Interview: Clunis

It’s amazing what some jazz cats can make happen when they share the same vision and trust in each other.  

Written by Catalina Pozos
Photos by Brian Couser

Jazz has come into the mainstream in the past few years. We see it in the success of Thundercat, the chord progressions in Rex Orange County’s music, and in Noname’s neo-soul foundations. Each of these artists takes elements of jazz and blends them into their unique style. Clunis, a band made up entirely of UT Jazz majors has achieved the same fusion, bringing their knowledge and experience in jazz into a sound that easily fits the vibe of any party and any show.  The band is made of up of Clunis on bass and vocals, Paulo Santos on sax, Aaron Garcia (Ron Lewis) on trombone, Zach Kursman (Tiko) on drums, and Cameron Riggs (Cam) on keys.

Afterglow sat down with members of Clunis to discuss their band name, sound, and songwriting process following their performance at our second Afterglow Session.

Can you give a little background on the name Clunis?

Paulo: The name before that, Fhyrdu, was a completely made up word.

Clunis: Clunis come from ... so junior year of high school, me and Tiko played a competition at a jazz festival and we got our certificates back. My name is actually Christian Loveland but my director came up to me with the weirdest look and hands me a certificate that says “Clunis Lovelord.”

After playing in so many groups, what made you, Clunis, finally decide to be a frontman?

Ron: He writes all the songs.

Clunis:  I was finding it when we were Indigohoney — and this isn't the previous vocalist's fault it just wasn't what I was looking for in a sound — the last vocalist wasn’t really fitting exactly what I wanted for a singing concept. Not that I'm the perfect singer but I could do what I wanted to do enough. The final real push was, Cam and I wanted another vocalist for this group and he told me at least three more times to do it, and finally, my gut told me we had to do it.

Tiko: I think Clunis’ role of taking over vocals and Ron being the second horn member are the missing pieces of the puzzle. That's what makes the vibe fit really well. We comment on a lot of stuff and we give each other advice, but pretty much the vibe is positive and it's there the whole time.

How do you describe your sound to someone who hasn't heard you before?

Clunis: I’d call it alternative R&B for the most part with a heavy influence of jazz in it. I don’t want to categorize our music too hard because it changes.

Tiko: Definitely in the style of R&B or some sort of pseudo thing.

Ron: Original music too. More or less all original stuff and that’ll be the selling point, like, you’re not getting a cover band. And it's produced and tracked by all the guys in the band.

How do you find a balance between everything you’ve learned from jazz theory and writing music that comes to you naturally?

Clunis: We sure do have a lot of arguments with it —or at least, we did. You have to be right in the middle, especially right now. I don't think anybody wants to hear something super simple and like, a chord progression that they were hearing for five years straight. But at the same time, no one wants to hear extremely high concept jazz unless they're already into it. So I think being right in the middle, making it accessible and sneaking elements of jazz into it is, like, kind of our thing. Even though at the same time we don't like to lose the integrity of jazz, because we still are all very much jazz musicians, and that doesn't change even if we’re playing in a more poppy group.

When writing music, do you listen to a lot of other music as influences, or do you prefer to isolate yourself from it?

Clunis: I guess my influences would be Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald ‘cus I listened to a lot of that stuff as a kid. My mom would play that a lot when I was in the car, so I grew up with a lot of soft rock and that kind of classic American singer-songwriter stuff. But more recently, I've been very much influenced by Rex Orange County. Other groups I like … Phony Ppl and basically most groups that are doing well right now in, like, the jazz and R&B realm.

Paulo: I would say at least for myself and probably for Ron too, we both play in a lot of other bands around town doing horn section work there, so we’re pretty used to playing in a horn section, coming up with our own parts and coming up with our own harmonies and everything. So, I would say part of our influence is our past experience as Austin musicians.

Tiko: Same for me playing with Clunis, because we've played together for such a long time that we both kind of know what's already going to happen, so we telepathically figure the stuff out. I think both of us are a big influence upon each other.

Clunis: I think a lot of our vibes come from us, which I think is a cool thing. It gives us good foundation to have an original sound the fact that we all have a lot of ideas and we’re all very opinionated.

Ron: Influences like for the production side of it, I'm trying to get as much of what we sound like live into a recording, which can be kind of tough considering I have limited inputs and gear to get a full live recording.

What was the mentality in writing the first song you put out, “Birds,” and your process for songwriting?

Clunis:  I just started playing it on the piano and thought it could be something. It took me like a month to realize I should maybe sing on it. I finally took it to Ron so once I had all the lyrics written, the process really just went by. It became me and Ron passing off things to each other a lot.

Ron:  He did most of the actual writing. My input was more on productions and just the general arrangement about it.

Clunis: I like to write a lot of the songs but if they come up with a song I'm totally down to work on that and make it part of the set for sure. And for our artwork, Justin Ebel, he kind of does artwork for all of us who want it. He's got a lot of creativity and artistry within. He did the single cover for “Birds,” he will be doing the next single covers, the album cover, and he's done stuff for Ron and Tiko.

Ron and Paulo, does it feel different to play with Clunis than with any of the other groups you’ve been with?

Paulo: I definitely feel different about it. I play in a brass band and I play in a funk band and I play in wedding cover bands and this is a pretty different group. I feel like there's a little more nuance to it, at least from what I'm used to playing. These are all my closest friends so by getting to play with them I can put a little more of my personality into it.

Ron: A lot of other bands I play with it’s like, if I'm playing with a brass band I gotta play like you would be playing in a brass band, and if you’re playing jazz, you gotta play jazz. But in Clunis, it's more like, well what could I play here?

Clunis: The fact that we all trust each other to make decisions that each other will like is super important and that's a part that makes this different.

Where do you guys fit into the music scene in Austin and how do you guys set yourself apart?

Clunis: We’re not a blues band.

Tiko: We’re not a funk band.

Clunis: There are a lot of funk groups, a lot of blues group, a lot of DIY groups but not too many alternative R&B groups. I really want to bring that sound here because the sound is doing really well in Dallas and LA, and I think Austin has the talent to develop that sound for sure, so it just takes someone to step outside the box and bring that sound here. We're doing a lot of alternative, very modern R&B so if y’all are tryna see some new stuff, come see Clunis. Come catch some Cluney tunes.

Interview has been minimally edited for clarity and length.

Listen to Clunis on all streaming platforms and find them on social media @clunismusic.