You may have read our recent features on Clifford for his intimate and whimsical single, Close To Me, and the epic release of Too Big Too Strong, so we simply had to share the rising artist’s latest track, Can We Dance To This.
Kicking off with vibrant guitar, bold keys and pulsing drums, Clifford opens Can We Dance To This with the intentional lyrics, “This song’s for the one I’ve never met, I needed to get this off my chest, I dream of you nightly in my bed, my message to you is a request…”
Can We Dance To This expands into a charming indie-pop ode to manifest the love of Clifford’s life. Speaking on the meaning of the track, Clifford confesses, “I personally have not met my soul mate yet, but I wanted to write a song that exemplifies my feelings of happiness to know that they’re alive.”
The rising artist from Westminster sings the hook “When we first meet Can We Dance To This?” with passion and purpose and we are obsessed with the vulnerability and charm that Clifford exemplifies with this composition.
Elaborating on his creative process, Clifford says, “This song was another one of those simple yet extremely complicated Pop songs. Everything that I chose to keep in it was strategic, and every vocal take was critical and sometimes even grueling. Even when shooting the album cover, which was originally going to be an outdoors image, we battled numerous thunder storms which concluded in our shooting indoors.”
Clifford cites a long list of influences including The Temptations, Fairouz, Blind Willie Johnson, Aretha Franklin, Stromae, MIA, Drake, Diana Ross, Kool & The Gang, Shakira, Jerome Brailey, xxxTentacion, David Bowie, Rihanna, Mozart, Kate Bush, Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Eminem, Amr Diab, Beyonce and Yo-Yo Ma as influences, although it is certain that the rising star is creating a frequency of his own. We love Clifford’s energy and continue streaming his songs on Soundcloud!
He leaves us with an optimistic quote, “I hope that as we begin to get past two years of reclusiveness, we are beginning to get back to a world of engagement.”