Out of nowhere Twisted Clyde is here with his first EP! When we first heard the songs with that particular combination of rap and alternative rock, we immediately thought Twisted Clyde was a lost band from the 90s, so we checked to make sure. But Twisted Clyde is a young guy on his own. He tells us how he found his style and how he wants his songs to tell the story of his generation.

The young man behind the Twisted Clyde moniker is 19-year old Bradley Amthor from Colorado Springs. When he was barely a teenager, a ‘corny white kid’ as he says himself, he saw the movie “8 Miles“, and idolized Eminem, he wanted to be just like him. He started to keep journals with rap lyrics and occasionally freestyled at parties. Just like any teenager, he had a hard time finding himself and his place. He was trying to impress others, but he soon realized getting their respect was superficial.

“I didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do so I said ‘fuck it I’ll try music’“. That sounds superficial and desperate, but for Bradley it was serious business. Up until then he had only listened to Eminem, Nas, Tupac, Biggie, Mos Def and other underground rappers. He started taking piano lessons that made him appreciate music for the rhythms and melodies and not just the lyrics. So he expanded the music he was listening to.

“I started to listen to more alternative rock like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Radiohead and I thought the emotion of the music had a lot of depth that rap didn’t have.”

He taught himself to play the guitar and took singing lessons. “I saved up some money for some recording equipment and made some shitty demo tapes in my basement”, he tells us. “Luckily I had a friend who saw through my amateur producing and saw some potential in my songwriting.” That friend referred him to producer Jarrod Headly, also from Colorado Springs. Bradley would just go to his studio and they’d collaborate and improvise. Next goal is finding a band to perform his songs live with.

“I want to continue writing songs that are different, and evoke a wide variety of ideas and emotions. I want to keep meeting new people, learn more about music and become better every chance I get. I love music. It’s all I got going on in my stale life.”

 

So now he has finished and delivered his first EP to the world! And he pulls it off: singing, rapping and playing the instruments. The “Don’t Jump Just Yet” EP is very well balanced with 5 songs and an intro. And he sounds like that perfect 90s combination of rap and alternative rock. That particular mix hasn’t been around for a long time. So Twisted Clyde sounds both familiar and fresh. He reminds us of Third Eye Blind and Crazy Town, or like a mellow Limp Bizkit. And there is even a hint of poppunk. But there is more than just the sound. Bradley is actually very ambitious when it comes to his lyrics; he wants to tell the story of his generation. His first EP introduces the main characters:

Bradley is a psychopath and is introduced with the song “Wish You Knew”. Andrew is an outspoken political activist and is introduced with the song “Comfort killer”. Clyde is just a kid trying to make it big in music and his story is about the corrupted things he’s done to break into the business. He’s introduced with “Get Your Sober Face”, “Cyanide”, and “Letters From The Post Apocalyptic World”. “Their stories are all connected and I’m hoping to use the story to document how the world had changed with my generation and to also simply document the human condition”, Bradley explains.

Each song has a different sound. “Cyanide” sounds like a poppunk anthem, while our personal favourite “Get Your Sober Face On” has a mellow groove and a cool sing along chorus. (And with the lyrics ‘Always sheltered in the shade // Sittin’ back to observate // I could lose it all‘ it’s the most relatable.) The EP is diverse and layered. It seems like he understands how a song works on lyrical, musical, ánd combined level. We can only hope for more songs, because Twisted Clyde is both a gifted musician as well as a story teller.

Twisted Clyde is unsigned. For more information: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Soundcloud