Clarence Clarity

Crisp was born in London and raised in Yateley and Fleet, Hampshire.^[3][4] He played with several bands and under several aliases prior to Clarence Clarity, mostly known for his releases with the band Elle Milano from the mid-to-late 2000s, and his work under the name Entrepreneurs until the early 2010s.^[5][6] Elle Milano broke up in 2008 after the death of Crisp's mother,^[7] while the Entrepreneurs name was retired in favour of Clarence Clarity.

Early into his career as Clarence Clarity, Crisp was noted for his high degree of anonymity, preferring not to talk about his previous work and giving false and absurd information in press releases, such as stating that he was from Fiji, that he ate mud or that he was 7 feet tall;^[8][9] this misinformation led to rumours, such that his music was a new Jai Paul project.^[10] When asked about this by The Guardian, he replied with "I've got a musical history, and I suppose I don't want to have to justify why certain things in the past haven't taken off. I've wiped the slate clean a couple of times. It all feels necessary to have got here."^[11][12][13] Despite the similarity, Crisp has stated that his stage name was not overtly influenced by the meme template 'Sudden Clarity Clarence'.^[14]

Psirens was a band formed in 2002 by Crisp and James Headley.^[15] It quickly splintered into several other bands, and was soon retired as a project.^[16]

Elle Milano was formed in 2004,^[17] as one of the bands formed from the members of Psirens.^[15] It consisted of Crisp, Headley, and Chloe Dunford.^[18] They released an EP, three singles, and their only album Acres Of Dead Space Cadets on Brighton Electric.^[18][19] After the release of Acres in 2008, the band went on tour, but cancelled most of the shows early into the tour.^[20] Soon after, the band announced their split, releasing a final EP off-label onto their Myspace.^[7][21][20]

Following the disbanding of Elle Milano, Crisp began producing electronica under the name Entrepreneurs.^[6] Under Entrepreneurs, he began working with the label Stella Mortos,^[22] releasing the double A-side single "Hunting Roger Rabbit / Six Severed Hates".^[23] On 10 August 2010, he released the EP Uv Been Robbed (Joking, But Not) independently on Bandcamp.^[24] He released another double A-side, "Bubblegunk / Fuck Tactics", on London label Fear & Records in 2011.^[25][26]

Crisp produced music with vocalist Hannah Lou Clark under the name FOE,^[27][28] providing production for her 2012 album, Bad Dream Hotline.^[29] Around this time he was also involved in a punk band, The Premarital Sect, and produced hip-hop instrumentals under the name The Super-Ego using Ableton Live.^[30] He also mastered 7" single "Good Girl / Amazing Discovery" for Surrey six-piece Wildeflower in 2012.^[31][32]

His first release under the name "Clarence Clarity" was 4GODSLUV^[33] in 2012,^[34] and he subsequently released his debut EP Save †hyself on the 37 Adventures label in late 2013. In December 2014, Clarity released his second EP, Who Am Eye, now on the Bella Union label. The EP cover featured his face (albeit with a distorted mouth), serving as the first time he had shown his face under the name.^[8][35] In March 2015, he released his first full-length album, No Now, and also performed a session at Maida Vale Studios for Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1.^[36] In 2016, Clarity released a single with Pizza Boy, "Splitting Hairs", and the SAME EP, which consists of the titular track "SAME" repeated 5 times.^[37]

During 2017, Clarity helped produce Rina Sawayama's debut mini-album, Rina.^[38] He also began releasing singles with minimal or no advertising, such as "Fold 'Em"^[39] and "Naysayer Godslayer".^[40] He continued this trend into 2018, as it was revealed that he was working on a project which was widely believed to be called Leave Earth. In September 2018, the album title was revealed to be labelled Think: Peace,^[41] and was released independently on his Deluxe Pain label on 4 October 2018.^[42] This album featured many of the previously released singles in remixed forms. Clarity also revealed that Leave Earth was actually a compilation playlist consisting of all his singles released from 2016 to 2018,^[43] and continued to release singles for this playlist in pairs up until 31 December that year, finishing by releasing "Leave Earth"^[44] and "Sob Story".^[45]

In March 2020, Clarity released an ambient album, Dead Screen Scrolls, as a pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp;^[46] only an hour prior announcing an album was to be released for the first Bandcamp Friday (where all processing fees were to be waived for a day).^[47][48] Later in 2020, on 5 June, Clarity announced that he was releasing the mixtape Aerobic Exercise for the next 24 hours only, donating the proceeds to charity as it was a Bandcamp Friday.^[49] He would later put the mixtape back up for purchase permanently,^[50] alongside a second mixtape, Your Wrong, to coincide with the Bandcamp Friday in February 2021.^[51]

Clarity was the primary producer of Rina Sawayama's debut album, Sawayama which released in April 2020 to critical acclaim.^[52] Later that year, he also co-produced the songs "Iron Fist" and "Give Great Thanks" for Dorian Electra's second album My Agenda,^[53][54] and produced the entirety of Sundara Karma's fourth EP, Kill Me.^[55]

During a Reddit AMA in 2019, Clarity announced the title of his next album would be Midieval Europe. He also said that the project would be much shorter than his previous albums.^[56] In an April 2021 interview with Sonemic, Clarity stated that the project would not be titled Midieval Europe and that it would be released in three parts: an extended play followed by an album and another extended play.^[57] The first of these, Vanishing Act I: No Nouns, released in September 2021.^[58] Additionally in 2021, Clarity produced Rina Sawayama's cover of the song "Enter Sandman" for the charity compilation The Metallica Blacklist,^[59] and collaborated with her on a remix of the Lady Gaga song "Free Woman" for Gaga's remix album, Dawn of Chromatica.^[60]

In 2022, Clarity provided production for Sundara Karma's fifth EP, Oblivion!^[61] He also released the instrumentals to Vanshing Act I on 17 March,^[62] and released the sequel to his 2021 mixtape Your Wrong, titled Your Wrong To, to coincide with that May's Bandcamp Friday.^[63]

• Clarence Clarity on SoundCloud
• Clarence Clarity on discogs