, we had a deluxe that came out at the start year where you added two other songs and then did a reworking of one other on the original. In the process of the music industry and how everything works everything that goes into making and putting out a record takes a very long time so some of those songs would have been songs you've written, years ago but are just finding their way to come out into the world. So, although it's quite a new album in a public eye, it’s been a long time coming for you, are you someone that's constantly writing and always working towards the next project?
“Yes, absolutely. I think I started writing for this next album pretty soon after “Finer Things” had come out and right now, I feel like in this last month when I was home for the holidays and just really tapped into like what it is that I, as Clover, I'm stepping into next in my womanhood, in my life as a sister, a friend, a daughter and somebody's ex-girlfriend. I didn't know if it would happen like a concept, I haven't come up with like a theme or a world yet, but I'm just kind of letting it build itself as I'm experiencing real life and writing about it. I feel so great, I'm loaded down with more songs and I'm so excited to share. I'm like, I want to come to the UK and play all the new stuff.”
Please do! I know you were out with Sam Barber quite a bit last summer but what have you got booked in the calendar for this year? Is it a festival summer? Are you hoping to jump on some more tours and things? Or is it just working towards this next project?
“Yeah, it's a little bit of both. It's a festival summer plus I'm going out to Los Angeles to work and spend some time with friends and I have Newport folk festival in July here, 'm so excited for that but yeah, lots of writing and lots of running around music festivals.”
While you're over here in the UK are there are any things you're really hoping to do, is there any kind of like bucket list or things that people have said are really cool that you want to try and check out?
"Oh, I wish I had a better bucket list. I'm not a planner, I love showing up and just pretending like I already know where I'm going so any recommendations you have, I would love to assemble a bucket list."
Everyone that comes over raves about the architecture and the food which is all worth trying but it's great that you're coming over and can't wait to see you at the Royal Albert Hall.
May 6 GLASGOW - King Tut’s
May 7 LEEDS - The Lending Room
May 9 DUBLIN - The Grand Social
May 10 BRISTOL - Louisiana
May 12 MANCHESTER - The Deaf Institute (The Lodge)
May 16 LONDON - Royal Albert Hall (Highways Festival)
The debut album ‘Finer Things’ from Clover County is out now via Undercover Lover Records in partnership with Thirty Tigers and is available HERE. Her UK and Irish tour kicks off in Glasgow on Wednesday, where full dates are shown above and you can find full ticket details on her WEBSITE or you can keep up to date with all that she is up to by following along on INSTAGRAM & TIKTOK.
Highways Festival will once again take place at the Royal Albert Hall in London over the weekend of Friday 15th to Sunday 17th May where you can find more details along with ticket information on their WEBSITE or keep up to date with all that is happening at the event on INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK & X.
“Yes, absolutely. I think I started writing for this next album pretty soon after “Finer Things” had come out and right now, I feel like in this last month when I was home for the holidays and just really tapped into like what it is that I, as Clover, I'm stepping into next in my womanhood, in my life as a sister, a friend, a daughter and somebody's ex-girlfriend. I didn't know if it would happen like a concept, I haven't come up with like a theme or a world yet, but I'm just kind of letting it build itself as I'm experiencing real life and writing about it. I feel so great, I'm loaded down with more songs and I'm so excited to share. I'm like, I want to come to the UK and play all the new stuff.”
Please do! I know you were out with Sam Barber quite a bit last summer but what have you got booked in the calendar for this year? Is it a festival summer? Are you hoping to jump on some more tours and things? Or is it just working towards this next project?
“Yeah, it's a little bit of both. It's a festival summer plus I'm going out to Los Angeles to work and spend some time with friends and I have Newport folk festival in July here, 'm so excited for that but yeah, lots of writing and lots of running around music festivals.”
While you're over here in the UK are there are any things you're really hoping to do, is there any kind of like bucket list or things that people have said are really cool that you want to try and check out?
"Oh, I wish I had a better bucket list. I'm not a planner, I love showing up and just pretending like I already know where I'm going so any recommendations you have, I would love to assemble a bucket list."
Everyone that comes over raves about the architecture and the food which is all worth trying but it's great that you're coming over and can't wait to see you at the Royal Albert Hall.
May 6 GLASGOW - King Tut’s
May 7 LEEDS - The Lending Room
May 9 DUBLIN - The Grand Social
May 10 BRISTOL - Louisiana
May 12 MANCHESTER - The Deaf Institute (The Lodge)
May 16 LONDON - Royal Albert Hall (Highways Festival)
The debut album ‘Finer Things’ from Clover County is out now via Undercover Lover Records in partnership with Thirty Tigers and is available HERE. Her UK and Irish tour kicks off in Glasgow on Wednesday, where full dates are shown above and you can find full ticket details on her WEBSITE or you can keep up to date with all that she is up to by following along on INSTAGRAM & TIKTOK.
Highways Festival will once again take place at the Royal Albert Hall in London over the weekend of Friday 15th to Sunday 17th May where you can find more details along with ticket information on their WEBSITE or keep up to date with all that is happening at the event on INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK & X.
