An Interview With Singer-Songwriter CLAYTON WYATT On His Debut EP, ‘Time Buries’ and More!

Get to know the singer-songwriter Clayton Wyatt! The Colorado Springs native, now Atlanta based artist released his newest EP “Time Buries” on 10/25 via MAD Dragon Records. This 4-track collection is Clayton’s first full-band recording and features Matt Kelly (City and Colour). 

Following the debut of his first EP “Depending On The Outcome” last summer, Clayton garnered attention from local iHeart station ALT 105.7 who played his single on the #MajorityRules segment. Clayton is constantly touring, whether it’s an east coast run from Atlanta to New York, Sofar Sounds shows across the country, or even his latest European tour. 

Connect With Clayton Wyatt Online Here:

Facebook | Instagram | Soundcloud | YouTube | Spotify

Learn more about Clayton Wyatt in the following All Access interview:

Thank you for your time! So what does a typical day look like for you lately?

I wake up and immediately make a pot of coffee. Then I do some work online designing websites. And then I usually play guitar and if I’m lucky a song will come out of it. Then depending on the night i’ll either, hang out at home, go play a gig, or go watch my friends gigs.

Now that we are in the latter half of the year, how has 2019 treated you? What are some goals that you have had for yourself this year? How close are you to reaching them or did you already? What are you already looking forward to in 2020?

2019 was okay. I did some cool things like tour up the East coast a couple times. I also went on a EU/UK tour in the summer which has always been a goal of mine. I have a few more goals in 2020 such as going on bigger tours with my band. I’m sure I will have other goals that come up but that is the only one I can think of at the moment.

Growing up, how important was music in your life? Can you recall the moment when you decided that you wanted to be a musician? Was it an easy or difficult choice to make?

 I have always enjoyed music but it wasn’t till I was about 13 or 14 when I picked up a guitar. A few of my friends would bring their guitars to school so one day I tried it and took to it. About a year or so later I started singing after discovering the voice of Dallas Green. His voice inspired me to start singing and writing my own songs. To this day he is still my favorite artist and I don’t see that ever changing.

Was there ever a time when you thought about doing something else? If you weren’t a musician today, what else could you see yourself doing? Would you be as fulfilled in life?

I have thought about it a lot. Music is the only thing I am really ambitious about. So yes, I have thought about it and no I don’t want to do anything else. Nothing I can think of at the moment would fulfill me like becoming a full time musician.

What has been the biggest surprise so far about making music your career? What has been an unexpected or welcome challenge to it all? What has been the best part about it all?  

That there’s actually people that want to listen to my music. Always surprises me when I meet someone at one of my shows that came to hear me just because they dig the music. A challenge I suppose I have to welcome is social media isn’t it? I understand it’s importance and it’s effectiveness but It sucks ‘cause I am so bad at it.

Let’s talk about your newest EP, “Time Buries.” What was the inspiration for this collection? What was it like making your first full-band recording?

I felt like I had some aggression I needed to get out. I needed to feel an electric guitar cranked up again and get some guts behind the vocals. I love playing my acoustic guitar but it just turned out that the songs on the EP were the ones that went best together.  It was an awesome experience recording this EP! Loved working with the team of amazing musicians around me. It’s so cool to have people in your life who believe in your music enough to be apart of it and give up a lot of time and effort in order to make it happen.

What was it like working with Matt Kelly from City and Colour?

Oh Lord, where do I even begin. To have someone like Matt Kelly playing my songs is something I couldn’t have even imagined. He took my songs to a whole new level and now when I listen back on the songs I am always just picking out Matt’s parts and just gushing over it. So thanks Matt.

How would you say that this music compares to your previous EP, “Depending On The Outcome” that you released last summer? 

It’s more aggressive. My first EP had barely any electric guitar, no drums really. It was very stripped back. This EP has only Electric guitar and huge drums. It is very experimental for me too. I’ve never made a record like this before and it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while.

How do you think you have grown as a musician since you first started making music? What if anything has stayed the same about your music-making process?

Every aspect of my music/songwriting is better than when I first started. As it should be. I sucked when I first started out. My parents told me, when they felt I was good/confident enough to know, that they asked my guitar theory teacher if I was tone def because I was such a terrible singer. I had to really work at it. Everything other than my undying love and passion for music is different.

How do you feel about social media? What do you think social media has done for your career?

Eh. I love it and I hate it. I love the possibility it offers but it’s just so vast and it’s not always about how good someone is. Someone who sucks at music but knows how to manipulate and bend social media to their will, in my opinion, more often than not, has a better chance of going farther than a great musician who is helpless at social media. But I don’t know, don’t quote me on that. I am still getting the hang of it. Social media has done a lot for me, just not as much as I would like but that’s more just user error.

What musicians would you absolutely still love to work with in the future?

 I’d have to think about that. I am not great with collaborating. I only share unfinished songs to a select few people until I am confident enough that it is finished. It is mostly because of my insecurities and doubts as a musician so I don’t know.

If you could design your dream music video right now, what would it look like?

Depends on the song. But probably just me playing guitar in an empty room. I don’t really get into that choreographed stuff. I don’t really like it and I wouldn’t be caught dead doing it.

Where would you love to hear a song of yours played?

I don’t know. It’d be cool to hear it randomly at a coffee shop or something.

At the end of the day, what do you hope people take away from your music?

Whatever they need to. I write songs for myself so I don’t implode. I don’t really have a profound message to convey. Not to get all “Artsy fartsy” but the beauty of music is that it rarely has the exact same effect on everyone. It really just depends on the listener’s experience and the stage of life they are in.