Clara Kimera: on Dial 8 and her true musical identity

Dial 8 to hear Clara Kimera explore her frequencies, tinted with the eerie aura of creepypasta stories and clairvoyance with tarot cards in hand — this is the story of a sonic jest. An industry veteran, Clara Kimera’s debut solo project apart from Agar Agar, an esoteric electronic duo, is a nuanced whole that lingers between the layers of skin, dormant and latent beats that cling. We got to talk about her creative process and identity as a solo artist, her visual and non-sonic inspirations, tarot, and poetry. Get to know Clara Kimera as she independently organizes an upcoming tour, introducing her soul and subconscious to a synesthetic world.

Hi! So lovely to be able to talk to you, how are you doing?
I’m doing good, I just went home to see my mum, and I am spending two days reading manga in front of the sea.

Please tell us about Dial 8!
Dial 8 is my first solo EP. I spent a few years working on it, trying to be as sincere as possible and to find my true musical identity. It’s not like I found it, but it was my first try ! I love experimenting and I loved working on music on my own. The subject is therefore more personal, it deals with my most profound fears, OCD and gentle creepy pasta creatures.

“I can be whoever I want to be,” you powerfully enunciate in the album’s opening track. Is the jester, also seen on the cover art, an archetype you resonate with?
I love the history of the jester. I am intrigued by the paradoxical and ironic image of what he stands for. He’s fooling around and joking, but deep down, he is full of sin and sorrow. This cynical aspect of him is very modern in our society. It really talks to me. I also love the Middle Age imagery. 

You commission a lot of your cover art from artists, tattoo artists, graphic designers, and digital artists – what is your vision for the visual representations of your music? Where and what mediums do you get inspired by?
I love collaborating with different artists because it brings a visual dimension to the table that is so attached to the music. I am very passionate about image and art, and that’s why I always want my musical projects to have a very strong identity. I love to control everything in terms of image because I usually know what I want pretty easily. I get inspired by old manuscripts from the Middle Ages (seeing one irl is so crazy), manga drawers such as Asumiko Nakamura and Kazuo Umezu, painters like James Ensor, and movies by Gus Van Sant.

More on the topic of cover art, what is your relationship to tarot? And more generally, what non-musical practices inform your music or your musical presence as Clara Kimera?
I had Jodorowsky’s famous book about Tarot when I was in high school and I used to practice reading cards in a very intuitive manner. It was a nice psychological refocusing for me. But I don’t know much about Tarot. A friend of mine reads my cards once in a while and it always shakes me to the core but its always very beneficial because it smoothes all of my fears into a soft reassuring breeze.
Reading manga definitely informs my music in various types of ways, I find it very inspiring to write lyrics. Berserk helped a lot of my songs, Vagabond too.

Do you personally resonate with any major arcana?
I love the hermit card, I feel like it conveys an envy of hugging the past without remorse.

Distortion and grain tint the album with an element of haunting, a hypnotic eeriness lingers in the hard-hitting bass line – even on the last track, “Drive Safe,” which is initially linguistically more about an element of care. How does the tension of the familiar and the unfamiliar, creepy or eerie, inform this project or your music generally?
I love to have a tense instrumental with a very soft subject, or the contrary. I love how words can melt into something different than expected. To sing words that reassure with a distorted guitar 

Turning back to the first track, who do you want to be? How have you constructed your identity as a musician and an individual?
I want to be as sincere as possible. I think that’s the main thing I want to convey. Sometimes musical projects are so built and flawless I can’t seem to relate with them. I like dusty shelves and imperfections. I like when it’s palpable. I want to be relatable.

I can’t not mention Agar Agar – I actually got to see you guys perform in Istanbul in 2023, and it was amazing – how do you sonically separate Agar Agar from your solo identity as Clara Kimera?
I think it’s pretty simple for me to separate both as Agar Agar’s set up is analogic and electronic and I come from a more acoustic background. Grew up with lots of shoegaze, cold wave, and folk artists like Slowdive, Joy Division, Sybille Baier… Going solo made me go back to a more organic approach, hugging the guitar and putting a lot more of my influences in it. It felt really natural.

What is one phrase that you want people to remember you by from this conversation? Or what is one phrase that holds significance for you, a mantra, a quote, or even a poem?
My favorite poem is by Marina Tsvetaeva. She’s a Russian poet who inspires me in my writing process. Every time I feel empty and I don’t know how to express myself, I check out her poems. In one poem I love, she says, “I refuse to be in the madhouse of the inhuman. I refuse to live with the wolves of the market place”

Wow, that’s beautiful. Finally, what’s next for Clara Kimera?
I am building up a tour right now, trying to release my next songs, as I am self-produced, I do everything on my own so it’s quite challenging and it takes time, but I really enjoy it!
I hope what’s next will be thrilling and that my music will speak to people.