Clare Siobhan channels lowkey Nico vibes on “Twice a Day,” her new single that touches on “connection, relationships, worry, and that age-old search for meaning and belonging that we feel as we grow.” Although the song is officially being released today, it originally found its footing as a short TikTok that blew up overnight, garnering 38,000 views and 11,000 likes.
“Twice a Day” originated as part of a 30-day challenge called Escapril. While though the challenge is generally meant to inspire poets with daily prompts, Siobhan says she enjoys co-opting such things for her own songwriting challenges.
The mellow little melody got such a positive response that Siobhan decided to revisit it for a fully fleshed-out single; recording it in her bedroom (as one does, these days), and having it remotely co-produced with friend Graeme Zinck via Zoom.
@claresiobhanmusic #eacapril day 23: “clock” u know that thing abt stopped clocks #fyp #foryou #originalmusic #keyboard #songwriter #novascotia #synth
“Twice a Day.” the backbone chorus that Siobhan gently immerses us in over the course of the song, is a reference to the number of times something or, more accurately, someone enters your thoughts in the run of a day. It represents the gradual healing process of untethering yourself at the end of a relationship, and the memories we selectively hold onto.
“Each day there’s a prompt, and I’d been trying to write a bit of a song every day following the prompt. I think it was day 23 that was ‘clock,’ and I tried to build the song around that one idiom ‘a stopped clock is right twice a day’,” explains Siobhan. “At the same time, I’d been thinking about a relationship that I’d recently left, and was noticing how often or infrequently I was still remembering little things.
“You know when you’re just minding your business and a memory from someone from your past pops up in your brain? I’d been keeping track of that a little, and how that was happening less and less often. And then started thinking about how it was only happening a couple times a day, and the built the song around that at that point. It doesn’t quite fit with the stopped clock being ‘right,’ but I think of it as – even though a period of your life is over, your brain will still hang on to it and send you little ‘pop-up’ memories every so often regardless.”
Siobhan says that the reaction she’s received via TikTok has been very positive, with a handful of musicians—among them was Kai Warrior, Moira and Claire—contributing their own duets, harmonies and countermelodies to the song. Most importantly, the community offered a lot of encouragement to see “Twice a Day” properly released as a single.
“It’s very flattering to see a chorus of ‘RELEASE THIS’ on any song I’ve got,” says Siobhan. “[It’s] extremely cool to know people like my stuff and are willing to pre-save and/or stream it! Being covered by them was really cool for a couple of reasons: one was that the song wasn’t even finished yet and people already liked it, and it was also very cool that people with way bigger platforms than me had noticed it!”
“Twice a Day” is the second single from Clare Siobhan, following the release of her 2020 song “Ten Speed Bike,” and with this recent influx of encouragement, she says that she now has plans to release more material over the course of the next few seasons.