Alt-indie musician Leroy Clampitt has just released his own debut album, having spent over a decade working on other people’s music.
The Aotearoa-born, LA-based producer, who has been nominated for three Grammys and worked with big names like Lily Allen, Sabrina Carpenter, and Madison Beer, has released Get Happy, an 11-track solo record written, recorded, and produced all by himself.
Inviting listeners into Clampitt’s inner world, Get Happy explores weighty themes such as love, work, and burnout. The title track, for example, was written when the producer was at an all-time low.
“I was fully burned out. I remember just sitting in the studio trying to work on other people’s music, and I just couldn’t hear anything. It just sounded like fazy, washy-like noise, and I sat down and wrote that song, ‘Get Happy’,” he reveals. After he played it on the guitar for his partner at home, he didn’t return to the studio for two months. “That song was like my cue to be like, you need to take a break and reassess some stuff and give yourself a rest.”
“[‘Get Happy’] helped me get back on track.”
Clampitt craved simplicity for his debut solo album. He listened to a lot of J-pop and City pop from the ’60s and ’70s, and he was inspired by the influence of English and American music on isolated island countries like Japan – or New Zealand, where he grew up. “You’re listening to all this English and American music, and then it’s getting put in a washing machine by these New Zealand artists, and they’re coming up with this little, you know, unique approach to it, which I always love,” he says.
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“I’ve always loved New Zealand music, and I just felt like these guys in Japan were doing it as well. I’m very lyrically driven, and quite often when I’m listening to music, I’m just listening to the lyrics, and when you can’t understand them, it allows you to feel more the emotion of the music, which I think, in a way, was a big inspiration for me.”
At 21, after studying jazz at uni, Clampitt moved to LA to build his career. Although the majority of his career so far has been spent in America, he says he’s still very strongly connected to home. “One of the songs was recorded in New Zealand at the beach, and there’s a couple of New Zealand people on it. My family is on some of it, and Georgia Nott [Broods, Georgia Gets By] and her sister.”
“There are a few songs with very serious group singing moments… I completely and utterly try to emulate that New Zealand family jam with the uncles and aunties, which is something I cherish so much from my childhood,” he adds.
The majority of Get Happy was made in Northern California, where Clampitt retreated “Bon Iver-style” away from his usual day-to-day life. “I was just getting up in the morning, having some granola and yoghurt, looking out at the ocean and then writing lyrics and stuff,” he recalls.
“I sort of had this dream of [making an album] for a long time, and the problem is, if I were to take two weeks off and make a record in LA, it would just never work… Some other project would pop up that I have to do, or I’d have to, like, record vocals for some artists that day, or there would just be endless things that would distract from it.”
When Clampitt and his friend were offered an extension on their initial two-week hire for a good deal from the owner, they took it. A month and many writing sessions later, the album was almost complete.
“What I do for my career…is very much my passion and what I was born to do,” Clampitt says, although he admits he’s actually quite a recluse.
“It takes a bit of social energy to be in those [studio] rooms, which I’m in every day… You get to a point where you just crave being alone and working on something. It’s been so fun helping all these artists create their vision, and it’s like, [I’m] curious what my vision would be if I was to sit in a room by myself and make it.
“It was, really honestly, rewarding and fun being able to work at my own pace, which is kind of quickly, and without putting too much overthinking on it, which I feel like when you’re making pop music, the idea is for it to be groundbreaking… You do a lot of overthinking… So it was really nice.”
“It really helped me refuel myself to go back into the other kind of rooms I’m usually in,” he adds.
Wearing a tape machine on his head for most promotion, photography, and music videos, Clampitt is keeping his identity out of the spotlight, largely in keeping with his work, which has so often been behind the scenes.
“I just had this idea where it would be like, man, it’d be cool. One, not showing my face, [but also] God forbid this music did well, and I got famous. I think fame is the worst thing that could happen to a person,” he explains.
If there’s one thing Clampitt hopes people will take away from his album, it’s perspective.
“I think [‘Get Happy’] is a very true look into the mind of someone who makes music as a career and full time as a passion… I think if you knew my work as a producer and you listened to this, it would be quite an interesting perspective to be like, ‘Oh, these are the thoughts he’s having’… Especially for anyone who follows the music I make and the artists I make, it’d be quite surprising.”
Leroy Clampitt’s Get Happy is out now via Sorry Susan Records.
Hannah Powell is a music journalist and radio host based in Ōtautahi Christchurch.
