Cleo Tucker
What is your earliest memory of music?
I remember when I was 7 years old my mom took me to a Borders book store after school where Joan Armatrating was performing. The book store had an intimate stage and I was inspired by her playing. I began to take up guitar after I saw her play.
What or who has had the biggest influence on your music?
I think I was influenced from a young age listening to songwriters who focus heavily on lyricism and guitar playing. I wanted to be really good at both, and I fell in love with pairing a guitar part I could create with a feeling that I could take apart/contort, and give language.
If you were stuck on a desert island, what is the one thing you’d want?
Haha probably Jeff Tropes (the host from Survivor) so we can role play the best show on television.
For the most part, do you think social media has had a positive or negative impact?
I think accessibility to voices that aren’t near you or in your community has been a really powerful symptom of social media. I believe it has the ability to encourage empathy and discovery. I also think it can become an obsession, and social media can have the ability to hand feed tendencies like comparing ourselves to others or feeling inadequate. I think these feelings occur regardless if you have a social media presence or not, but social media “achievement” is advertised and encouraged so strongly.
How do you define beauty?
Beauty is the confrontation with the self, it is honesty. It is our resentment studied, intentionally understood, and the growth that occurs when we question why we may not embrace parts of who we are. I find beauty in that process.
Images courtesy of CLEO TUCKER
interview HANNAH GLENN
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