Toronto-based Clark Institute is the pseudonym for drummer turned guitarist/singer/songwriter/manic depressive James Clark who hides behind the identity of this make-believe act as a means to give his many personalities a good home. The name is apropos in that it comes from Toronto's famed Clarke Institute of Psychiatry.
Clark is the son of a professional fighter-turned-toymaker who spent his youth wrecking the gifts he was given and instead abusing a drum kit in retaliation.
While drumming in many long forgotten Top-40 'hair bands' of the 1980's Clark began honing his songwriting skills with obtuse subjects like gay sailors ("All Hands On Dick"), love gone awry ("Something Putrid About Our Love") and homicidal cartoon bears ("Who Shot Christopher Robin?").
By the early 1990's Clark had given up his drumming gig with Toronto's Donkey and began to seriously question his sanity -- so he started a solo career. Through the second half of 1991 he headed into the studio with 9 songs and became multi-instrumentalist to his own production.
In the summer of 1992 he released 6 of those songs on the indie cassette EP 'Nobody Said'. One song, "Letter To Dartford" (featuring Donkey's Alex Radeff on guitar) would pop up on the Bullseye Records compilation 'Unsigned, Sealed & Delivered, Volume 5ive: Sonic Explosion'....and then nothing.
Clark found himself unable to support his musical habits merely on home recordings and took a steady job working in a record store instead.
1998 saw the release of Clark's first full-length indie CD 'The Land That Tim Forgot' which was produced by ex-National Velvet keyboardist Garry Flint. The album also featured musical assists from Greg Bonnell (guitar), Gord Fynes (drums), and Steven Howard (bass). Flint also added the occasional keyboard.
Clark spent the next 7 years writing and recording his next Garry Flint produced CD entitled 'Home Is Where The Heart Attack Is'. It was released in September 2004 where it charted on Canadian campus radio almost immediately. Tracks from the CD also received considerable airplay and widespread recognition on internet radio stations around the world. The song "The Worst Photograph Ever Taken Of Me" hit #5 on the UK website MP3unsigned.com. The CD reached #3 on the Pop Album charts on Australia' MP3.com.au.
With 2008's 'Sideshow Unattraction' Clark braved live stages with a full band and found the CD being distributed stateside on the late lamented Not Lame Recordings.
A hold-over from the previous album, the song 'Splinter in the Soul', was released as a new single in May 2011.
Singles
2010 Splinter in the Soul
Albums
1992 Nobody Said (CIC)
1998 The Land That Tim Forgot (independent)
2004 Home Is Where The Heart Attack Is
2008 Sideshow Unattraction
Video
Compilation Tracks
1993 "Letter To Dartford" on 'Unsigned, Sealed & Delivered, Volume 5ive: Sonic Explosion' (Bullseye) BLR-CD-4007
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