Claxy’s Journey: From Brazilian Rhythms to Global Recognition with Anjunadeep’s ‘Ahead EP

Falling in love with Claxy’s sound only takes a few seconds. The project has Brazilian origins and is formed by singer, songwriter, and pianist Clara Valente alongside producer and drummer Gui Gautreaux. Together, since 2020, they have sought to express sad feelings mixed with the pleasure of nostalgia through their sound creations, resulting in incredible songs that bring us the feeling of being alive.

In the most celebrated moment of the duo’s career so far, Clara and Gui celebrate the release of the Ahead EP by one of the world’s leading Melodic House labels, Anjunadeep. The release features four original tracks. Among them, ‘Closer’ is already known to the public after being part of the compilation Anjunadeep 14 earlier this year.

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Ahead EP features tracks that involve our bodies as the beats intertwine with the instrumentation, conveying a feeling of energy and harmony that enchants from start to finish. In search of more details about this significant release, we exchanged a few words with Claxy:

Hello, Claxy! It’s a pleasure to talk to you, especially at this critical stage of the project. What’s going through your hearts when you officially release an EP on Anjunadeep? Did you expect this recognition so soon?

Hi, the pleasure is ours! 

We are delighted! Especially because the Anjuna team is super nice and the Anjuna family is a great community. So for us, it doesn’t just feel like an EP release, but the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

We did not expect this recognition so soon. We were already fans of Anjuna, but we felt that the tracks on the Ahead EP were not good enough to hold Anjuna’s attention. Fortunately, Steven Weston believed in us and sent them the tracks.

Apart from Clara’s vocals, one of the great things about the music Claxy creates is the presence of instruments that you play yourselves. Tell us a bit more about the background of each one of you.

The piano has been Clara’s supporting compositional tool since the beginning of her career as a songwriter. Now, the synthesizers are her best new friends, and her musical training has also helped with our string arrangements. Gui’s drumming background allowed for a smooth transition from acoustic drums to electronic drums then to drum machines and synthesizers. Now, he is just as comfortable in the studio chair. We think the inherent syncopation of Brazilian rhythms seems to have trained our bodies and ears to find the pocket of grooves. That helped us a lot in adapting to electronic music. On the other hand, sound design is a never-ending process of rinse and repeat. So much fun stuff to learn and experiment with!

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You had already achieved the feat of releasing a single on Anjunadeep at the beginning of the year. After that, you received an invitation for an EP. How was the process of deciding which songs would be on this release?

Actually, everything happened at the same time. Anjuna came to us not only interested in Closer (at that time it was still being evaluated for their annual compilation), but also in the other tracks for a possible future release. Luckily, all went well!

The ‘Ahead EP’ was a four-track release from the beginning. Funny enough, we never have extra tracks to show. We work on our songs until we feel they are ready. Maybe not the most efficient way of working, but it feels natural.

We’ve noticed that in live performances, you play some tracks with vocals in Portuguese, a feature that isn’t present on this EP. Who knows in the next works?

For sure! Releasing a Portuguese track on a label like Anjunadeep is one of our dreams. It would mean a lot for our language and culture. By the way, the songs on the ‘Ahead EP’ started as a compositional exercise for Clara to write songs in English. Back then we didn’t imagine that such ideas would come so far. You never know…

The Claxy duo’s identity is a creative fusion of electronic music with traces of MPB. Could you highlight some artists who inspired you to achieve this unique sound?

Electronic artists like Ólafur Arnalds, Christian Löffler, and HVOB have opened up dimensions of sound and texture that we never imagined possible. And the list of those who inspire us continues to grow as Bonobo, Cubicolor, and Monolink refresh our playlists. Regarding this mix with MPB, we have dubbed our composition process “post-song” (laughs).

It makes sense to think of it that way because we are fragmenting our old way of composing to make room for the voices that come from synths and sound design in general. It was a challenging process in the beginning but enjoyable and stimulating.

Each Claxy production carries a lot of duality, a flirtation between intensity and lightness, strength and delicacy, longing and emotion. In your opinion, what is the most essential part of each song?

Wow! Your description captures exactly how we feel about our songs. Thank you so much for that! By the way, we will quote you in the future 😉

For Gui, Clara’s melodic lines, supported by her chord progression, are the focal point of everything. For Clara, the beat framework and sound design colors are usually the basis for her writing spontaneously springs. We can say that there is a duality at play here as well.

Finally, we’d like to know what you’re looking forward to at the end of the year and what projects you’re working on for 2024. 

Spoiler alert! We have an album in the works. The songwriting and rough mixes have been done for a while. We left it alone for a few months to get some space and perspective. The end of the year is an excellent time to get back to the material and finish the mixdown.

We are proud of what we have done so far. We are one step closer to balancing our Brazilian roots with electronic music. This has been one of Claxy’s ideals from the beginning: to use modern sounds and original compositions to bring our music culture to a wider audience. Let’s see where this takes us…

Thanks for having us and for the great questions! See you next time.