CLAY WESTERN RETURNS WITH 'I DON’T LIKE IT THAT YOU’RE LEAVING'

Listen to the track below!

Image: Michael Tartaglia.

Clay Western has always lived in the margins, somewhere between country charm and indie-pop sophistication, between the raw and the refined. With his latest single, i don’t like that you’re leaving, he edges even closer to the emotional core that has quietly become his signature. Presenting itself as a moment suspended in time, we’re met with a tender, aching, and undeniably intimate offering from the singer.

Teaming up with Pacific Avenue’s Harry O’Brien and producer Charlie Hole, Western captures the delicate beauty of a connection already slipping away. There’s an audible vulnerability here, as if you’ve walked in on a private conversation just as it turns serious. The production leans into that quiet intensity. Lo-fi percussion loops beneath honeyed guitar lines, while Western’s vocals, wistful and restrained, carry the songs emotional weight without ever tipping into melodrama. It’s soft pop, but not the kind that floats by unnoticed; it lingers. The song is a beautifully bruised reflection on love that arrives already marked by goodbye.

In his own words, Western confesses: "I don’t like it that you’re leaving is peak vulnerability for me. Letting your guard down with someone all while knowing that it won't work. Knowing that the love is fleeting and you have to watch them get on a plane to the other side of the world. Not knowing when you'll see them again. It's pretty raw. Unfortunately it's not the first time. Maybe I'm secretly in love with this feeling, maybe I've watched too many rom-coms. I'm still yet to figure it out haha."

That same emotional paradox (loving the ache even as it breaks you) is what gives the track its power. There’s no grand crescendo, no overwrought plea. Instead, i don’t like that you’re leaving sits comfortably in its own stillness, trusting the listener to lean in. It’s a subtle confidence born not from experience alone, but from self-awareness.

Interestingly, the version we hear almost didn’t make it out in to the world. Western explains how a re-recording of the song, meant to smooth and soften it, lost the magic of the original demo. “Sometimes things just feel right and you don't need to change them,” he reflects. “But I had to go through the process to figure that out. I learnt a lot about trusting my gut on this track in more ways than one.”

To celebrate the release, Western will take to the stage at Sydney's Low 302 This Friday evening. Joined by MYMA & Kate Moth, tickets are on sale now.

Raised in Western Australia, now based in Sydney, Western embodies a kind of musical duality. The urban cowboy with a heart full of postcards and past lives. His sonic palette is laced with warm nostalgia and modern edge, while his lyrics offer fleeting snapshots of love, loss, and longing. Like handwritten notes, stored in the back of a drawer you can’t help but reopen.

Still early in his journey, Western’s trajectory feels promising. He is building something quietly enduring. Whether supporting acts like Don West, or collaborating with San Cisco, Pacific Avenue, and Kesmar, he’s proving that vulnerability can be a kind of superpower.

I don’t like it that you’re leaving is out now.