Allan Clarke admits he's "as surprised as anybody of how [his new songs] came to be an album."
The Hollies' lead singer from the 1960s through the '90s retired from performing in 2000. He thought his days of creating new music were over until he began writing some poetry, which evolved into song lyrics. One thing led to another and the result is the album Resurgence.
The collection of 10 new songs was released last month and is available on streaming and download services.
Allan Clarke never expected he'd create a new album.He says, "Just one day, I came up to my office and I sat down and I started writing lyrics. And then I thought they were pretty good, so I took it a stage further. I got my son to show me how to use Garage Band on my Apple TV. And I was able to sorta get two tracks up and get a song together, and it sounded pretty good."
With the encouragement of 1980s Hollies keyboardist-turned-producer Francis Haines, Clarke crafted melodies that turned the words into songs.
"It's very different from what I've done before. This [isn't] pop music. Within my mind, I was putting things down on paper and putting them to music. They all started to make sense to me."
Clarke is considering club shows in the U.S. next winter.