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Holly Clausius's new release "Set me free" was written for a 30-day songwriting challenge in April.
"I wrote a song every single day for the month. It's about that feeling when you like someone but they don't like you back. So you just want to be set free," Clausius said.
The song was produced collaboratively among her group of friends, according to Clausius.
"I had my friend Alex Purcell do the production and some guitars and bass. And then my other friend Ben did drums. Just the way that we all collaborated in isolation during this pandemic is such a unique thing. We built a song from nothing," she said.
Although the 22-year-old singer-songwriter describes her usual genre to be folk, she said she has released other pop-rock songs.
Postponed opportunities
In fact, Clausius has released seven singles since 2018 and was planning on releasing an EP in June. However, she said the pandemic postponed that release to August.
Moreover, Clausius said she was supposed to go on tour through Via Rail's Artist on board program.
The program offers complimentary or reduced fare travel for approved professional musicians in return for performing on board the Montréal-Halifax and/or Toronto-Vancouver trains, according to Via Rail's website.
"I was also hoping to stay with a few friends in L.A, who busk for a living, and try that out for a bit," she said. "It'll happen when it happens."
A career in acting
Clausius was born in Exeter, a small town in Ontario.
In 2015, she moved to Toronto to study acting at Toronto Film School's 18-month acting program.
After graduating, she performed her first gig in Toronto and decided to pursue music full-time, gigging 4-5 times per week.
"Music and acting are my two loves. I started singing when I was five years old and doing plays when I was eight years old. Acting helps me in my music by helping me not just write emotional songs, but also different genres," she said.
A festival-organizer
Clausius has headlined for festivals such as Bean Fest in Zurich ON, Grand Bend Beach Stage, Huron Sound in Exeter and Soundtrack of The City Festival at The Hideout.
"I'm kind of known in the industry to come up with different festivals. I just finished my little apartment-wide online tour. which featured 12 other artists and we raised about $250 for BlackLivesMatter," she said.
She has also organized other festivals like Female Fronted February, Gaga for Gaga and Night before Swiftmas.
Stream Set me free below: