Blues rock and bubblegum with Lovingly Clad

Since 2018, Utah’s Lovingly Clad has evolved from a group of high school friends jamming together to a full-blown band. Blending styles like rock, blues and shoegaze, they’ve played all across Utah, as far south as St. George and north as Logan. 

Q: How did you guys get started playing together?

Cedric, vocals/rhythm guitar: Me and Nolan were in high school, and we kind of just jammed together a lot. I played bass, and he played guitar, and we jumped from group to group. Eventually, we found Luke, who was learning how to play the drums, and we just decided to start playing with each other. A few jam sessions started to turn into consistent meeting times, and it was actually Luke’s idea to make it official. 

Nolan, lead guitar: Zach has been a really close friend of ours since we were young as well. He didn’t really have any background in playing an instrument or anything, but one night, we were hanging out in an apartment that me and Luke lived at, and we had this mini basketball hoop opposite corner of the room, and I told Zach, “Hey, if I make this shot, you’ll become our bassist.”   

Cedric: I will say, from the opposite corner of the room, there’s no making this shot.

Nolan: He agreed to it, not wanting anything to do with playing in a band, and I made the shot. He said, “Shoot it again,” so I took the same shot, and I made it again. Then he looked at me, and he said, “Alright, I’ll see you at practice on Wednesday.”

Q: How would you describe your sound to somebody who hasn’t heard you guys play?

Cedric: I’m so glad you asked. We don’t know. We usually like to use the words shoegaze-y, bubble gum, blues rock, with a lot of instrumentation and dynamics. 

Q: What is the biggest influence for your songwriting?

Zach, bass: I feel like a lot of it is driven by ideas — it’s kind of corny, but it opens a lot of doors. One of us will be like, “Guys, we should put in the key change. We haven’t done a key change in, like, forever,” or “We could do — we should slow it down right here because I heard this song, and they did this a lot of times.” It’s also what’s in our life at that moment, and like Nolan said, it just blooms off of that.

Cedric: That’s what makes a Lovingly Clad song a Lovingly Clad song. It’s hard to pinpoint how our writing process really goes down, but if one of us were gone — if any one of us or the components of songwriting were missing — then it wouldn’t be Lovingly Clad. The project is us and what we collectively can make with our own tastes.

Q: What has been your most memorable performance so far?

Nolan: We got hired to play for Utah Tech for Live and Local. That was probably the biggest crowd and the best energy. We just all enjoyed it more than any other show — having a big crowd definitely helps.

Q: Do you have a favorite city or venue that you guys like performing at?

Zach: Mine is Logan. There were like 50 people that didn’t buy presale tickets that showed up. It was packed when we were there, and the crowd was crazy. I loved Logan.

Cedric: Yeah, that’s the only time we’ve been there too, so it was just awesome. 

Q: What is next for you guys? You mentioned that you’ve got some music in the works.

Cedric: We finished recording our album, and we are going to release it very soon, and we’ll be playing pretty much every song from the album — minus a few random songs here and there — at the End of Year Bash. So we’re excited for that. Additionally, if people like Kilby Block Party, we are playing the local preshow.

Q: What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?

Luke: Just keep writing new stuff — don’t stop. We’ve written dozens and dozens and dozens of stuff over the years, and you know, probably 80% of it is trash. But if you just keep doing it, you get better at it, and you start to get some really good stuff. So just keep making —creating.

Nolan: Something that took me a minute to get into the mindset of is prioritize musical creativity and ideas over musical knowledge and experience. I guess I feel like creativity and just like trying to make an idea come to life is more valuable than trying to figure out the technical side of things. If that makes sense.

Cedric: If you’re a new artist, lean into big ideas, and don’t be afraid to do something that deviates from the typical mold of a rock song or the typical mold of whatever song or genre you’re trying to mimic. 

Zach: When I joined the band, we got really excited about it, and that excitement has never waned. This applies to everything in life, but just go where you want to go. Don’t force anything to happen. Do stuff because you want to do it. It’s brought a lot of cool opportunities to us, and it’s taken us places. I would go to concerts at Kilby Court in high school, and I thought if I played there, I could die because my life would be complete. Now, we’ve played there like four or five times, and it’s always as exciting. So, we’re all just doing this because it’s what we want to do, and as long as you’re doing what you want to do, it’s going to be fulfilling, no matter what happens.