Clairo

Early life and education

Claire Elizabeth Cottrill was born on August 18, 1998, in Atlanta. She is the daughter of Geoff Cottrill, a marketing executive who has worked for Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Converse, and TopGolf, and Allison 'Allie' Cottrill, a children's fashion photographer and designer. Her father's industry connections—he served as one of the founding executives of a recording studio in Brooklyn and secured her first recording contract—have sparked allegations that Clairo is a "nepo baby" or an "industry plant". She has a sister, Abby Cottrill.

2011–2016: Early career

When Clairo was 13 years old, she began learning to play guitar, first by way of formal lessons, but largely via tutorials on YouTube, copying hand movements. Clairo began recording cover versions on her laptop that year, beginning with a cover version of a Maroon 5 song. She recalled of this first recording, "It took me hours to figure out if I wanted to post it on Facebook or not to even tell my friends that I'd made it. I was so nervous about it! I just closed my eyes and did it, and then I closed my computer and tried not to think about it".

Influences

Clairo recalled that the Shins' Wincing the Night Away (2007) was the first album she "really completely geeked out over", crediting it as her inspiration to make music. Since many around her told her that a career in music was unlikely, she did not consider it a prospect and therefore did "whatever" she wanted musically. She said that her musical influences were a mixture of her mother and father's musical tastes, citing artists including Al Green, Brenton Wood, Billy Paul, Cocteau Twins, Trashcan Sinatras, the The, and Public Image Ltd.

Bags

"Bags" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Clairo. Fader Label released it as the first single from her debut studio album, Immunity, on May 24, 2019.

The song features drums from Danielle Haim, and was produced by Rostam Batmanglij and Clairo, who also wrote the song.

Background

Clairo made her second television appearance performing the song on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in October 2019. Dominic Fike performed a cover of the song on Triple J's Like a Version on October 18, 2019.

Composition and lyrics

An indie pop, bedroom pop, shoegaze, and alternative rock song, "Bags" draws inspiration from Clairo's first romantic experiences with a girl. She tackles the line between friend and lover with a crush who could possibly be straight. Clairo wonders if the feelings between them are mutual and whether she should make the first move when she sings "Can you see me? I'm waiting for the right time / I can't read you, but if you want the pleasure's all mine." "The whole song has this nervous energy," Clairo told NME, saying that the song has "a mix of really calculated parts to reflect the calculated energy you have in a first experience with someone,"