HE WON’T TAKE THIS SITTING DOWN. Clayton Brice, center, fronts his new band, Claytown, during a June performance at the Volume One Gallery in Eau Claire.

Everyone seems to love the summer months in Wisconsin, but when others complain about the snowy weather, Chippewa Valley singer-songwriter Clayton Brice makes every second count.

“I embrace it as a time to make an excuse to stay inside all the time and make music,” Brice said.

Brice has been in a rock band, Whale House, for the past six years. However, his new group, Claytown, has an entirely different sound, which can be heard on their debut EP, The Phenomena of Hope.

“I would describe the new CD as a taste, a demo of our songs, a little bit of a departure from the rock band, more of an acoustic side,” Brice said.

He chose to start Claytown because he was looking for something different. He said he wanted to explore different types of music that were drastically different in style. Claytown also gave him the opportunity to work and write with different people.

“There are definitely some dark undertones to it, dark subject matter, but above all, when we write the lyrics, we try to create something beautiful out of the world.” – Clayton Brice, about the songs by his new band, Claytown

“I co-write everything with John Timmers, so working with a different person ultimately gave us a different sound and a different product,” Brice said.

Some artists may have a certain way that they write songs, but Brice said for him, it is an intuitive process. “I don’t know if there is a formula,” he said. “When I sit down and write lyrics, I a lot of the times go with my first ideas or my gut feeling on it.”

Brice said they deliberately chose to make “phenomena” plural in their EP title. “Hope is not just a basic emotion,” He said. “It’s rather a decision or a way of looking at the world. I feel that hope is something you earn and I think the lyrics on the CD are exactly about that.”

The album deals with many different aspects of life, and not all of those are happy. “There are definitely some dark undertones to it, dark subject matter, but above all, when we write the lyrics, we try to create something beautiful out of the world,” Brice said.  

The hardest part of making this album was finding the time to get together with Timmers and his other collaborator, Ryan Verdon. The whole album was recorded in about 48 hours with most of it being done on the first take. “We wanted it to really sound like us,” Brice said. “That was definitely a deliberate choice, really tying to savor the moment.”

One of the most rewarding parts of the album is playing live. Brice said the album is a great way for people to get a feel for who they are and what they sound like, but the real magic happens when people see them in person.

“When we play live we don’t feel comfortable unless we are on the edge a little bit and that always brings about interesting things,” Brice said.  “There is a certain level of intensity that we want to achieve at every show, and we do it by simply pressing one another to do what is right at that time.”

The art on the album cover also contributes to the feel of the CD. It is of an archeological digging site complete with a trowel and brush with their band name and title in a squared-off plot of land.

“The CD was kind of like an archeological site,” Brice said.  “These songs have been with us for a long time, but I feel like when we got this group together we really put the time into it, we sort of unveiled them, we just had to dig in and get them out.”

Claytown’s debut EP, The Phenomena of Hope, is available at The Local Store at Volume One World Headquarters, 205 N. Dewey St. To learn more about the band, search for “Claytown” on Facebook. To hear some of their songs, visit reverbnation.com/claytown.