“Free Virtual Tarot Readings” courtesy Clance and Imes

Not imposters — unposers

San Diego’s Clance & Imes take their name from the two psychologist researchers who coined the term “imposter syndrome” in a 1978 paper: Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Ament Imes. But the two local women who grabbed that moniker for a band name admit that they’ve never figured out a one-to-one correspondence. “We don’t really know who we are, thanks for asking,” admits Cato Zane, who programs the musical backing.

“I second Cato’s sentiment,” chimes in Evan Diamond, who adds lead vocals, guitar, and bass to their tracks.

That lack of definition may contribute to a certain freewheeling spirit in the recording studio. Says Diamond, “We both really love to mess around with what constitutes an instrument. Making percussion out of pill bottles or skateboard wheels, or creating atmosphere with the sound of cracking a crisp linen sheet. The difference between noise and music is really what you make of it, and we love walking that line.”

Diamond hails from Calgary, Alberta, Canada (“I was happy to escape the cold”), while Zane is a SoCal native who grew up around NYC but returned around a decade ago (“I was happy to escape the heat and humidity”). Early musical influences varied a bit. “The Beatles, Carole King, and James Taylor were the start of me falling in love with music,” remembers Diamond, “because that’s what my parents listened to. As I got older, I started connecting with artists like Paramore, Charly Bliss, and The 1975. Fun fact, one of my first memories of wanting to play music was watching the Josie and The Pussycats movie and daydreaming about how cool it would be to play in a band.”

As for Cato, “One of my earliest memories of really being blown away by sound, in terms of mix and sound quality, involves Pink Floyd. I had a canopy bed when I was little, and my dad helped me get a surround sound system one year. I set up the system so the speakers hung from my canopy and put the sub below the bed. I got a Pink Floyd CD that had a multichannel mix; I think it was either a quadraphonic or surround mix of some kind. I just remember laying in bed, in love with the way sound can just envelop you.”

Cato has been a full-time sound engineer since 2010. Diamond has played as Evan Diamond and the Library since 2015. As Diamond remembers it, “We met in 2019 when my band hired Cato to engineer our second EP at Rarefied Recording, and I knew we had to be best friends. She’s warming up to the idea now.” Affirms Zane, “Yeah, she love bombed me, and now we are buds.” Their new single “Free Virtual Tarot Readings” displays their trademark wit, and what Zane calls the “spooky vibe” to her sound work. They haven’t played live yet, although Diamond sometimes throws their songs into solo sets. Zane says she’s building a sound system for the electronic backing.

Oddly enough for someone who runs a board, Zane has the odder gig stories. “I once broke my toe at the very beginning of the day, running sound for the remainder of Jefferson Airplane. I think they might have been performing under the Jefferson Starship name, but I don’t remember now. Anyway, I finished out the show before dealing with my toe. I had to climb ladders and stuff too, so I don’t know why I did that to myself. I also ran sound for a play entirely in Farsi once. I had help from the stage manager in my earbuds, and I relied on that heavily at the beginning, but I also ended up learning my cues phonetically, without even knowing the language.”

As for their eschewing faces in band photos, Zane laughs “That was our vibe that day.” Adds Diamond, “Cato and I are not photo people, and prefer someone to just tell us how to pose-stand, so that photo was an idea my wife [photographer Reyna Adams] had for us. I like the mystery behind it. We don’t give you our faces, so instead you’re left with this musician-first, person-second image that is both maybe overly earnest, Cool-Girl-moody, and also very tongue-in-cheek.”

“Plus,” adds Zane, “I might not have a face. It might just be one giant potato.”