Raven Ase Clark wants to see more community in Cleveland’s experimental music scenes.
The artist, who performs under the moniker Uniity, moved from Philadelphia to Cleveland two years ago to pursue a degree at Cuyahoga Community College’s Recording Arts Technology Program. Since then, she’s performed at most of the indie venues in town, earned a Panza Foundation Grant and hit the road for tours with bands around the United States.
Last year, she released her harsh, experimental, genre-bending album HIIVES. This year, she’s releasing more singles and getting her studio, Antiphon Sound, up and running for independent musicians to utilize.
Through it all, Clark has taken major strides in her music career, and experienced the good and bad of it — both the support she’s received in Northeast Ohio and also the tension that can occur when finding success. Those experiences are reflected in her new single “IMadeYou.”
“The music industry is not a very nice place. It’s filled with a lot of cool people but also people who can take advantage of you, a lot of ego,” Clark says. “‘IMadeYou’ — the title is about working with community and people you love, to the point where you help build it up. Once it starts to cave in on itself, in a sense, you get angry.”
\At 19 years old, Clark navigates Northeast Ohio’s music scene as a relative newcomer. She got her start performing shows at Negative Space art gallery, the independent arts and music-focused space run by Gadi Zamir. There, Clark ironed out her music and live performance and started forming connections with other performers. Soon after, she embarked on her first tours of the East Coast.
At the heart of Uniity’s music is a DIY ethos and a fiercely independent voice — and that stretches back to Clark’s upbringing in West Philadelphia, where she grew up going to punk shows in friends’ basements and backyards. Often, she says, she was the only person of color in the audience.
“In the early 2000s, it wasn’t very talked about or widely known that there were a lot of Black people that loved more than just hip-hop and R&B. I was one of the only kids in my entire neighborhood that listened to metal music, liked anime; the weirder, nerdy stuff,” Clark says. “That made me a really easy target for bullies and an easier target for being out in the punk scene as a tiny Black girl.”
She found an outlet for those themes and experiences in her music as Uniity — both in her nu-punk sound and also in her songs’ messaging.
“It’s something that’s luckily being talked about now, but definitely back then, I was targeted a lot,” Clark says. “The racism within the punk and alternative scene, too, I talk about that quite frequently in my music.”
Since she started taking the stage, Clark has performed regularly in Northeast Ohio. She says she hopes to perform on bigger stages and to grow to a point where she can support other musicians, too.
“Not famous, but be able to not worry about having enough money to buy a box of cereal,” she says. “I’d love to see my career head to a place where I can live comfortably, and be able to support the community that supports me.”
This week, Clark will celebrate her single release with shows in Corpus Christi, Texas (April 14), Harlingen, Texas (April 15), and Philadelphia (April 21). She’s planning a U.S. tour starting on June 10 with a show in Baltimore. Keep up with Clark at her Instagram, @whoisuniity.
Get ahead of the weekend by signing up for our free weekly “In the CLE” newsletter — your guide to fun throughout The Land. Arriving in your inbox every Wednesday, this weekend to-do list fills you in on everything from concerts to museum exhibits — and more. Click here to subscribe.