Lithuanian-Canadian artist Aistis, known for his experimental and evocative sound, shares his latest album, Clay. This 11-song alternative folk album, born during the final touches of his upcoming release Caviar For Seagulls, blends reality and fiction to explore the cyclical nature of complicated relationships
Clay is an album that emerged as an exercise in artistic completion. As Aistis was finalizing Caviar For Seagulls, he began writing Clay to continue expressing his present experiences. The album experiments with song structure and pacing, infused with Aistis’ personal brand of theatricality. It delves into the intricacies of letting go and returning to a lover, highlighting the malleability of relationships and personal growth.
Aistis reveals: “I had been navigating a relationship with someone that I loved deeply but found ever-confusing, beautiful, sometimes painful, strange, complicated, yet life-affirming. I think a lot of “Clay” started as an exploration of trying to gain a deeper understanding of what it was I was feeling, but sort of morphed into its own entity the further in I went. As the writer/creator of the work, there is inherent bias in my re-telling of history and feeling. This became ever apparent to me the more I wrote, so I decided it would be far more interesting and true to explore my feelings around this relationship by blending elements of reality with intentional fiction and exaggeration, told through the narration of multiple voices. Myself, the muse, and the inner-voice, without ever defining who it is that is speaking. The journey became non-linear and is full of love, hypocrisy, self-reflection, inside-jokes, romanticism, self-deprecation, and beauty. Despite its fictional elements, it somehow feels like the most honest exploration of the love and reverie I hold for this person, for every experience shared together, good or bad, as well as of the self. Throughout the entire process of making “Clay”, this person remained/remains involved and played/plays a huge role in collaboration, making everything all the more special, while almost adding to the ethos and mythology of “Clay” itself.“
Clay features raw, unfiltered lyrics that capture Aistis’ unwavering self-expression. Tracks like Plateau Botticelli, Thought It Over (And I Think You Should Move On), and So They Say reassess and revisit themes of love and intimacy. The album closes with the title track Clay, a piano ballad that reflects on the enduring and shapeshifting nature of love.
Aistis describes the album’s themes, “I write with loose themes and a larger scope in mind. Sometimes the theme reveals itself, other times you guide it. For ‘Clay,’ a few songs unveiled themselves and informed the rest, revealing something larger in scope.”
Aistis, a Lithuanian-Canadian singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, lives in Montreal. His work is characterized by wit and candor, exploring emotional truths with an eccentric and feverish attention to detail. Inspired by storytellers like David Berman, Leonard Cohen, and Andy Shauf, Aistis creates lyrically centered art-folk that is uniquely his own. His debut album, Love Me, I’m Bored, and singles like Dumb Dumb In Distress, Desert Blue, and Lover Of Creation showcase his poetic and orchestral sound.
With Clay and the upcoming Caviar For Seagulls, Aistis reaffirms his place as a distinctive voice in the alternative folk scene.