S Program Board Presents… Cautious Clay (LIVE acoustic set w/ Q&A) on Thursday, October 8th, 2020 at 8 PM (PST) via Zoom.
This event is free and closed to UCSB students.
Brooklyn based singer-songwriter and producer Cautious Clay is a musician who’s all about honing in on a feeling. It’s that feeling, that deep emotional intuition that fuels Cautious Clay’s sound. Building his work with a unique combination of organic instruments, digital programming, and soulful vocals, Clay masterfully blends R&B, hip-hop, and experimental indie into a deep, dark, hauntingly beautiful sound. His songs are unabashedly honest and he engages in deeply personal self-reflection as he writes, resulting in vividly poetic lyrics. Often compared to contemporaries like James Blake or Sampha, Clay is an incredibly modern songwriter and a forward-thinking producer. However he’s also well aware of the musical past, quick to credit Stevie Wonder and Quincy Jones as ever-present influences in his artful arrangements. This artistry has not gone unnoticed, gaining him nods from critics like Zane Lowe, magazines such as THE FADER, Ones to Watch, and Wonderland, as well as other musicians in the industry. Notably, after heeding Billie Eilish’s call in 2015 to hop on a remix of the Grammy winner’s song, “Ocean Eyes”, and performing with easy-listening legend John Mayer in 2018, Clay went on to collaborate with artists like UMI, Still Woozy, and Remi Wolf.
Clay currently has over two million monthly listeners on Spotify with his most played song resting comfortably at 64 million streams. Frequently featured on Spotify’s top indie playlists such as Lorem, Clay posits that his ability to merge songwriting and production is what allows him to make music that connects with listeners. With music featured in two seasons of HBO’s award winning show, “Insecure”, it’s fair to say he’s absolutely right.
