Having a love for music from a young age, McKinley Claire has been playing music for 12 years, writing songs for 8 years, and recording albums for 4 – and every song she’s written has felt as compulsive as breathing. After performing and writing with several bands, Claire soon found how difficult it was to find musicians who had the resources or lifestyle to pursue music as religiously. It was upon that realization that things really changed for the songwriter. She then decided to take matters into her own hands and start working on her own original material. Playing all the instruments herself, Island of Misfit Boys was written, performed, and recorded by Claire.
With the release of the full-length Island of Misfit Boys album, McKinley Claire wielded a dozen different instruments so she could bring a new attitude to classic genres and breed a sound that is all her own. Lush with atmospheric vocal harmonies, addicting progressions, musical swells, and vibes reminiscent of 90’s rock, the record boasts the aesthetic of alternative pop anthems.
The first single, “Your Best-Kept Secret”, begins rich with the sound of cellos, followed by smooth –but passionate– vocals; all of which offer a growing intensity that still breathes freely as the song plays on.
People will make terrible decisions that will inevitably end in regret, but these terrible decisions are just as vital to our growth as the good decisions,” explains the songwriter of her single. “Someone very close to me made a similarly bad decision that has ended in plenty of therapy and self-medication, but Mckinley knows they had to do what they had to do – so now she want to reassure other people who will end up regretting their own decisions.
Although the single does speak volumes for the album, the record should be hear in its entirety to get a real understanding for where Claire is coming from.
When asked about how she opened up for the record, she didn't think that writing something would paint her melancholy the way that she felt it, but over the course of publishing my own music, McKinley had other people tell her that they feel the same way as my songs – and that's a really addicting feeling. So now, McKinley just want to get better at making songs about how complicated people can feel sometimes.
