Apathy and Exhaustion in association with Disillusioned Records are proud to present a premiere from CLAYTON (a punk rock band from Nantes, France). Their debut EP “ESCAPE” will be released on April 28th via Disillusiuoned Records.
Members of Clayton formerlly played with bands such as Noria Lumens, Sexypop and Angry Days. They started out as a power trio, before fleshing out their sound as a four-piece. The sound they are bringing to the table is situated squarely in the melodic punk spectrum.
Guitarist / vocalist, Francky, was kind enough to give a track by track talk through of the release, so hit play and read on…
“First, you have to know that there’re few recurring themes on this EP : My Anxiety, my disillusionment with this world that I no longer recognize and don’t appreciate anymore,
my hopes dashed by politicians, the vision of a collapsing world and my desire not to sink with it. Let’s go, you’ll see it’s super cheerful …”
Everything Will Turn Out Fine “This song is certainly the most personal track on this EP. I wrote it, one evening, at home, during the first lockdown in France. We did not know what a lockdown was; the politicians tried to scare us so that we would respect this lockdown. And it worked; I was afraid. This is the first time that I really wondered about the future of this world. A politician on TV announced huge death figures and concluded by saying that all would end well. This track, it represents my fear of dying from Covid or from being overweight.”
Rattlesnakes “The lyrics say “Enough with the clowns who are backing away”. Politicians laugh at us. They come to the media to do their shows before the elections, they make us beautiful promises that they do not believe in, and, when they are elected, all these promises disappear. We’re tired of the circus.”
Quick Fix “The title of the EP, “ESCAPE”, comes from the lyrics of this track.
“I need to find a way to get away, experiment the great ESCAPE”. The desire to flee this world that I sometimes hate, the selfish attitude of looking out for number one in which we have been raised makes me really sick but we have to keep hope. So The chorus is therefore quite clear: “I hate this world, I leave, it’s imminent, maybe we’ll find a quick fix, relevant””
Systemic Abuse “This song is about watching our world collapsing on our TV screens through violence, disease, political corruption, nepotism, and inequality. All of that is constantly in front of us on the news channels. We wonder if we’re part of the problem or if we are being manipulated. But, unlike other tracks, here there is no resignation. There is the desire to break the codes, to fight, not to suffer anymore and break an unequal system.”
Fashion the future “Still the same themes in this song; doubt about the future we are preparing for our children, and who to trust now? We could decide not to care, live our lives and not give a fuck about the rest. And the question that is asked here is: who can help us to reverse the process, break the tendency toward selfishness and self-interest and make sure we can prepare a future for our children?”
Black Dream City “Here is a metaphor: The Black Dream City is our own world. A world with far too much inequality. A world that needs a new boost. People need hope to share so that they don’t give up. So we have to change this world… to believe in our dreams and try to change it.”
You can get this on CD from Disillusioned Records as a pre-order, or on general sale from 28th April. Cassette tapes will be made available from Cats Claw Records in the near future.
