“There’s a huge difference between British and American club culture,” explains Cloonee, reflecting on how four years in LA have shaped his approach to performing. “People in England are more in-tune with underground styles, so touring the UK turns you into more of a cratedigger. Bringing that over here allowed me to shape my own unique sound.”
Cloonee tunes tend to be sample-heavy and stripped-back, “filling the low end of the listening experience” in his words. His contribution to the ‘Bose x NME: C25‘ mixtape, ‘Will We Ever Wake Up’ subscribes to this blueprint, while also centring around a trance-like female vocal line that shifts things in a slightly different direction to previous anthemic, vocal chant-driven singles ‘X-Rated’ and ‘Sippin’ Yak’.
“I wanted to make something more melodic and chilled,” he explains. “It’s a euphoric type of melody so I wanted a euphoric, soft-spoken vocal on top of that. It works to create a calmer listening experience.”
The 29-year-old first moved to the States post-lockdown when the country was returning to normality quicker than the UK, and Cloonee (real name is Dave Bissett) hit the ground running in Los Angeles. Years spent DJing in Sheffield and other UK cities had familiarised him with various styles of bass music but living in California soon opened up a world of new influences. His tech house sound started to grow a groovier edge and his sample selection became increasingly influenced by Latin culture.
“I’d never been to South America (besides Brazil) and I didn’t have a clue how prevalent Latino and Hispanic culture was in America,” he says. “When I moved to LA, Bad Bunny had just dropped his album ‘El Último Tour Del Mundo’ and everywhere you walked, people were listening to reggaeton. It was quite a culture shock but it was such a refreshing hit of flavour and spice. I fell in love with it.”
Simultaneously, Cloonee was introducing fans to ideas that stemmed from his West Midlands upbringing, chiefly his interest in heavy metal music. Growing up, his dad would constantly be playing metal in the house alongside the occasional trip to see bands such as Killswitch Engage in Birmingham. That grounding can still be heard in his music – from the heavy bass and eerie, slightly discordant melodies of ‘Badman Sound’ to the stripped-back, minimalistic and slowly-building rhythm sequences of ‘Stephanie’. Cloonee is well aware of the parallels between rock and dance music. “The first dance genre I got into was dubstep, which has so many crossovers with metal: the BPM, the headbanging motion, the mosh pit”.
That background is also present in the aesthetics of his swiftly growing label and fashion brand, Hellbent Records. Named after a mindset that he sees as fundamental to any successful musician — “determination to achieve something at all costs” — the label’s merchandise is heavily influenced by metal culture, defined by dark tones and vigorous, scribbly illustrations of skulls, angels, and demons.
“Once I had the sound, the branding and the name, the next step was selling enough hard tickets to fill your own shows. Then it was a case of transporting the visuals into a live setting and giving people an immersive experience,” he tells NME. “You know in Blade or The Matrix when they go into a nightclub and there are people hanging off the ceiling, dancing on stages, crazy shit popping off, and you’re like ‘Where are these fucking nightclubs, cause this doesn’t look like Popworld in Sheffield!’ I wanted it to feel like that.”
Cloonee’s two recent headline shows at LA’s City Market brought this vision to life; the venue was laden with skulls and chains, caged dancers and roaring flames, creating a super lavish Hellbent experience that fans greedily lapped up. He explains how Hellbent has become a kind of touring party, and people “want to book a Hellbent stage to bring that whole production to festivals.” While tracks like ‘Mi Amor’ (63m Spotify streams), ‘Sippin’ Yak’ (36m) and ‘Stephanie’ (30m) have blown up online, Cloonee is well aware of how unpredictable TikTok and Instagram algorithms can be, so he’s building a concept that transcends those spaces. The fact that 16,000 people showed up in LA is a testament to the live demand that exists for this well-rounded vision.
“This year’s been an absolute blur,” he says. “We did two big LA shows, two in New York, and we’re planning a load more. But the thing I’m most excited for is the music we’ve got coming out… There are records that have been getting some traction online and it’s a different progression, back slightly to my older sound. Reading the comments online, it’s funny seeing Americans confused that I can make songs like that. I’m intrigued to put those out.”
Stay tuned to NME.com/C25 for the latest on the return of the iconic mixtape