When I first started filling in for KCRW’s overnight music shift (The Lab) back in 2017, I had the fortune of coming across the off-kilter pop melodies of Brooklyn-based duo, CLAVVS. Their music hooked me with a track title “Serpentine,” which showcases their hypnotic vocals layered over superb sequences.
CLAVVS’ music feels very human. Their lyrics are passionate and relatable, while the music entrances you. This is in fact part of Amber Renne & Graham Marsh’s “intent of bringing imagination and candor” to counter pop melodies and structures.
Graham’s experience within the mainstream music industry — helping produce GRAMMY-nominated & award-winning records for the likes of Bruno Mars, Gnarls Barkley, and Ludacris — feels like an attempt to reclaim a certain musical soul that felt jeopardized. Luckily, for all our ears, Amber (who had a stint in musical theater & Americana music) met Graham in 2013 while in Atlanta and began creating and forging an independent, alternative pop path for themselves.
In 2019, I had a chance to see CLAVVS showcase during SXSW and was ALL IN after that. Their live show was crisp and sounded even better than the already perfect recordings.
Today, we bring you the premiere of CLAVVS latest video to their single, “Half Moon.” Which Amber explains, “is about the hope of returning to lost love and the cycle of that never-ending dance. In the same way that the moon disappears just to reappear, this song is about that perpetual movement of feeling— joy into pain, loss into love. For the video, we wanted to express that circular pattern through a dance narrative.” Goal definitely achieved.
"Half Moon" is a part of the No Saviors (Extended) Release, which is a repackaging of the band's 2019 EP available on all platforms February 25th.