Meet CLOVES, the Australian-born, indie-pop singer-songwriter, who is distorting the British pop landscape with the arrival of her album, Nightmare on Elmfield Road.
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CLOVES, who was born Kaity Dunstan, tells us that she often uses the stage moniker as a space to transport all of her vulnerability into a creative and “safe space,” adding, “it gives me this kind of nice freedom.” However, Dunstan clarifies that CLOVES is not a persona but rather a protective “armor” that allows the singer to oscillate between art and artist.
The singer, who was a former contestant on The Voice Australia, tells us that the new album was named after the place in which she was creating her art. The studio where CLOVES recorded and produced Nightmare on Elmfield Road was quite literally on Elmfield Road.
Inspired by a mural on the street adjacent to her studio, Dunstan said the street art became an “aesthetic palette” that not only allowed her to title her project but also allowed her to cultivate the surrounding visuals and sonic identity that comes with the new body of work. “It felt like this kind of place where I could build the world from,” explains the Melbourne native.
She adds, “the concept of everything, the record… is very much kind of built from trying to hone in on mental health in a way that kind of encapsulates yourself into the kind of suction world that it can become.” The now London-based artist says that Elmfield road served as the foundation of the record and the place where she began delving into the inner workings of her mental health through music.
When listening to the new project, the singer said that she wants us to know that the 10-track record was a form of her trying to “understand myself mentally.” She continues, “each of the songs plays into why it is that my brain works in the way it does.”
“It feels very overwhelming all the time,” notes CLOVES. However, the album gave her a chance to take things apart and work through it all individually, rather than attempting to untangle thoughts that felt seemingly massive.
In a press statement about the freshly released project, Kaity shared, “The album is a series of songs that to me represent the complexity of emotions you experience when you can’t pull yourself out of a spiral—or an entire other world going on behind the eyes that only you know about.”
As we enter into the “other world” behind CLOVES’ eyes one cannot help but begin to unravel one’s own inner feelings, no matter how deep, complicated, vulnerable or complex. Bringing her mental health journey to the forefront of indie-pop and giving us a tour of the world inside her brain, CLOVES is letting us translate our own mental health while introducing herself.
Nightmare on Elmfield Road is out everywhere now.
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