Next Wave #1218: CLOVES – clashmusic.com

The rain is pouring on the streets of Shoreditch as CLOVES (Kaity Dunstan) ducks through the door with a smile. It’s been hard to pin her down even for this short chat as she rushes from meeting to meeting – she has a recording session right after our interview. But that state of busyness seems to suit the London-based, Australia-born artist. 
“My personality is, I can’t really sit still. I find that kind of reflects in my interests in music,” she says, as we discuss her musical journey to this point. “I will also lock myself into one specific thing – play it over and over and become hyper-fixated on it, and then sort of drop it like a hat!”
This spirit pervades her music creating, too.
“When you write something you really love you get such a high from it the first day you write it, and then from there you work on it, work on it, and you kind of lose that first initial moment,” she muses. “If you can do that in multiple different ways then that’s the payoff… It’s just always chasing that.”
With that sensibility, CLOVES is the kind of artist who has moved through distinct eras. She began her independent career with a more traditional singer-songwriter approach. Her first record ‘XIII’, released back in November 2015, and her 2018 debut album ‘One Big Nothing’ are vocal-rich with warm elements of jazz and soul infused through the alt-pop/rock base. By 2021, though, CLOVES was experimenting more boldly. Her second album ‘Nightmare on Elmfield Road’ is markedly darker, wider and cinematic; while more recently, she has used collaborations to spark new areas of creativity as she moves towards another EP release.
“It was very singer-songwriter-led and then I kind of moved into this space of being really into the 90s,” CLOVES says. “And now I’m looking to a sort of Mazzy Star, Perfume Genius as inspiration for this EP. For me I find I get bored really quickly, and I kind of hook onto one specific genre and then need to move on.”
For CLOVES, inspiration seems to come directly and transparently from emotions and experiences.
“If I resonate with a mood or a feeling then that kind of makes me feel at home, that makes me feel understood, and then I want to reflect that in my own stuff,” she explains. “It becomes about what it is that I’m feeling in that moment, and then how that sounds and looks.”
The title of her upcoming EP, ‘Bittersweet Melancholia’, hints at the mix of emotions CLOVES is striving to communicate in this era of her work, and her growth and self-awareness.
“I think [with] this next phase, it is that sense that some things are melancholic, some things are a little bit hectic… a big mess of emotions in a way.”
“Some of my earlier stuff… a lot of it thematically was ‘I don’t need you, f— you’; and I feel like now it’s more like, I do need people, I do need to understand myself better,” CLOVES reflects. “I think there’s more strength in that… I feel like now I’m more open to my emotions.”
CLOVES is clearly entering a new era of self-discovery, and is acutely aware that others may be sharing similar feelings.
“We all go through things where maybe one day we feel really great and the next day we feel like trash, and I think the message of the whole thing is embracing that nuance — that’s exactly how life is… Maybe there’s room for something in the middle,” she says, thoughtfully. “That’s where the bittersweet melancholia is: every now and then your highs and your lows are all part of the same thing.”
CLOVES shares — with still deeper self-reflection — that, amid her restlessness, she has also struggled with perfectionism. 
“Getting it perfect is just not possible. Maybe this is the next step for me to be healthier as a person,” she says.
It’s through songwriting and the long-term, sometimes difficult, process that surrounds it, that CLOVES has found a means of expressing herself. 
“When I was younger I used to think that a song just fell out of the sky – people kind of teach you that as well!” she says. “But actually you need to show up to write a song, it’s not just going to fall out of the sky in your lap. It is work! And also I kind of see songwriting like being a sports play. You have to show up every day and do your best and then at some point you’ll just play a really good game.”
With sounds that often and naturally veers towards the dramatic and cinematic, it’s no surprise that CLOVES’ music has featured in a number of TV programmes and movies. She shares that she has been working on some new film syncs and a podcast project with Audible — and that she dreams of writing an entire movie soundtrack. She has also found a satisfying creative channel through collaborations, most recently with DJ/producer John Summit and previously with Dutch electronic-music duo Tinlicker. CLOVES explains how the immediacy of that more up-tempo genre appeals to her.
“I really found a love for electronic music… that space is about people wanting to go and feel something and have a good time, and that energy I find really inspiring. I want to make music for people to feel,” she says.
These latest ventures illustrate the natural curiosity and openness CLOVES possesses, and her willingness to learn and develop. And through doing so, it seems she has opened herself to another way of unleashing and sharing her reserves of creativity. 
“I think I’m starting to identify with simplicity a little bit more and finding ways to trim the fat of songs and not make them overly-complex,” she reflects. “Electronic songs do that in a great way – they’re giving you the best parts, and they’re giving it to you right now. And I really like that because, like I said, I get bored easily…
I’m very all over the place, I want the best part now!”
In a crowded and hyper-competitive market, an artist like CLOVES is proof that, when restlessness and an innate openness to movement, development and growth is combined with art, beautiful things happen.
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Words: Phil Taylor
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