Meet Clara Vale

The voice and face of The Girl Behind The Mask

Clara Vale is the AI vocalist and visual persona of The Girl Behind The Mask (TGBTM), a music project created by poet and songwriter Lauren.

Created in Lauren's likeness, Clara brings a recognizable face and voice to songs that begin as Lauren's original poetry. Her style reflects the project's love of emo and alternative music, expressive imagery, and the early 2000s.

Behind the voice

Every song begins with Lauren's words.

Her writing explores mental illness and mental health, neurodivergence, grief and loss, love and limerence, trauma and healing, and the complicated feelings that can be difficult to explain out loud. Through AI-assisted music production, those poems take on another form, with Clara serving as the vocalist and the character representing Lauren's lived experience and intense emotions.

Lauren is the writer and creative force behind TGBTM. Clara connects the music, artwork, and videos through a shared identity.

Clara's world

Some songs are angry. Some are tender. Others sit with numbness, longing, or the effort it takes to keep going.

Clara moves through those different worlds, from the darkness of In the Shadows to the hope of Toward the Sun. Her presence changes with each story, while the emotion in Lauren's writing remains at the center.