Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Clayton Andrew

Up-and-coming artist Clayton Andrew grew up in a small town with big-city dreams. At eighteen, he made the decision to follow his heart to LA to pursue a career in music. But things didn’t go according to plan. In the first few months, he felt his confidence chipping away and knew he desperately needed a reset. He headed back home to regroup and reignite his passion for his craft. A year later, he’s back, making his dreams come true with his most personal EP to date. Pop Culturalist caught up with Clayton to learn more about his journey and newest project, Love With Strangers.

PC: How did you discover your passion for music?
Clayton: I grew up in a very, very small town. It was very conservative. I feel like I was trying to find a way to escape. I was looking for different avenues to express myself. I was a closeted, super-awkward little boy. I’ve always been into storytelling and used to write stories growing up all the time. My family is kind of musical too.

I was about thirteen when I wrote my first song. It opened this world for me. I was like, “Wow. I can combine storytelling with music.” That helped me discover my sexuality. It became an escape for me. It helped me through so much, and I honestly do not think I would be where I am today if it wasn’t for music. The passion grew from there. I got into producing and it kept growing and growing for me.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Clayton: As basic as this answer sounds, my mom is my biggest inspiration. She’s always told me to follow my dreams. She would take me to auditions when I was eleven. She took me out to LA when I was thirteen. I did this big showcase performance. She’s always been on my side and always been there for me. Even now, today, I just moved back out to LA. She was like, “That’s what you need to do. You need to be out there.” She was the biggest advocate for me. Without her in my life, I don’t know what I would do.

PC: You’ve said in previous interviews that throughout your journey, you’ve slowly been building your confidence and finding your voice. When you look back, is there a particular moment that helped push that along?
Clayton: It was definitely moving out to LA when I was eighteen. If I’m being honest, it was too young for me to be out here by myself. Over the course of those three years that I was out there, it was really hard for me. All the self-confidence that I may have built up prior to moving out there was diminished and washed away. I didn’t have any of that. I lost all of it.

A year ago, I decided I needed a break. I needed to move back home. I needed to settle down and reevaluate my life plan and what I needed to do. That moment of moving back home—as hard as it was and how big of a failure it felt like for me—it made all the difference in my confidence.

Being around people that supported me and loved me gave me that drive again. I felt like when I was in LA the first time, I lost all my passion for music. I saw all these people around me, my peers, blowing up and doing all these amazing things. I was like, “Why am I not doing that?” It was literally because of my lack of confidence and lack of self-esteem. Going back home and leaving everything behind, journaling, writing music, and practicing led to so much growth. I can literally track the pattern of my growth. I’m very, very happy and proud of where I am now because I’m back out here. Going back home was the biggest turning point for my confidence.

PC: You released your debut EP, Moon Talks, in 2018. How have you grown since that time? How does Love With Strangers differentiate itself from that body of work?
Clayton: When I was making Moon Talks, I was just starting out. I just started producing. I literally would grab samples and loops and drag them into my software and produce from that. I wasn’t doing anything creative at all. I feel like I’ve grown knowledge-wise. I feel like a musician. What I tell people is I feel like before I was acting like I was a musician. I wasn’t a practicing real artist, and that’s what I love about Love With Strangers. It’s very me. Moon Talks feels like I was still trying to find my voice. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do as an artist. I was copying what I heard other people do.

With Love With Strangers, it goes back to me being back home, when I threw everything out the window. I was like, “I don’t care. I’m not being held back anymore. I’m going to make the music that I want to make. I’m going to be as bold as I can be. I’m not going to hold back lyrically, sonically. I’m going to go for it.”

I think that’s the biggest difference. You can really hear it when you compare the two, which I’ve told people. People ask me about Moon Talks all the time and I’m like, “I went through a period where I was about to take it off all the streaming services because it’s very embarrassing for me to hear it back.” Then I’m like, “No, I need that so I can see my growth.”

I know down the line I’ll release another EP or an album and I’ll look at Love With Strangers and be like, “I wish I would have known what I knew now when I released that.” It’s about being able to see that growth.

PC: What inspired Love With Strangers?
Clayton: As a songwriter, I’m very much a hopeless romantic. It kind of comes with the territory. [laughs] I started realizing patterns in my life of different cycles I was going down when it came to relationships and seeking validation from these people that I was fantasizing about. I meet people. I go on dates with these people. All of a sudden, like after one date, I’d be picturing our whole life together. I would create this whole narrative in my head of what this person is when in reality that’s not it at all.

It started out as a joke, not going to lie. It started as a conversation with my friends. I was like, “I feel like I’m faking love with strangers. I don’t know how to stop this. I feel like I am creating this narrative in my head that’s not meeting reality.” From there, I was like, “This could be a fun idea.” It grew and grew. It became the best EP that I’ve ever released.

It started as a fun idea. Then it grew from there and I started analyzing my past experiences and I was like, “Wow, this is actually a path that I go down all the time.”

That’s how it started. It’s funny because “Love With Strangers” is the last song that I finished on the EP. I knew I wanted to create that song. I knew I wanted this big pop song, and “Love With Strangers” was it. It brought the EP together.

PC: How has producing made you a stronger songwriter and vice versa?
Clayton: Up until this EP, I saw production and songwriting as two separate things. Then I had the realization that I can match my production, my instrumentation, and all these tiny elements into my storytelling. I realize that makes so much more of an impact when you’re listening to music when the production matches what you’re saying.

That’s helped a lot. When I listen to these songs, it hits a lot harder than any of my other music. I know that each little element is there for a reason. Each little element is there to tell the story of Love With Strangers.

PC: As we look ahead to the rest of 2020, what does the year hold for you?
Clayton: In a perfect world, I hope to continue to gain exposure, build my audience, gain some attention, and connect with people through these songs. My biggest, biggest thing is I want people to connect with these lyrics. I want people who are in a similar situation like I was when I was fourteen—closeted, in my bedroom, trying to write these songs—to hear my story and feel inspired to be something bigger than their small town, be something bigger than what’s telling them no. That’s what I strive for as an artist is to help people.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: A band or an artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Clayton: Taylor Swift

PC: First album you bought?
Clayton: Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.

PC: First concert you attended?
Clayton: Taylor Swift

PC: An album that changed your life and why?
Clayton: Maggie Rogers’ latest album, Heard It In A Past Life. I’ve known about Maggie Rogers for a bit. Once she released an album, it took me a bit to cling onto it. It really helped me get past this last year. I connect with a lot of the words she says. I love her tone and style.

PC: A venue on your bucket list to perform at?
Clayton: Definitely somewhere in St. Louis, which is the city I grew up in. There’s this place called the Pageant in St. Louis that I feel like it would be full circle for me. That’s where I went to all my concerts in high school and stuff, and to be on that stage would really be incredible. So hopefully, one day.

PC: A must-have on the road?
Clayton: My computer! Everything I do my entire life—all my music, all my songwriting notes, everything—is on my computer, so I could not live without that.

To keep up with Clayton, follow him on Instagram and Spotify.