On a recent trip through LA, Kaity Dunstan, aka Cloves, made her way by the Uproxx studio for a chat on our music discovery show Heard it Here. Dunstan has already been racking up comparisons to greats like Billie Holliday, Amy Winehouse and even Adele, which can be big shoes to fill for a new artist. After all, those three all earned the right to break our hearts with massive success and critical acclaim, and it takes a full dose of life to fuel those voices — just ask any singing TV show contestant that disappeared after the season wrapped.
Real voices need real experience, and Dunstan is just 20 years old; how is Cloves managing to pull these comparisons so soon? Spend a few minutes with her, though, and it all becomes clear. I walked in to find Cloves flanked by her two managers that could have easily doubled as security. They were just pleasant enough so that I didn’t forget this could go wrong. The hoodie between these two sentinels leaned forward and smiled, then somehow managed to welcome me to my own conference room. That’s Cloves.
As a teen, Dunstan and her sister put their father to work driving, loading gear and setting up the shows in bars and pubs throughout Melbourne, Australia. They’d play a few covers, but Cloves was intent on writing her own material. Those early shows were packed with new song debuts to drunken Aussies. That’s a tight rope act. Respect.
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“I just want to be a great writer, those are the people I look up to,” she explained, while casually shrugging off her vocal talent and the accolades it has already garnered her. Fair enough, humility is a great complement to natural gifts. Her voice is incredible, yes, but she doesn’t take credit for good genetics.
What compelled this teenager to go out in to the world as an artist is a relentless sense of energy, an inability to settle on “good enough,” and a hunger to be in contact with people and experience the world around her. Like just about every creative person I know, Cloves has a hard time sitting still. Movies are a wash for her; she can’t sit and watch them without doing something else. She’s tried other jobs but ended up ‘off with the fairies’… Australian for day-dreaming. The only time Cloves found her self slowing down, taking her time and letting her feelings reveal themselves was when she was working on music.
Furthermore, she isn’t willing to settle on creating just anything. Her early collaborations with producers led to lame, polished attempts at the kind of generic pop we’ve all heard before. This stage is where many, many aspiring artists stall out. They either aren’t aware their work is uninspired, or they don’t have the confidence to pull it all apart and start over. Cloves did. Her new EP is packed with a solid foray into minimalist textures that allow her writing and voice to be what it is.
Lastly, Dunstan is not afraid of people, she’s an extrovert at heart and people are at the heart of her work, whether it’s meeting them, laughing with them, loving them, losing them, leaving them or writing about them. This makes her really easy to be around and attracted writer/producers Justin Parker (Lana, Sia, Rihanna) and Rich Cooper (Mumford, Banks, Lucy Rose) to collaborate on the EP’s lead track “Frail Love.” Her ease puts people at ease. She doesn’t need security. She is fine with life coming at her, and making the whole glorious mess of it her own by turning it into music. That fearlessness is what puts her on par with Billie, Amy and Adele. When you hear her burning up the radio in the coming months, or see her on TV accepting awards, remember, you heard it here.
