Cliffs + Caves, the mother-daughter duo of Lindsey and Claire Justice, share their stories through songs that resonate with listeners of all generations. Memorial natives, both Lindsey and Claire are active residents in the community. Lindsey has been a small business owner in Memorial for 15 years with her interior design firm, Lindsey Justice Interiors. She also contributes much of her time to Memorial Community Bible Study, and serves as a worship leader at Houston’s First Baptist Church. Claire is highly active in sports at Memorial High School playing volleyball, basketball, and soccer. She is also a leader for Fellowship of Christian Athletes, where she helps in hosting monthly projects to get students involved in the community. “It’s amazing to see all these kids come together … and it’s awesome to know we can make such a difference, even as high school students” says Claire. Despite their busy lives in their hometown community, Cliffs + Caves carve out time to pursue their passion of creating honest and relatable music.
The duo officially began at Laity Lodge Family Camp in the summer of 2016. “Claire and I took a songwriting class together from the incredible Christian singer/songwriter Sara Groves. It lit an immediate fire in us to start writing and within 3 months we were flying out to Los Angeles to record our first EP with producer Jamie Candiloro at his studio in Hollywood – which was fairly intimidating because he’s worked with massive artists like Ryan Adams, Willie Nelson, and R.E.M.”
When asked what it’s like to work with her mom, Claire says it’s “one of the most amazing parts of the process”. “We have become so much closer which makes creating songs very fluid for us.” Their generational differences contribute to the relatability of their music, allowing it to speak to people of all ages. “Sometimes she comes to me with lyrics and I have to help rephrase things in a younger way so that the song will speak to people my age. I like that we can bounce off each other to make songs better rather than working alone” says Claire of writing with her mom. “It’s like we have a built-in checks and balances system. We definitely have moments where we are both overly sensitive or want to dig in and fight for our own idea, but that’s when the magic happens and we meet in the middle somewhere and find a song.”
Despite sometimes disagreeing on lyrics or musical direction, Lindsey and Claire both agree on one thing… their favorite song. “Defiance” is agreeably the duo’s best song yet – bringing a different perspective to their usual blend of indie-folk influences. “We hadn’t even intended to record it, we were struggling with how to finish it and on a whim decided to play it for our producer, Chris Jacobie” says Lindsey. “The moment he heard it, he jumped on switching gears to explore it and sent me outside to get quiet and create the second verse while Claire flushed out how she wanted to create the guitar effects for a grungy sound. It just fell together so magically and created such a special energy that translated into the recording of the song.”
Cliffs + Caves are releasing their new EP, Capsize, on January 11th. Until then, enjoy their singles “Right Side” and “Defiance” to get a taste of the upcoming five song exploration of the musical ingenuity that is created when artistry runs in the family.
