EQUATE meets Cautious Clay

Cleveland-raised, Clay began to grow his instrumental abilities. “It was gradual, I first learned the flute and then the saxophone in high school, then guitar was more recently in college”. Refining influences from previous classical flute studies he unearthed his love for jazz and blues. Prompted by early age “curiosity”, Clay demonstrates an excitable eagerness in his jazz, indie, electronic and R&B concoctions. Recently learning undertaking song writing and musical production, he has catalysed his music to over 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

The now Brooklyn-based musician is receiving accolades left, right and centre, with publications such as ‘The Face’ stating “Cautious Clay’s music is too damn catchy!” alongside ‘The New Yorker’ exclaiming: “he has the kind of voice that seems to emote and connect without effort; it burrows warmly into acoustic guitar melodies and floats atop more maximalist backdrops.”

Releasing his six-track EP “Table of Context” in March 2019, Clay describes the experiences as “organic” as he collaborated with artists Tobias Jesso Jr, Hudson Mohawke and UMI. “It all just fell into place; they are all great artists/songwriters that I respect so it felt right for the project”. Featuring on Tiny Desk via YouTube in October 2018, the instrumentalist produces a warm and thoughtful 13-minute long creative piece. Including best-known tracks; “Cold War”, “Call Me” and “Stolen Moments”, Clay gets uniquely creative alongside his own choir. “I arranged everything to be a bit more acoustic, I asked a few of my friends from college who were in acapella to help turn out this.”

With so many collaborations under his belt, Clay also recently joined forces with John Mayer on last summer’s single; “Swim Home” featured on Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why” series. Containing deep, textured tones his vocals compliment the instrumental story-telling nature. Liking the song, a huge amount Clay says he was open to “13 Reasons Why” using it as it fit the timings just right.

Debuting his latest EA “FIFA 20” in-game soundtrack-single “Erase” Clay delivers contextualised themes of the love/hate relationship everyone experiences with technology. When writing the song in LA and “wanting to try something different that spoke to my feelings about… being online” he highlights differences between the real world, and the fake world, applying his un-conventional feelings toward social media. Containing lyrics “Erase my social” and, “Ok we can settle in, Facetime,” Clay delves into problems of the online world. Single “Erase” raises awareness, “I think it’s just a reality that everyone online deals with it’s a love-hate relationship. We all wanna be in the real world at some point so it’s just nice to have a balance that’s all.” Explaining that the track evolved from two separate ideas, producing one perfect song Clay says it “felt perfect in the context of this production, and as a standalone single that isn’t attached to a project.”

After previous summer sets at Lollapalooza, Electric Forest, Boston Calling, Clay is in the midst of his USA and Europe tour. Already to have performed across Germany, France, Denmark and the UK, he’ll finish his tour in Philadelphia on December 14th. As an artist forever surprising his audiences, he says “I’m gonna be playing new tunes and also some new arrangements of songs from all the last 3 EPs. The rest is just gonna be set up related to the show that’s a bit enhanced.”

Catch up with the catchy vibe of Cautious Clay as he continues to break conventional trends and excite us with his charismatic energetic stance on life.

Follow Cautious Clay on Socials:

Instagram: @cautiousxclay

Twitter: @cautiousclayton

Stream ‘Erase’ on Spotify HERE

Words By: Izabel Rose

CAUTIOUS CLAY CREDITS :