Leeds band Clay return in a big way, with new single 'Stay Calm!' - Audience & Talent Development for the Music Industry

Leeds band Clay return in a big way, with new single ‘Stay Calm!’

Clay came into being, with the collective mindset that the band weren’t obliged to be what they were expected to be – both in a musical sense and a broader one. “We all have a desire to be stratospheric and see more of the world than we’re originally presented with”, says the band – a sentiment which is mirrored in the ambition on diplay with their brand new single ‘Stay Calm!’ which has just been unveiled as Track Of The Day over on Clash, and can be streamed below.

Being in a band, and having music as a creative outlet is something that Clay naturally gravitated towards – as a means of escaping the mundane routine of living in suburban Leeds, with little prospect of doing anything else notable.

The band are made up of songwriting pair and brothers: Joe and Jack Harvey, with the line up completed by Rob Gration, and Danny Armitage. After the brothers had been writing together for a few years, with no solid intentions of releasing anything properly, Rob and Danny joined, and Clay was officially born. After slowly navigating their way through an array of weird and wonderful songs they’d written together, the 4 piece began to develop their own unique style.

The turning point arguably was ‘Sun Dance’ (a track which eventually came to be their debut single – released just over 12 months ago). From that point onwards it was clear the band had really crafted a sound for themselves, and were onto something special.

Speaking on their new single and the sound they’ve stuck to, the band said: “When writing this track we wanted a very deep sound sonically. Musically we touched upon people we admire like Michael Jackson for influence. There’s obvious nods with the groove of the track.” A clever recipe of delicate synth work, and punchy guitar riffs – the instrumentals behind ‘Stay Calm!’ sound wonderfully direct and ambitious, complete with some vocal melody hooks that are simply impossible to shake off.

The band went on to say a little more on the new single’s lyrical content: “The song is written from an obsessive viewpoint you know, that idealistic thought of being in love. One of the lines ‘Im not gonna change the world overnight’ is almost justification for the lyric it precedes, that sort of unsure/ indecisive mindset. But whatever, Stay Calm!”

In the short time they’ve been together as a band, they’ve already had some nice success stories. They were invited to play the BBC Introducing stage at Reading and Leeds Festival last year; significant BBC Radio 1 support from Zane Lowe (when he was still there!), Huw Stephens and Phil Taggart, and some nice support from the likes of Q, The Line Of Best Fit, Clash, among others.

Clay are on tour throughout April, with fellow indie group High Tyde. Catch them at the below dates.

(All dates w/ High Tyde)

April 14th – Glasgow King Tuts

April 15th – Newcastle Think Tank

April 16th – Liverpool Studio 2

April 17th – Leeds Oporto

April 18th – Manchester Sound Control

April 19th – Birmingham Sunflower Lounge

April 20th – Nottingham Bodega

April 29th – Brighton Haunt

April 30th – Live at Leeds Festival

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