tHe cLark iNstitute

Canadian singer/songwriter/musician James Clark confronts the ghosts from his past and puts them to song on tHe cLark iNstitute’s second CD release, Home Is Where The Heart Attack Is.

Planting his tongue firmly in his cheek, James takes his alias from Toronto’s infamous Clarke Institute of Psychiatry.

James finds inspiration in his personal traumas, twisting and turning them into witty pop tunes. Whether it’s the delight of returning to prison to be with “bad” friends in “Home Again”, the sting of a love’s infatuation with insects in “Crawl and Creep”, or the shame of a high school photo resurfacing to embarrass him in “The Worst Photograph Ever Taken Of Me”, James exposes his own special perspective on life and love through his music.

The seven tracks on Home Is Where The Heart Attack Is cross several genres, paralleling James’s personal music history. He creates solid rock songs, but his country and pop roots show through on the new CD in “No One Like Me” and “House for Sale”. James is well-known as the drummer behind the western surf sounds of Toronto’s Sin-Tones and their two campus-charting CDs. He has also been a member of several other Indie bands including Donkey (rock/pop) and KC and the Moonshine Band (punkabilly). In 2004, he parted amicably with the Sin-Tones to concentrate once again on writing, recording and performing his own music.

A versatile artist, when James is not drawing crowds, he’s drawing cartoons. His artwork appears on greeting cards, music catalogues, gig posters and websites. He is currently working on an illustrated book of his lyrics.