Q&A with Musician Claire Herzog

417 Magazine: You’re getting ready to release an album, Whimsy Willow, with Faith Zimmer. Tell us about that.
Claire Herzog: “Faith and I have been best friends since we met at orientation at Missouri State University during our freshman year. We’ve done a lot of music-making and live events together, but this will be our first recorded collaboration just the two of us. The idea for this album came from a road trip we took together to Colorado with our husbands. We were in the car for 12 hours there and 12 hours back, and Faith and I were in the backseat chatting about our music and songs we had written recently, and we realized there was a lot of overlap in content and themes. We thought, ‘We should record an album together because we love making music together, and that would be super fun to have that as best friends and get to share that with others.’”

417: What advice would you give to aspiring musicians who want to explore multiple genres?
C.H.: “Always aim for excellence. This is a quote from my choir director: ‘Everything you do is an audition for the next thing you do.’ I found that to be true of my life. Whenever I go for excellence in whatever I’m currently doing, it tends to lead to more opportunities. Also, always stay curious and humble. I try to approach all my performances with gratitude. I am so thankful people want beauty and music in their lives.”

417: Who are your biggest musical influences?
C.H.: “For the album, Norah Jones, Dolly Parton, The Quebe Sisters and The Andrews Sisters. Faith and I get mistaken for sisters all the time, so we thought, ‘Let’s just lean into it.’ Otherwise, I have a lot of influences. I am primarily a classical singer, so a lot of classical sopranos—Natalie Dessay is one of my favorites.”

417: What can listeners expect from this album?
C.H.: “The title, Whimsy Willow, refers to two concepts that combine throughout the whole album, which is the balance of life being whimsical, fun and light-hearted, but also the sorrow, hardships and storms of life. Willows in art often represent sadness or resilience in hard times. We wanted to combine a lot of those ideas and make a beautiful but uplifting album that doesn’t neglect to discuss hard things. There are many influences of jazz and bluegrass, but I’d say it’s mostly acoustic folk. There is a lot of beautiful instrumentation.”

417: What has been the most rewarding part of recording this album so far?
C.H.: “I get to do it with my best friend, and we wrote two of the songs collaboratively for this album. When we were practicing all our songs at Faith’s house on her back porch, our dogs would run around, birds were singing in the background and butterflies flying around—it was just idyllic.”

417: Where are some of your favorite places to perform in town?
C.H.: 
“I perform all over the place. I play at Neighbor's Mill Bakery & Café quite often. That’s probably one of my favorite places to perform. My family band—we like to perform at Millsap Farms’ pizza night and the C-Street City Market.”

417: When does the album come out?
C.H.: “We’re definitely in the thick of it right now so it’s hard to tell exactly when it will be out. We are aiming for November, but end of the year would be the latest. Maybe late October.”

Stay updated on performances and album release parties through Claire Herzog and Faith Zimmer’s websites.