"Dead Channel Sky"

Clipping: “Our goal is to constantly break out”

Three brooms that sweep particularly well together: Jonathan Snipes, Daveed Diggs and William Hutson are Clipping.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Sub Pop, Daniel Topete)

Between rap, techno, horrorcore and electronic music, the Californians from Clipping. have built up quite a following over the years. Frontman Daveed Diggs may now be a Hollywood star, but he is still a passionate nerd and musician. "Dead Channel Sky" is once again striking new notes - and the trio tell us in an interview why they are now imagining a contemporary dystopia.

Anyone who is familiar with Austria's music scene knows that some acts only fit into the program at selected discourse festivals. Last April, for example, the American hip-hop trio Clipping. thrilled audiences at the renowned Donaufestival in Krems and were not even put off by a much too quiet, poorly calibrated sound. They had already played at the same venue ten years previously, and also appeared at the recently concluded Elevate in Graz in 2013. The history is short and well-known: Guilty friends William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes started mixing the a cappella voices of well-known rap artists into their electronic noise sounds in 2009. A few months later, rapper Daveed Diggs joins them and writes his own lyrics. Without expectations, the mix tape "midcity" earned them a contract with indie giant Sub Pop Records in 2013 - the debut album "CLPPNG", which followed a year later, struck a chord with a wider audience with its fresh approach and turned the niche band into a player to be taken seriously.

Prominent and unrecognized
In this interview, we want to know what the biggest differences are between then and now. "Well, first and foremost, Daveed wasn't a celebrity back then," laughs Hutson in the interview. Diggs' heart still beats for clipping, but he now makes the big money as an actor. In the double role of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the internationally successful musical "Hamilton", he played his way into the hearts of millions of people and won a Tony Award and a Grammy. This was followed by roles in the film version of "Hamilton", "Blindspotting" and the post-apocalyptic thriller series "Snowpiercer". He is currently in front of the camera in an important role for the satirical superhero series "The Boys". The fact that Clipping. gives him the opportunity to drive around as unrecognized as possible in a completely different artistic world is now a welcome gift for him. Here he can indulge in his greatest passion free from expectations and completely let himself go in the world of sound.

"Actually, we never really know what we're doing," the likeable trio explains in the Krone interview, "we follow our interests and passion and see where it takes us." Clipping. had their greatest momentum. 2016 with their second album "Splendor & Misery", a science fiction concept album that was nominated for a Hugo Award and released a single, "The Deep", that caused a stir beyond genre circles. "It's important that we keep breaking our own rules. We had a few of those at the beginning. No drum sounds, no pitches, no melodies and certainly no writing lyrics in the first person. We stick to it when it comes to lyrics, but apart from that we've also resorted to harmony and like to let it resound from time to time. It's hard to pin down what it is, but it's always clear to us what is a clipping song and what is not. We feel that. What's a catchy song to us is still wacky shit to the world out there."

The road to cyberpunk
Diggs' distinctive voice gives Clippings. their special uniqueness to the noisy soundscapes. The trio explains in unison that they have tried several times to write songs in different constellations, but have never achieved the quality of the triumvirate. The fact that they are winning over more and more audiences with comparatively quirky sounds is also a sign of the change in music consumption. "Streaming gives everyone access to everything. Listeners are experimenting more and venturing into spheres that were perhaps previously unknown to them. You can be more daring and still reach more people." After a break of several years, the fifth studio album "Dead Channel Sky" is being released these days. While their predecessors mostly focused on horror film concepts and occasional social criticism of racist tendencies, Clipping. are now focusing on the cyberpunk aesthetic familiar from authors from the 80s and 90s. "'Dead Channel Sky' is a kind of imagined compilation album about the year 2024, as we imagined it in 1997 - only we had no idea back then how depressing and terrible this future would really look."

Every single song on the album is a tribute to various rave genres from the 90s. Acid, techno, drum & bass, jungle etc. blend into a sound amalgam that doesn't even pretend to have a congruent common thread, but instead draws its strength from sonic eclecticism. Diggs writes and raps about topics such as the illegal drug economy in the clipping dystopia, socio-political contrasts or the widening income gap in a world that has gone off the rails. With "Dodger", there is even a song on the album that shifts the plot of "Splendor & Misery" into Clipping's current cyberpunk reality. The feature guests such as Aesop Rock, Nels Cline and Tia Nomore are well-chosen. "Collaborations have to happen for a reason. We have to respect and appreciate our guests, the overall result has to improve as a result of the collaboration. Otherwise there's no point. We know our strengths, but we also know exactly where someone else can help us."

A question of positioning
The horrorcore elements are scaled back on "Dead Channel Sky" in favor of a more futuristic sound, but the fact remains that Clipping. would rather boldly reinvent themselves than revive their successful formula. A penetrating dance-rap-techno track like the fan-acclaimed single "Welcome Home Warrior" is rare in the overall context, but despite the many differences, the album as a whole makes sense and provides opportunities to re-explore many things and constantly discover new things. "Today, the whole world is very clinically and academically categorized. There is a certain place for everything in which it is allowed to exist. But we question why this is the case? Why does everything have to be divided and categorized? Where are there opportunities to break out and what is needed to do so? This is the approach we take as Clipping. Create music. And then we have to realize these ideas. In hypothesis, something quickly makes sense, but not in practice." With "Dead Channel Sky", Clipping. remain one thing above all - absolutely unique.