Daily Inspiration: Meet Carey Clayton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carey Clayton.

Hi Carey, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Growing up in Altadena, I spent seven years in NYC before moving back to LA a couple of years ago. In NYC, I played in countless indie bands, wedding and church bands and hustled all sorts of gigs as a guitar player and musician. When I first started, I was scouring Craigslist, Social Media, any way to could find opportunities. I had an informal policy of “trying anything once” and really trying to explore and meet other musicians. I found it to be incredibly exhilarating, diving head-first into so many different types of music and situations. It was about halfway through my time there that I began learning to produce music and started focusing on studio work more and more. While I loved performing live, I felt production and writing calling me. It reminded me of my childhood obsession with Legos. There’s something so cathartic and all-encompassing with building something like a song with all its elements. Making songs to me also offers an in the valuable lesson to be experienced over and over again: Seeing how details related to the big picture and how the big picture is represented in its details.

I move back to LA on March 1, 2020, for reasons completely unrelated to the pandemic, but with rather fortunate timing. The pandemic years were actually a very fruitful and exploratory time for me, as I both lived in various places with friends including Northern California and Utah, as well as launched my solo artist project. Over 2 years I released 2 albums and 2 EPS, all written and produced by myself. This outpouring of music was incredibly cathartic and realized how much I needed to make my own music a priority for myself. For so many years, I had been working exclusively on other’s music (which was an incredible experience informing the musician I am today) but it was time to really dive into my own brain. My latest release, “Foreign Tongues” came out a couple of months ago, and I’m currently finishing a new album inspired by my deepening mediation practice which I am very excited to share.

In addition to making music as a solo artist, I just launched another artist project called “Fore Fader”, am a touring and contributing member of Great Good Fine Ok, and create music for TV and Film, as well as for music therapy apps and experiential installations.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I think I’ve been fortunate with the opportunities that have come my way. That being said, the music industry can be fickle and tricky to navigate economically. My entire career has been a jigsaw puzzle of fitting different gigs together to both live a reasonably comfortable life and have the means to explore and invest in my own artistic endeavors. It’s been a learning process, but I’ve become a lot more comfortable with the uncertainty that is inevitable in this line of work.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a musical artist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. One thing that sets my music apart is my process. I often use instruments in unusual and unidentifiable ways resulting in surreal and unfamiliar sounds. Being proficient on several instruments as well as incorporating computer manipulations, I’ll try one idea in several different ways and collage them together in an unexpected manner. My music generally has and indie folk/rock core but always including ethereal, haunting elements.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
There are just so many ways things could go right now. I think micro artist communities – (something like akin to Patreon or Only fans) where fans are in more direct contact with artists will become more and more of a potentially viable model for artists. There’s just so much music and content out there to cut through all that noise is certainly challenging for both producer and consumer. I think once a fan and artist connect deeply enough, it makes sense to move to a space or platform that’s more dictated and curated by the artist (unlike Spotify or TikTok).

In terms of artistic trends, that’s always hard to really predict, but do think the flip side of new music being more “genreless” has had the result of releases actually sounding more similar. Maybe algorithmic suggestions should include some leftfield suggestions for listens, as now they tend to be in their own niche echo chamber and artists are encouraged to create sound-alikes to algorithmically be suggested.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.careyclayton.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/careyclayton/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/careyclaytonmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7keJNXAf49dydyswMYn0jg 

Image Credits
Danny Wolf, Joao Gonzalez, Joan Gonzalez