INTERVIEW: CLOVES returns with new single 'Dead'
Interview: Jett Tattersall
CLOVES (real name Kaity Dunstan) has returned with the release of new single ‘Dead’, the first new music from her since last year and a taster of her second album due next year.
A dark, moody track which she says, like the rest of the upcoming album, reflects a mental state of dystopia, it sees her move her sound away from the blues and soul inflected pop of her debut album, 2018’s One Big Nothing into dark electro and guitar tinged pop.
The glitchy beats play out to lyrics outlining CLOVES’ battle with herself as she tries to pull herself out of a sense of hopelessness: “Relaxation is strangulation / My minds been fucked / Mental fornication / Catch me as I fall / I'm crawling up the walls….we’re not dead yet.,” she sings. “There was a lot of genuine sadness in my life, and it’s easy to feel frustrated by your own negativity and lose all effort to care,” CLOVES says of creating her new music. “I’m trying to poke myself throughout this record and ask, ‘Hey, are you still alive?’”
To celebrate the release of new music from CLOVES, we recently caught up with her to find out more.
Hi Kaity, it is delightful to grab some of your time. How are things with you?
Yeah, pretty good. My first single from my new album is out, so I'm feeling a bit… apprehensive I suppose. Almost like before a show or something. I'm a little bit ‘ohhhh… I’m finally putting it out.’
Well, I wouldn't be apprehensive because I want to congratulate you on ‘Dead’. There's like distortion and multiple layers and vocal horns that are reminiscent I think of the Cocteau Twins. And then you bring us to the dance floor on that bridge. I love it. Tell me about it and where it came from?
It was one of the first records that I wrote for the album. I don't know if you know the Gorillaz song ’Kids with Guns’, there's a bass line in it that has a similar feel about it. And I brought in that as a reference as I felt like this is a foundation idea of where we should start from today. And then we kind of just built this track quite spontaneously and quickly, it all just fell together quite quickly. It was one of those things where we just threw a bunch of shit at the wall and it just stuck really well.
I love that. You just threw some shit at the wall and it worked out fine.
Yeah, we did it. Also, at the time, I was going through a lot of anxiety and also just mentally not feeling in a great place. So, when I came into the studio, I was very pent up. With the concept of the album, I knew where I wanted to go with it. So it was just about getting in the studio and a huge release of energy really. The section at the end has been through so many different kind of transitions because there's been several different arrangements. Originally at the end, where there's the talking part, we had a Space Odyssey quote. We couldn’t get it [copyright] cleared so we had to recreate our own version. It’s cool.
I was going to ask you about that. I love it. I honestly think you do want to sit down calmly, particularly as it comes straight after the dance floor.
The whole record is a specific concept, but ‘Dead’ is self-deprecation slice of the concept. So when you're going through a phase of feeling really anxious and really down and people are telling you to just chill, there's nothing more condescending and frustrating. I don't think you understand. I'm not doing this to be exaggerated. I'm doing this because this is how I feel. I'm trying to express that to you, I honestly don't want you to tell me to calm down. It’s just so condescending.
Good point. The track is the lead single from your up and coming second album. Apart from you experimenting with your sound, I know you've got a couple of tracks that you're pulling inspiration from other songs. What have been some of the sounds you've been experimenting with in particular, because I think this has got a real gritty kind of heady vibe to it?
In terms of production choices, it's all been revolved around the concept of this world in my mind and the same with the visual. It was really about creating a soundscape that felt like an environment that you didn't want to be in, you know what I mean? And it was about all of these different little textures coming at you from different angles that you're trying to almost dodge and avoid. And fuzziness, a roughness, a toughness, and painting this picture, sound wise, of how I see how I feel in my head, and then creating that into sort of a soundscape. In terms of inspiration for the actual production references, a lot of it is 90s, early 2000s. But it was very important to me that we felt like we modernised those textures, and we brought them into a new reality, if you will. So we could really feel like it's something I could relate to in like, 2020 as like a 24-year-old in 2020… I want to feel the essence of what those kind of references are and then pull them into how I feel today.
Listening back, does the end result go hand in hand with your mood around the time of creation of these songs as an album?
Yeah, it was intended to be one specific idea. The concept of the record is all about the layers and the complexities of anxiety and depression, and then each track is like a mood, or a texture that represents an idea under that umbrella, if you will. They were all very like specific choices, even down to the titles. There's an interlude on there that is really funny, it's just so ridiculous. So yeah it's definitely all one conceptual piece and everything was picked very deliberately.
In a world of singles and streaming, how relevant or what do those full bodies of work mean to you, given the fact that people can just go in a pick out certain songs. Do you feel like that in mind, you're, you're actually making it more for yourself as well?
This record definitely was made for me to express how I was feeling and for me to find a place where maybe people could relate with that. So I didn't really think about who would listen to the whole thing. But to be fair, I don't think that I listen to albums in a full run track order. I pick and choose what I want to listen to and also, I feel there's not really a right or a wrong to it. I think you can make a whole record and intend it to be like one conceptual piece. And then after this, maybe I'll make three songs that just have absolutely nothing to do with each other. I think there's that freedom there to do whatever you want, maybe through an EP of four things that are just random things you made in your room, you know? That flexibility and the freedom that it comes with is a really positive thing for creativity, because you don't have to be so ‘this is the be all and end all of everything I’m going to make’. It can be expressed to your fullest amount without the restriction of perfectionism. So I actually think it's a really positive thing.
We've got an album about the layers of anxiety and of course the last 12, 18 months across the globe we've got diseases, fires, predators, global pandemic. Those things are enough to send anyone into a spell of anxiety, but there have been some golden moments as well and I just want to know what has globally inspired and lifted you in these bizarre times?
There's definitely been moments where I think it was really important that people were super supportive of each other and I found that inspiring. Back in March before it all really began, it was incredibly like scary. I mean, it's still scary, but I think people are just starting to learn more about it now, whereas in March it was this unknown thing and no one had a clue what was going on. It was definitely inspiring to see how people sort of banded together.
You have played on some of the greatest global stages and your shows really pack so much power. How do you feel about releasing music in the current climate we're in?
I feel good about it because I have to. It is what it is. There's positives and negatives, it'll just be a different kind of output this time around. Maybe it's a good thing to push yourself into how you can channel your creativity and how you can put that out and do live videos and all this kind of thing instead of being able to play live shows. I will say that the only thing that I feel slightly upset about is the fact that I can't play live shows. Because this record, specifically, I feel like is going to be such a sick live album. But I do feel that there's also a positivity from that because you can make loads of cool videos and cool content and really spend time working on choreographing things and you just put your energy into other places.
Absolutely. And lastly, what is on the horizon view for you? Obviously, we've got some music coming out. What’s exciting you? What’s coming up?
I'm really excited to put ‘Dead’ out. And I'm really excited to put the next single out after that as well. And then… I'm shooting some live videos and making some cool shit.
‘Dead’ is out now via Interscope Records. You can download on iTunes and stream on Apple Music and Spotify.
To keep up with all things CLOVES you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
