Monique Clare's live performance career has run the gamut - from a packed stadium with rap megastar Eminem to small club gigs.
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"I like having the diversity of doing my own shows to more intimate audiences, and then doing bigger shows with other bands where I get to feel this amazing energy," she said.
The Brisbane-based cellist and singer/songwriter is classically trained, and now writes and performs folk-pop.
She has been the cellist and backing vocalist in internationally-touring Australian folk band The Maes for the past two years.
She's also played cello on-stage with Kate Miller-Heidke (at Eurovision: Australia Decides 2020), Eminem (at the MCG in 2019), and Katie Noonan (Noosa Alive Festival 2018).
The guest cellist role for Eminem is one appearance she's still buzzing about.
"(The show) was something else. It felt like a totally different job.
"When I play folk music it's normally for much more intimate audiences, and you can see everyone's face, and see how they're reacting to the music.
"But with this Eminem show, they have crafted everything to the smallest detail so the show runs perfectly.
"It's kind of like the audience becomes more like a large organism that's all reacting together, rather than seeing those individual faces and how they're reacting."
Meanwhile, the 26-year-old musician has released a new single, You Are.
Clare said the song was written while on tour with The Maes on a remote island in Scotland.
"It's a full-blown love song, written as a celebration of the person I was in love with and how it didn't matter that we were spending most of the year on opposite ends of the earth," she said.
"I was still grateful to have them in my life at all. We broke up, but have stayed friends to this day and the lyrics in the song still essentially stand.
"This is my first fully fleshed-out release, after putting out a stripped back solo EP in 2017.
"I gave myself permission to let loose in the studio and create an expansive arrangement with cello, violin, double bass, harp, trumpet and drums."
Clare is hitting the road in support of the new track, travelling and performing solo.
She's got her vehicle decked out, including a mattress in the back if stuck without a bed.
"When I'm doing it solo, it's actually really liberating," she said of touring.
"I've heard people say they hate touring solo, and they really wish they had a full band with them to keep them company.
"But I love doing those long drives by myself, because I get to put on whatever music I want to listen to, sing along to it, or do weird vocal warm-ups in the car."
Clare will perform two solo shows in the Illawarra.
The first is on February 27 at Port Kembla's Servo Food Truck and Bar.
Doors at 7pm. Tickets can be bought at https://www.trybooking.com/BIJHK.
The other is on February 28 at Jamberoo Sound Space (located on Wyalla Road).
Doors 7pm. Tickets available at https://www.trybooking.com/BHTBO.