After school, Clare went on to study Music & Italian in UCC, and a Masters in Composition & Creative Practice at the Irish World Academy, receiving first class honours. While at university, Clare developed her skills as a bilingual songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, playing ten + instruments!

With deep family roots in Co.Wexford and the North of Ireland, Sands took up the fiddle at the age of three, learning Irish traditional tunes from her father Seamus on a weekly basis, while her mother Susan introduced her to the Blues.