CLYDE CROOKS ANNOUNCES NEW EP HARK OUT SEPTEMBER 18
Suited like Dorian Gray lost in LA, with the voice and face that finds its way on bedroom walls and a sound that The FADER described as “The Postal Service or Frou Frou, but with a very 2026 melodic catchiness”, Clyde Crooks is restoring the gothic to pop music. Having been a dream-weaver for other artists working on the production for Nate Sib and Loukemann, he is ready to be recognised as an artist in his own right with the announcement of his new EP Hark out September 18th and a glimpse of what’s to come with new single ‘Coldest Day of The Year’.
Speaking on his vision for the EP, Clyde Crooks shares: “Time is the ultimate musical durability test. If I keep coming back to an idea over the years, there’s probably something there. I can’t trust an idea I made last night with the same certainty as a demo from high school that still resonates. Seniority takes priority. That philosophy is how I made Hark.’
He writes unflinchingly about his experiences with grief, addiction and his journey towards accepting love and living in sobriety. ‘Coldest Day of The Year’, the final track on the EP, is about finding true love, getting sober and the realisation that vulnerability and intimacy won’t kill him – but his coping mechanisms will.
On the story behind the single, he shares: “‘Coldest Day of the Year’ is a reluctant love song. The night I met my current partner was transcendent – true love at first sight. I wrote the first verse that night. The chorus came recently, as we were getting serious and I was getting sober, trying to reconcile falling deeply in love with a lifelong fear of intimacy and commitment. Sobriety forced me to confront a simple realization: my feelings won’t kill me. Neither will vulnerability, connection, or commitment. But my coping mechanisms will.” Hark is the work of a visionary and of a human. There are no answers, but the striving toward them is in the music itself.
Clyde Crooks has been chasing the white rabbit since he was a child, writing music compulsively to navigate a world that is often hard to live in. He is the sole figure responsible for execution of his vision, from songwriting and production to visuals right down to the bitter end – and the result? Disarmingly sweet. Sustained by David Bowie, Kendrick Lamar, Stephen Sondheim and SZA, Clyde Crooks is interested in creating music that is emotionally incisive, creatively transgressive and evergreen.
His website is a scrapbook of handwritten lyrics and sketches from his journal, visual references from a bygone era and commentary to walk you through the world of his 2025 debut EP let the red curtain down. With dislocating, lo-fi videos brought to life with favours called in with his friends, Clyde Crooks is not creating a project but an entire world.
Hark Tracklist
1. Math
2. Maybe Selena
3. Blocked
4. 1000
5. The Break
6. Coldest Day of The Year