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Clay

by Apres Pompeii

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1.
Close 02:48
Raise the curtain on my face. Are there lines there that you haven’t traced on the surface? Peel and scrape till the paints all lattice-lace. How well do you know me when all that you see is what I want? Can you see me under clay? Can you hear me say my name through acrylic overlay? Does it keep me at bay? How well do you know me when all that you see is what I want?
2.
Cut Me Loose 04:50
Do me this favor, love, cut me loose. Cause I’ve tied myself in knots over you. Your name’s like a ribbon around my brain--a reminder that I will never love again. So tell me you’ve never loved me, tell me that I am nothing at all. Love has a way of letting you hold onto anything but the truth and I’ve lost my footing so many times and I fall like a fool for you every time. So tell me you never loved me, tell me that I am nothing at all. Cause I can’t let go alone, cut me loose. Tell me you never loved me, tell me that I am nothing at all.
3.
Garden State 03:48
My fine friend from so far away, lay me down in fields of sugar cane, run to me and fall on me like rain. I want you to be swimming through my veins. You let flowers flow through your fingertips, ooh, to me in ones and zeroes. My fine friend from the garden state, in your hair grow peony bouquets. Oh and I want to gather you up in my arms and press you in between my pages--oh my pages--oh my sheets oh I’ll keep you from fading. You let flowers flow through your fingertips, ooh, to me in ones and zeroes. Oh my love grows far from me, oh my love grows far from me. You let flowers flow through your fingertips, ooh, to me in ones and zeroes.
4.
Briar 03:38
Let me gather myself off the floor--I wasn’t crying I promise there’s nothing wrong. Look away once more, I’ll be right with you no baby don’t come closer close the door and let me put my mess away, tidy up our room. Clean the linen, let the lilac bloom. How many times, now, baby? Too many times by my count. I’ve been trying hard to keep my scars all closed but you’ve seen how the briar grows around me in my sleep. I’m scared that one day I’ll wake up to my thorns creeping up around your feet so let me put my mess away, tidy up our room. Clean the linen, let the lilac bloom.
5.
Clay 03:58
I’ve been waking up in a field of fog my moss-covered eyes cannot see you. Though the day has broke I’m not breaking. I may fall asleep but I don’t dare to dream. I swallow soil at night to stay grounded. Can you see the earth in my veins? Would you mold me? Yeah? Are you tuning in via radio to some bullshit speculation show? Rumors fluffing the down in your pillow? Well go and tell your friends when the world ends that your blood is as blue as the rivers--paint your irises white and hide nothing. You can’t mold me. Alright, come on. Maybe I’m a bad man baby, maybe I’m not a man at all, and maybe this all means nothing--tell me again it’s not your fault. Would you mold me? You can’t mold me.
6.
Grace 05:19
I woke one day and there was your face--through my dullest gray, your grace it seems to permeate. Well nothing’s felt as light as our bodies intertwined in a too-small sleeping bag. Just tell me what to do to get a lifetime of you full of nights just like that. I’ll sleep all tangled in your hair--they’ll have to cut me out darling and my dreams are long and winding winding roads oh but they lead me back to you. I can’t believe that there’s ever been a version of me you did not meet--oh you’ve got me wrapped around you like ivy. Well nothing’s felt as right as me filling up the night with your name next to god’s on my breath (oh, god). Come slip into my room like the silver of the moon and sleep on my chest. I’ll sleep all tangled in your hair--they’ll have to cut me out darling and you’ll be my brand new nightly prayer--oh and you’ll bring me peace baby cause as we toss and turn oh I feel our bodies burn like lightning on the air. My dreams are long and winding stairs, oh but they bring me back to you.
7.
Severed 06:46
All the places I once felt your body on my body I feel nothing--that’s a lie but it gets truer everyday. There are lines on my face that you have never touched, I’ve aged by years not nights and there are curves on me that would be stranger terrain to your fingertips. We’ve both got lovers who are making new maps of our bodies in their minds--tracing routes into hearts and finding gold inside those minds. I wonder how often you think of the rush of my hands upon your back sifting the pyrite like sand from the tan glow sweat of the crest of your shoulder blade. Don’t wait, we’ve cut the cord already. Let it fade, the history we carry. Together we untether, you and I severed. I don’t wake up lost like a ghost haunting the halls of a house you haven’t lived in in years anymore--I sleep through the night soul and body at ease with the absence of you. I no longer tie myself down to the bed scared that my head will float away on a daydream zephyr and land in some sad little memory where you fed me orange-slice-scrap of affection leftover from someone else’s plate--your kiss like a rusted open gate. No, I don’t think of you with hate. I think of our love as a seed that once was a flower that once was a seed that once was nothing. Without water and without sun to nothing it will return. Don’t wait, we’ve cut the cord already. Let it fade, the history we carry. Together we untether, you and I severed. / Once more my words find your front door. Forgive me, I imagine that that bruise is still sore. I can’t tell you I’ve never loved you, I can’t tell you you’re nothing at all. The truth is because I loved you I have learned that I’m not afraid to fall. It scares me to imagine you’ll forget me. I’m naive to want everything that I see around me to stay and never leave. I’m sorry, I just caught you in my wake, put me out to see. I can’t tell you I’ve never loved you, I can’t tell you you’re nothing at all. The truth is because I loved you I have learned that I’m not afraid to fall. Like Scott said, I’ll stow away my grays now. In my head you’re happier now anyhow. Thank you for doing what I could not do--you’ve severed the rope around my waist and cut me loose. I can’t tell you I’ve never loved you, I can’t tell you you’re nothing at all. The truth is because I loved you I have learned that I’m not afraid to fall.
8.
Aliquippa 04:02
I will not cry when I’m older, I’ll throw my tears to the sea. I will not wait around my whole life to once again meet thee. Comfort don’t come in the evening. It sneaks like a thief in the night and comes through your window as soft as chalk and cuts at your heart like a knife. So we live on borrowed time--debtors one and all. The things we lost we don’t come across again, we just move along. What did you sing on the way down? I’d say it sounded so sweet but I couldn’t hear it over the sound of water rushing at my feet and oh, how I leave you behind me--my heart, a hole in the ground--and as a river of time rushes on this old heart does drown. So we live on borrowed time--debtors one and all. The things we lost we don’t come across again, we just move along. I will not cry when I’m older, I’ll throw my tears to the sea. I’ll wade out into water waist-deep and drink of the life I lead. I’ll drink of the life I lead.
9.
Open 03:24
The words we wield are sharp and the walls of my heart are thin, come and watch as they cut through and spill everything within. Vowels pull open tough tissue till heartstrings, stretched tight, show glistening in that cave-like hollow and my blood is brought to life. I’ll hold fast, stay open. All my windows are open, curtains are drawn and the sunlight is dancing on every demon I’ve laid at my feet, excised from the very core of me. I’ll hold fast, stay open. Way down where those words sink deep, ah, there is holed up a well of me and I can hear me, crying, as I bleed, to stay open, yeah, stay open. Hold fast! Stay open!

about

Apres Pompeii announces Clay, their third full length record, for release on August 20, 2021. Apres Pompeii is the long-running project of Pittsburgh born, Chicago based singer-songwriter Zachary Taylor Weiss.

The follow-up to 2012’s Empty Ship and 2016’s Lead, Clay is anchored by its eponymous lead single, out immediately. The song is a jolt of nineties-inspired alternative rock swagger--a confident kiss-off to a world that would try to mold you. “‘Clay’ was one of the last pieces written for the album but was possibly the most important to my own understanding of this album as a whole and where I am in my life.”

“Clay” arrives at the very center of the LP’s 9 tracks and acts both as a fulcrum point and a mission statement. After Lead’s more contained sonic palette, Clay finds Apres Pompeii returning to the more genre-bending instincts of earlier releases Empty Ship and 2014’s EP Ink. Songs like “Garden State” and “Close” deliver the dynamic and poetic folk songwriting that audiences have come to expect from Apres Pompeii complete with soaring vocals, nimble finger-picked guitar, and gigantic drums. “Briar” is a purred bluesy ballad with Weiss slipping into gentle falsetto. On “Grace,” elements of r&b and electro-pop swirl around the anchoring acoustic guitar. Holding the whole project together is the reliably stirring vocals and stronger-than-ever storytelling present in each song. If Lead was a concept album about internal self, Clay can be seen as an exploration of the inherent friction between the internal and external and how both are constantly molding and influencing the other.

Pre-order at www.aprespompeii.net

credits

released August 20, 2021

Mastering by Elaine Rasnake at Daughterboard Audio
Photography by Brandon Weiss

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Apres Pompeii Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Always forward, that is the mantra.
Apres Pompeii is currently entering a new era. Gospels is an ongoing project that will take form over the whole of 2013. With a full length album and seven EPs planned for the year, the path to its completion will undoubtedly be long and toilsome. This project’s focus is on the internal struggles and relationships that inform the way we interact with the world. ... more

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