JD’s been on our store playlist for a while. Not by design – our playlist just goes wherever it goes. The Clash into Skepta into Rosalía into JD Cliffe and it all makes sense. So when he came through to STUDIO Ü it felt comfortable from the start. Like we already knew each other through the music before he even walked in.
What he’s doing sonically is genuinely interesting. It feels nostalgic but it doesn’t feel dated.
There’s UK rap in there, Britpop, British guitar music – Arctic Monkeys, Blur, The Kooks – but it doesn’t sound like someone cherry picking references. It sounds like someone who grew up with all of it and just makes music from the full picture.
That’s harder than it sounds.
Most people pick a lane. JD just does what feels right and somehow it works.
That clarity is rare. A lot of artists talk about individuality but you can hear the compromise in the music. With JD you can’t. Whatever he’s building, it’s his and only his.
That’s something we connected on. STUDIO Ü has never been one thing – the influences here run from punk to tailoring and everything between and we’ve never felt the need to explain or justify that. JD operates the same way. No justification, just having fun creating. You either get it or you don’t and he’s clearly never lost sleep over which camp people fall into.
We came to shoot the summer collection and it just turned into a proper hang. Benz shot it, James Loach styled it – both friends of the studio – so it was relaxed from the start.
The clothes made sense on JD immediately too. White artisanal shirts, cheater print hybrid military cargos, no brim caps, pleated skorts. Pieces rebuilt from existing garments into new silhouettes without losing the familiarity of what they once were. That balance between familiarity and originality was something we spoke about a lot that day and felt aligned with him.
We ended up down the road at a car mechanic, shooting on a pile of tyres. Nobody planned that. It just happened. Sometimes the afternoon finds the location for you.
His music feels like something and that something is hard to name which is actually the point.
Nostalgic and fresh at the same time. Familiar enough to pull you in, different enough to turn first time listeners into genuine fans. UK music feels better when people stop trying to follow formulas and just make things that actually sound like them. JD Cliffe is doing exactly that.
“One to watch” doesn’t really cover it. More like someone to pay attention to properly now, before the rest of the world catches up.
