Clint Lowery Drops New EP ‘Grief and Distance,’ Following Recent Solo Debut

In trying to process the loss of his mother in March, writing was Clint Lowery’s only escape. Shortly after her death, COVID-19 locked everything down, so Lowery started piecing together a new EP, aptly named Grief and Distance.

“I came home to find out the world was shutting down and touring my new record wasn’t gonna happen,” says Clint Lowery. “So I spoke with my team and pushed to release an EP out of nowhere. I needed a way to process it all and writing has always been my escape.”

On the heels of the Sevendust guitarist’s most recent solo debut, 2020’s God Bless the Renegades, Lowery re-recorded acoustic versions of the album’s “Kings” and “What’s The Matter” on Grief and Distance, in addition to penning three newer tracks, meshing some electronic and industrial elements of God Bless the Renegades.

The new tracks were predominantly born during the pandemic, and our response to it, says Lowery, which plays out on “Distance,” a slow build about getting everything we want, and how once it’s taken away we find out who we are and what we are really made of.

A more “woe-is-me” track, “I’m Wrong” speaks to the mind’s attraction to negativity, and its aftermath. “I’ve spent a lot of my life attracting the negative and being surprised at the results,” says Lowery. “It’s about waiting for a dark cloud to find you and realizing you make your dark cloud.”

A more fragile ballad about Lowery’s mother, “Haunted” taps into darker memories and examines the emotionally charged open and close of loss in chorus Keep your eyes closed / Hold you together / Take your last breath slow / I can’t let you go.

“Mainly it’s the experience of seeing this woman who I leaned on my entire existence leave this world,” he says. “She wasn’t a perfect human being, but she was for me.”

Writing around mid-March, Lowery recorded vocals and guitar at Sawhorse Studios in St. Louis, MO during quarantine and tracked some parts at home.

“I knew I would have limitations, so I decided to use a lot of programming and electronic elements,” says Lowery. “Some I did, but for a majority I pulled in Brian Vodinh to build a musical landscape around my raw music.”

Despite the current events in the United States, Lowery says he’s enjoying his time back home. “I’ve been touring my entire life,” he says. “I’ve embraced this time with family and have processed the loss of my mother.”

Lowery sees the recent events in the country, including the protests around the May 25 death of George Floyd by police, as a huge opportunity for growth in America. 

“From the pandemic to the murder of George Floyd, there’s much needed education and action that needs to take place, and a better mindset and awareness to some raw realities,” says Lowery. “I think people need to listen more and talk less—do what they can as individuals to make things better. Everyone wants to be the biggest and most profound voice. We need to listen, absorb and change for the better. I know I need to, and will.”