Clayton Stanfield

#13 The Clayton Derailment, rock, “Get Up (Aka Over and Over)”. www.soundcloud.com/clayton-stanfield/get-up-aka-over-and-over. This rock song has a singer-songwriter bent and a grown-up, coping-with-life message about the need to persevere through downers. The song is from the solo project of Clayton Stanfield, bass player in The Derailment. His song, “My Crimes,” placed ninth in the 2014 roundup. - Reno Gazette Journal

9. The Clayton Derailment, folk-rock, "My Crimes." https://Soundcloud.com/clayton-stanfield. The song beseeches a former flame to come back, sung in a hurt but strident voice to a mid-tempo rock accompaniment, with the bared-heart refrain: "Give it to me one more time around." The song is part of Clayton Stanfield's solo project apart from his band The Derailment. - Reno Gazette Journal

Some bands will abandon a show if they don’t get a good enough turnout. I’ve seen bands look out on a half-empty house and halfheartedly play three songs before throwing down their instruments and heading off to the bar to get drunk.

But imagine a band, despite a rather grim turnout, treating its audience of 12 as though it were a stadium of 5,000. They play for hours, finishing two sets consisting of 11 songs each. They do a couple of catchy cover songs and encourage the crowd to dance. To energize the listeners, the singer jumps up and down as the drummer sings along with the music, despite not having a microphone. The band makes it clear that they are a professional act, and their goal is entertaining their audience.

How ironic, then, that this describes a band called “All About Me.”

Actually, the name isn’t a description of the band’s mentality, but a broader social statement.

“It’s about selfishness,” explains guitarist and lead singer Monique Stanfield. “Not our selfishness, but the whole world’s selfishness.”

Clayton Stanfield, lead guitarist (and Monique’s brother), laughs.

“That’s really where it came from?” he asks. “I thought it was because it was all about you.”

Regardless of the implications of the name, All About Me writes songs with accessibility in mind. They describe their style as “alt-pop"—a normally senseless label that, in this case, is really pretty fitting. Their songs are filled with unusual modulations and chord structures reminiscent of such alternative bands as the Dismemberment Plan and P.J. Harvey. Clayton often quietly doubles the rhythm guitar for a while, then suddenly breaks into wailing, distorted leads over Monique’s tranquil acoustic strumming. Monique’s voice, on the other hand, is pure pop—when the music calls for it, she can sound convincingly like Shania Twain or Sheryl Crow. The effect of this blending of styles is a sound that’s pleasant without being too timid.

“This genre of music appeals to a much wider audience,” says drummer Mark Conrad.

All About Me is playing with a more diverse group in mind than most local bands; particularly, they don’t want to limit themselves exclusively to the younger concert-going crowd.

“I think our demographic’s older than most bands,” says bass player Dwayne Carroll.

“The last show we did was literally a beach full of people,” adds Conrad.

Clayton, Carroll and Conrad dress unpretentiously in grays and dark greens, visually blending into the background to allow Monique to shine. And shine she does. At a recent Harry’s Watering Hole show, she was decked out in a pink dress, with an extravagant pink hairstyle to match.

“This is my Gwen Stefani look,” she tells the audience. “My hair’s kind of flammable tonight.”

Above all, All About Me is a band whose members’ highest priority is putting on a great show.

“One of our big concerns is that you don’t really want to lull the audience,” says Conrad.

Carroll agrees.

“I’m primarily interested in playing out live,” he says. “I’m a rocker at heart. I love rock music.”

The focus on performance pays off. All About Me is relaxed and very much in their element on stage. They have a feel for getting the audience involved in their shows. And if you never thought it would be possible to dance to a cover of the Simple Minds’ "Don’t You Forget About Me," well, now you know where to look

By John Cornell - Reno News and Review

The members of LovePop! have joined forces to reclaim their Reno following after an absence that has given them time to recreate their sound. Clayton Stanfield, Monique Jade and Kent Miura have played music together since the early ’90s and are no strangers to the pop rock genre. Former members of All About Me, the three know exactly what they want to achieve musically, but this time they’re doing it on their own terms.

“We’re not going town to town scraping money together,” says percussionist Kent Miura. “We don’t have to anymore. That’s the beauty of it. I have no desire to go back to playing in smoky bars in the middle of the morning. Before, the commodity that was precious was money, but now it’s time.”

The members of LovePop! pride themselves on enjoying the time they have to create and share their music. After all the years they’ve spent together, along with their full-time occupations and families, they’re not looking to “make it big.” The band instead hopes to inspire a strong local fan base of families, old friends and new faces.

“We’re a good representation of what it means to be adults with real lives and full schedules who appreciate art and music and make time for it,” says vocalist/ bassist Stanfield.

“We’ve got a good niche here,” says vocalist and guitarist Jade.

LovePop! works to fill a void in the Reno nightlife and play music that’s easily accessible, family friendly, and fun.

“My parents didn’t go out to shows, but my friends with kids do, and there’s a need for people to play music that satisfies the tastes of the 30-to-50-year-olds,” says Stanfield.

It’s pop rock all grown up. Fronted by female vocalist/guitarist Jade, LovePop!’s sound is reminiscent of ’90s female pop artists like Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton. While many of the band’s songs seemingly would fit well on the soundtrack of a moody teen drama, not all of what LovePop! has to offer is bubblegum pop. Stanfield’s background in alternative rock and Miura’s skill in percussion at times pushes LovePop!’s sound in a soft rock direction.

Some of the songs on their new EP are refurbished renditions of songs the three compiled when playing together in All About Me. Others are brand new. LovePop! is in the process of expanding their song base, and possibly even their band to include a fourth member.

“These guys are really open to the potential of something different, they’re not stuck in a box,” says Miura. “I think they both understand what makes a hook.”

The three have a history together and share a caustic sense of humor about their past.

The name LovePop! evolved as a response of sorts to an article published in the Reno Gazette-Journal about their former band. The article was titled “Love Pop” and acted more as an exposé of the relationship between Stanfield and Jade than a commentary on their music. Stanfield and Jade chose to embrace their namesake and teamed with Miura to create LovePop!

By Kelsey Baunder - Reno News and Review