What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences and are they the same as when you started out?
Clyde was the most generic, non-descript, neutral old-guy name I could come up with. A lot of people think it’s “Bonnie and Clyde” related which is not the case. Musical influences: everything from old country (Ernest Tubb through Waylon Jennings, Gram Parsons, Uncle Tupelo and that entire tree. I also am really into Aphex Twin, Four Tet and instrumental/ambient. Of course, I was raised in a Pentecostal Church, so all the old hillbilly hymns too
How has your approach recording changed since you started?
It depends on the record. With “Modern Man”, it’s thematically, kind of, “current-eventy”. Usually, I start with a riff or a melody. Lyrics are always last, but have mostly written themselves by the time I sit to formalize them.
Why do you write the sort of music that you do?
What I write is what I hear in my head. Even if I try to write through the prism of “I’m going to sound like X” it still ends up in my general spectrum somewhere between Country and Noisy Rock/Punk
How do you decide what to perform live?
The set dictates most of this. Where we are in the order, who we’re playing with, the venue. Most of the time, we try to play the songs like they sound on the record. I’ve been having our pedal steel player out a lot though. So we tweak a few things for that.
What plans do you have for the future?
We’re working with Animal Farm Music to release a series of singles. We’ll play some regional shows and are writing a new record as well. Ideally, we’ll be able to introduce Clyde to as many people as possible.