Cautious Clay might be busy, but he’s not stressed. Speaking on the phone from his home in Brooklyn, the 27-year-old musician – otherwise known as Mr Joshua Karpeh – is chilling in his room, sounding upbeat. He should be: he’s just released the brilliant “Agreeable”, the first single from his upcoming album, and is, it seems, on the cusp of big things. A self-taught flute player, Mr Karpeh has worked on remixes for Ms Billie Eilish, featured on an AlunaGeorge track and has had his music sampled by Ms Taylor Swift. He is also one of New York’s most exciting new talents.

“I don’t need your thoughts/ I don’t wanna know what you’re offering/ Don’t need posturing,” he sings soulfully on the new track. It’s a laid-back summer anthem with a message. “The sentiment is about everything I’m feeling right now about the world – it’s harder than ever to be ‘agreeable’, which is the name of the song,” he explains. “So, I wanted to think about being agreeable in the context of where we’re all at.”

Lyrically, it’s a critique on the current state of the world, about making compromises to make other people happy, and the increasingly divisive and disagreeable nature of the mainstream media. Heavy stuff, but the beachy, upbeat melody “keeps everything optimistic”.

To celebrate the launch of the track, we caught up with Mr Karpeh, who gives us a short insight into his daily routine, what makes him tick and how he keeps his beard in such good shape.

On his creative process:

“My creative process throughout the pandemic hasn’t really been much different to normal. I mostly work out of my own house anyway, though I have spent a few months in Massachusetts at my girlfriend’s family’s place. The biggest thing has just been not being able to see people in real life. I’m not the type of person that loves to get on Zoom calls. When I’m in New York, though, I split my time between Harlem and Brooklyn; my girlfriend’s in Harlem and I’m in Brooklyn.”

On his upcoming projects:

“I’m probably working on around seven projects at any one time. A lot of that, people don’t really know about – my project as Cautious Clay is singular and I’m working on the album, obviously. But I’m constantly working on other stuff, too, working with writers or on stuff for other artists. I think that helps me creatively, because I constantly know what’s fresh [in music], and I can understand what’s going on with other people.”

On his typical day:

“I start my day around 10.30am, sometimes even as late as almost 12.00pm. But that’s only because I work kind of late into the night. Sometimes, I’m up until 4.00am toiling away. When I wake up, I usually start working on something almost immediately for an hour, then start my grooming routine.”

On his grooming regimen:

“I use vitamin E cream on my beard from a brand called Edge Entity, which is really great for improving the vitality of your beard and helps your skin and nails out, too. There are these liquid gel pills that you can ingest, but I crush them in my hand and rub the vitamin E onto my skin and beard to keep it looking healthy. A lot of people I know swear by it.

“After my grooming routine, I’ll go down and make a coffee with my French press, and make eggs or something for breakfast. Then, I don’t usually eat at all until dinner, just work all day, drink a lot of water, then eat at 6.00 or 7.00pm. Sometimes it’s really bad; I love food, but for whatever reason, I’ll completely forget to eat because I’m distracted by work. I take a lot of breaks during the day, I work for an hour or two then find some time, water my plants or chill in the yard.”

On his living situation:

“I actually have 11 roommates. It’s like a Brooklyn brownstone, a full house of four floors, back yard, rooftop kind of situation. I’ve lived there for about four and half years now, so ever since Cautious Clay, as people know it, started. We’ve had a lot of different types of people live here, artists, people in fashion and tech, people who work for the government. It’s a municipality kind of thing.”

On his style:

“I don’t usually get super dressed up, but I love being comfortable, and I’ve got a collection of ‘semi-stylish’ clothing that I’ve picked up over the past few years, being someone that people give free clothes to. I have a solid pair of red Nikes and orange rubber Birkenstocks that I wear a lot. I’m a big fan of The North Face, they have some really great sweats I’ve been wearing a lot. Otherwise, it’s stuff that I’ve thrifted on tour. I love memorabilia, too, I still have this hoodie I got when I was studying abroad at SOAS [School of Oriental and African Studies] in London.”

On unwinding:

“For dinner, usually I’ll go grab a bodega sandwich, then chill out and watch a movie with my roommates. There’s this really good smoothie shop called Punchline nearby, too, that I love.

“Hiking is one of my favourite things to do. A bunch of us will get together and head to the beach, or there are some great hiking spots in the Bronx. And then places in New York State are great. I really like going to Storm King in the fall.

“I usually have a drink at the end of the night, just whisky on ice – either Woodford Reserve or Old Overholt.”