DEV CLANCY: THIS WASN'T MADE FOR YOU

DEV CLANCY BELONGS TO the recent generation of artists who can create full and layered works entirely on their laptops. When I ask him if he is a bedroom artist, he says “That’s exactly what I am... a bedroom rapper.” Clancy grew up in Binghamton, attending Binghamton High School, and has since moved back and forth between Binghamton and Atlanta, where he has family and where he hung out around Morehouse College and played gigs with a DJ friend.

Dev is 24 years old, confident but reserved; when we meet, he is wearing one of the hats he designed for his album, This Wasn’t Made for You, but his manner is not at all boastful. The title of the album even serves as a sort of disclaimer; he says it was “a way for me to confidently put my music out and not care about what people thought about the creative side, the creative differences.” With the album’s title written on his hat, it’s as if it’s referring to the man himself. I wasn’t made for you.

His debut album is the result of years of stirring around ideas and tossing them out. “I was working on a body of work - since I was in Atlanta actually- and you know, I would make the songs - I had about 30 songs - and I’d throw them away, thinking ‘this is- this is not right.’ And then I would start another project.”

This Wasn’t Made for You was drafted in one week in a burst of creativity that kept up momentum. “I’d been trying to come with a project for three, four years. But one week I just put this whole project together. And then over like, months and months I was adding bells and whistles, perfecting it, mixing it, getting the sound perfect.”

Dev mixes using old-school programs, undercutting the album with a familiar, homegrown sound. “The thing with me is I stick to what I know, so the programs I use are pretty vintage stuff. I use like, old school programs that people don’t use anymore, like the old models of FL Studio, you know MPCs, the old ones - I just kind of dabble in different things.”

On the album, he does a lot of rapping, but he also sings, a task that was new and a bit daunting. “Definitely not a singer,” he says. “I went heavily with the auto tune, and some people scold me for it, but I love the way it came out.

Calling himself a “music-head,” he hesitates to select a few musical influences that have been most important to him, but he says he’s always been inspired by the big lyrical hip hop artists like Jay Z and Nas. “And then I like old school music-- Marvin Gaye, the Stylistics, the O’Jays—like, I was raised on that music because my dad always listened to that kind of music. So you know, I love music that’s orchestrated, and like real crazy bass lines. The band Tame Impala I’ve been listening to a lot. I just love the music, you know.”

Dev thinks of himself more of a creator than solely a musician. Since releasing his album, he’s been working on producing videos for its songs. The video for his song “Automatic” is on the more minimal side; in one long shot, he raps on a baseball field as a camera circles around him, while animated shapes and outlines appear and disappear around him. It is markedly minimal, but reveals a sharp visual sensibility. “Ride for Mine” is a more traditional music video, with dreamy imagery that somehow fits the song, although you’re not sure why. Here he’s with his friends in a garage with a TV playing static behind him; here they’re in the laundromat pulling whiskey bottles from the washing machine, and there’s a girl posing with a water gun. Somehow, it just looks good.

Although he’s a bedroom rapper, Dev’s friends and family are still a big part of his musical process. The girl with the water gun in his video also freestyled the bridge to his song “After Midnight,” when it was almost done but just missing something.

For a stretch of time, Dev was always recording people out of his pocket, collecting sounds that he would later incorporate into tracks. “So I’d be around girls, press record. I’d be around my friends drunk, press record. I’d be around everything, press record.” One of these recordings resulted in the interlude on his album, “SKIT (1st Night Home).” It’s an (R-rated) recording of his friend talking in a car just shortly after getting out of prison. “I try to put real life into my music,” Dev says.

Now that the debut album’s been floating around for some time, the next one is in fruition. The graphic designer in him already has the album cover and the title thought out (it’s a secret), but the music he’s still stirring around in his head, likely waiting for the next burst when it all comes out. For now, he’s been performing songs from This Wasn’t Made for You at the Grand Royale Hotel and Uncle Tony’s in downtown Binghamton, and at various house shows.

He does lament the lack of location and desire for a hip hop scene in Binghamton, especially compared with the booming scene in Atlanta. “I would say like there’s a starving urge for hip hop to be fed in Binghamton, but there’s no food and there’s no restaurants for it to eat at.” He says there are a lot of people rapping in Binghamton and a lot of people producing, but hip hop just has no pathway to flourish here. “I think it’s important for an artist to definitely pursue his hometown and try to get big in his hometown also, but it’s hard in Binghamton. It’s not really here. But maybe I could change that. Who knows?”

Find out more about Dev Clancy and hear his album This Wasn’t Made for You at devclancy.com.