A Journey Through Clockwork Flowers
Clockwork Flowers exists in a liminal space where time folds back on itself like the turning petals of a cosmic bloom.
They began in the rustic mountains of the Himalayas before moving to the ancient stone land of Wiltshire, England. Their music reflects this nomadic journey, blending austere moments with flashes of spiritual transcendence. Flowers’ sound feels like a decade-long meditation on the divine and the void, a rebirth that leaves behind a shimmering residue of spiritual metamorphosis. Their collaboration with the late Keith Law adds a profound new dimension to their work. This record captures the tension between where they are and where they’ve been. It is the sound of a journey from England’s green pastures to the crowded silence of Tokyo. Yet, through all this wandering, the heart of the band remains unbroken.
“Like truth is many layered, all our songs are many layered too.”
You recorded this new album more than ten years ago but only just finished remixing it. What was it like going back to those old songs after so long? Did it bring back memories or change how you feel about the music?
John & Anthea Bliss: We actually recorded this album ‘CLOCKWORK FLOWERS’ between 2013-2015 in very poor condition. Everything, except drums was recorded in our small studio flat aka Great Bliss Studio on MacBook 2006 with just one microphone and that was everything we had at that time. After having recorded and mixed the album, we just didn’t feel like releasing the album right away because of our own past experiences. So we decided to wait till the right time comes. When our friend Paul Collins from The Beat/The Nerves came to Japan last year, we recorded our latest single ‘All I Want’ with Paul as a special guest at Great Bliss Studio, and we gave him a copy of the album as we had just re-mixed the album. The next morning, Paul called us and suggested that we should definitely release this album sooner rather than later. So we took this as a sign that it’s time to release the album. During the remixing process between 2022-2023, we both felt so much energy and effort we put in. Even after 10 years, we both feel some kind of magic throughout the album which we would like to share with you all.
You spent a whole decade meditating in the Himalayas, thinking a lot about God and the Void. How did all that time in such a spiritual place influence the kind of music you make?
To be honest with you, everything was spiritual in the Himalayas. We arrived in the Himalayas with only few clothes and very little money as we lost everything when we left England in 1996. What we meant, meditating on God and the Void is that we studied both Atheistic and Nontheistic religions. The influence is huge, just beyond words but we could say like…we died in the Himalayas and then are reborn as Clockwork Flowers.
Moving from London to the Himalayas and then settling in Tokyo is quite the journey. How have these very different places affected the way you write songs and what you want to say through your music?
First of all, we spent our final year in the UK in Avebury, Wiltshire before we moved to India. One Londoner we met in Avebury said to us that Avebury is halfway to India! although we had never imagined that we would live in India for such a long time. Anyway, culture shock in India is real and unavoidable. We had no plan but we’re somehow guided to the Himalayas finally. We learnt so many things in the Himalayas which eventually led us to form Clockwork Flowers. Songwriting wise, place doesn’t really matter now because of our meditation practice and so on. For example, John wrote the latest single ‘All I Want’ in the Himalayas but it’s a love song with 60’s vibe which would have been or could have been written in London. Speaking of culture shock, moving from the Himalayas to Tokyo was also quite shocking thing too. Having dealt with high energy and very expressive people in India for a decade and we now have to deal with low energy and indifferent, inexpressive people in Japan that just reminded us the reason why we studied both Atheistic and Nontheistic religions. Now we live in Tokyo and know that this is not a place for us and trying to find the right place for us to settle in order to create good music and art.
You worked with the late Keith Law on two songs for this album. What was it like collaborating with him? Do you feel like his spirit still lives in those tracks?
Keith opened a new chapter for us as Clockwork Flowers. We consider this event as the beginning of the 2nd incarnation of Clockwork Flowers. What he did is a bit like Shaktipat to us. Keith was a great songwriter as you know. Songs like ‘Within’ The Night’ or ‘Yellow Cave Woman’ by Velvett Fogg that define his talent as a brilliant songwriter. It was an honour working with him. Every time we listen to this album, especially those 2 co-written songs ‘Clockwork Flowers’ and ‘Moonlight In The Sky’ we feel his presence…
After years playing as an acoustic duo, you decided to go electric. What made you want to change things up like that? Was it scary, exciting, or both?
Clockwork Flowers as an acoustic duo in the Himalayas wasn’t really a choice but necessity. We lived in a small village in the Himalayas where we very often had power cut, sometimes for months especially during the winter. Also, there were no shops selling musical instruments in the area and we never left that small part of the Himalayas for the first 8 years because of our religious practice. So, after we arrived in Tokyo in 2007, we carried on as an acoustic duo until we stopped performing in public in 2012. Then Keith Law offered us a collaborating project which we thought it was a sign that we should go ELECTRIC!
You mentioned feeling like no one in Japan really needed your music, so you focused on listeners outside. That must have been tough. How did that feeling of being isolated affect your motivation and your art?
After having spent years, we finally drew a conclusion based on a comprehensive analysis and the final decision we made was totally beyond our feelings. That was a dead serious decision for us to make as we potentially renounce the 2nd or the 3rd biggest market in the world at that time as a band. But it was like a matter of life and death. Speaking of feeling of isolation, that affects everything not only music and art but we’ve been through much tougher situation in the Himalayas for a decade. So this time was slightly easier for us to cope with as we now have power, water, food and place to live which wasn’t always available in the Himalayas. We lived in a rather remote place in the Himalayas with no modern facilities like bathroom/toilet, telephone, internet, TV and so on. We missed many things like Millennium celebrations as such during the decade.
The instrumental track ‘Green Griffons’ shares a name with your old band. Can you tell me the story behind that name? What does that piece mean to you personally?
‘Green Griffons’ named after our favourite colour ‘GREEN’ and Himalayan Griffon Vulture we used to see them flying around in the Himalayas and we had sometimes joked that we’re like griffons! However, we thought we need something to remind 60’s peace & love thing as our music has been heavily influenced from 1960’s psychedelia and so on. So, we changed the band name to ‘Clockwork Flowers’. The track ‘Green Griffons’ has sound effects including the actual sound of Dharamkot village where we lived for many years. We used to perform this particular track with acoustic guitar and djembe in the Himalayas.
Some of your songs were written in really special places like Avebury and Dharamsala. Do you think certain locations just spark your creativity in a different way?
Different way?…yes and no. Avebury is a very special place to us because of ancient monuments like Silbury Hill, Stone Circles and also Crop Circles/UFO phenomenons. And Dharamsala is a very special place because of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, our guru, other great lamas, yogis and gurus. Two very different places and different energy but creativity comes from within…so again, yes and no!
You’ve talked about making music without having a real home for almost 30 years. How do you think about the idea of home now? Does it show up in your songs?
30 years is a very long time. But people don’t seem to understand what that really means unless they experience what we’ve been through in this 30 years. Without having ‘HOME’ means without having any support from anyone and having no home ground. We’ve been trying to survive every single day for the last 30 years. We really hope that one day we will be able to settle where we could call it ‘HOME’ so that we could help others who may or may not need our help. And then we could possibly talk about the idea of ‘HOME’. However from our limited understanding at the moment, the idea of ‘HOME’ would be where you feel God’s presence though we understand that God exists within us. Like truth is many layered, all our songs are many layered too.
You’ve gone back to some really old songs John wrote in the 80s with your Colours project. What’s it like digging into your own musical past after all this time?
Just one word…’painful’ but it was necessary pain in order to go through the whole process. John probably wrote 100 songs in the 80’s but none of them have been published or released. He had hundreds of all those demo tapes – cassette and 1/4” tapes but we lost all of them along with all the musical instruments and recording equipment when we left the UK in 1996. So, he had to rely on his memory alone to remember those songs. However, in order to remember the songs, we had to go through all those rather unpleasant memories and experiences we received in the 80’s as well. To cut a long story short, we somehow managed to remember 25 songs through this painful process including regression therapy like meditations and pranayamas and spent nearly 4 years to complete ‘Colours’ project which includes 5 albums.
“Music and art are inseparable”
You also make your own music videos and visuals. How important is that side of things for telling the story behind your songs?
For us, music and art are inseparable and we do both. We started making our own music videos in 2017 when we bought a cheap digital camera. Since then, we have made 15 music videos and everything was done by two of us alone with no budget including location scouting, filming, editing and so on. Like our own distinctive sound, we have our own taste towards visuals. We both love old European films, French New Wave, New American Cinema and of course British 60’s films and so on. Like we mentioned before, our songs are many layered, so naturally, those videos we have made are also many layered and each one of them appears as many.
Looking back on 20 years of Clockwork Flowers, what’s been the most surprising or rewarding part of the journey? And where do you hope the band will go from here?
Most amazing thing during the 20 years is that we are still together and creating good music and art in our own way and have never lost our passion in music and art. And the answer to the last question, we are going ‘HOME’!
Klemen Breznikar
Clockwork Flowers Website
