THE SCIENCE OF LETTING ON

Kevin Clay’s 30 year artistic career is living proof that heartfelt well-crafted narratives are ageless and that there’s a fine line between falling behind and being ahead of your time.


Kevin Clay’s art of self-deprecation and redemption — which he has christened “The Science of Letting On” — is a poetic and sonic amalgamation of Beat, Punk, Pop Art, Gonzo Journalism, Shoegaze, and Grunge — if Oscar Wilde and Madonna had a baby, and that baby was John Lydon, Johnny Cash or Thomas Merton, who collaborated with Basquiat, Wes Anderson, Andy Warhol, and Rainer Maria Rilke.


At the age of 16, Kevin began writing poems while teaching himself guitar, which led to performing in bars at the age of 19, his first record deal at 22, touring in an old Volvo station wagon with nothing but his parents’s Phillips 66 gas card and performing 3-5 hours a night, counting over 1000 poems, 4000 songs, dozens of albums recorded and produced, mentoring artists and playing “Fifth Beatle” on their projects, and crafting a closet full of mixed-media art, unpublished books, and unrecorded songs.


Currently, Kevin is running his own apparel and merchandise company MONKROCK and launching a new brand Youth Wasted Youth, writing and demoing for a handful of new albums, co-writing with producer / songwriter Sainte, producing the new Young Heart Sparks Fire album Manifesto!, writing and directing a film short called One Small Instrument, writing a few books (in his head) while following Blues hockey and living in Nashville.