Your New Favourite Band: Cloud Nothings Interview

Less than a year ago, 18 year-old Dylan Baldi was just another Cleveland college student who dabbled in recording songs in his parents' basement during evenings and on weekends. When a course in audio recording didn't quite prove to be his thing - intriguing given his later proficiency in home-recording - he dropped out and “started doing this instead”. As things turned out, "this" quickly became Cloud Nothings, and one excellently-received EP and a couple of limited-edition singles later, Wichita have now compiled the lot on the thirteen-track Turning On LP, which is out this week. Ragged Words caught Dylan en route to last week’s CMJ festival, and he spilled the beans on his first proper full-length release, due out very soon.

Hey, Dylan. The album’s great,  we can’t get enough of it. It’s a compilation of previously released songs, and yet we can't help feeling that they very much sound like they were meant to be played side-by-side. Was that something that struck you when you were piecing Turning On together?

“I actually haven’t listened to it all the way through since it was all put together. I definitely understand what you mean, though, because they were all recorded right around the same time. The first nine songs are part of the same album, which I did intentionally, so they do have a certain flow. But yeah, I would say that making sense of them was intentional.”

The songs themselves - to simplify greatly - are lo-fi and punk-tinged, but what strikes me most is that they’re killer tunes. Would you be happy classifying them as pop songs?

“Yeah, I definitely try to make everything poppy. When I write a song, what makes it good to me is whether you can remember it. Is it catchy? I try my best to make things fun and poppy.”

In that sense, would you have listened to the more melodic side of lo-fi or indie music when you were growing up?

“Oh, yeah. I’ve listened to just about everything, but I’m more influenced and more excited by the more melodic things. I like bands like The Seeds or Television Personalities, they’re probably my favourite lo-fi band. They’re pretty melodic.”

Is it just you on the record?

“The record is just me, yeah.”

That’s pretty impressive!

“(Laughs) Thank you.”

Was it generally done at home then?

“Yeah, most of the songs were recorded in my bedroom when I went home from school, or on the weekends. I had one microphone, and recorded everything just one track at a time onto my computer.”

That was at home in Cleveland, right? What kind of a city is it to make music in? Sorry, I don’t know too many Cleveland bands!

“Not many people do! It’s a scene - there’s definitely a scene there - but it’s more bands that stay in Cleveland. It’s not like bands in Cleveland go out and tour and get press for that. Mostly, if you play music in Cleveland then the people there will know you, but not much else.”

Turning On is being released here through Wichita - how and when did you get in contact with those guys?

“Wichita got in touch with me a couple of months after I put out the original eight-track album on cassette and CD. Mark from Wichita had heard the album and said he loved it, so he wanted to release something somehow and said that whenever I was ready to put something out, he would do it. So that was pretty exciting (laughs). It’s not often that happens.”

And they’ll also be bringing out your first album proper in the new year... Can you tell us anything more about that? How does it compare to the songs on Turning On?

“It’s done, it’s going to come out in late January. I recorded it in a real studio kind of environment, so it’s definitely a lot cleaner-sounding, but I wouldn’t say it’s super-polished or anything. There’s definitely some great lo-fi-sounding stuff; the style is maybe more like the last couple of songs on (Turning On) - the faster, louder ones - so the album sounds like that pretty much. It’s more influenced by those.”

How did you find swapping the bedroom for a studio? Was it something you had always wanted to do?

“The production is something I don’t necessarily listen to. I listen more for the feeling of whether I like that song or not, but it’s definitely something I was really excited about doing because I’d never had the opportunity or the funds to do anything like it before. It was great; it felt more like work, recording an album in a studio (laughs) instead of just having fun, goofing around at home.”

Does it have a name yet, or a release date?

“It’s just going to be self-titled, I think. Tentatively, it’s due out January 25."

You’re coming over to the UK next month, and are going to be doing a few dates with Les Savy Fav. Are you a fan of theirs? Is that a pretty exciting prospect?

“Yeah, I’ve been a fan of that band for a really long time, and we’re going to be touring in the same vehicle, so that’s bound to be a bit weird (laughs)! It’s always really weird meeting all these bands I’ve liked for so long, and just being like "Hey, I’m just some little kid who doesn’t really know what he’s doing" (laughs). It’s really weird, but I’m definitely excited."

Has it gotten overwhelming at any point?

“It really hasn’t been too overwhelming for me actually, because everything that has happened so far has been happening petty quickly. Not too quickly, though, like how it went for Wavves, when it just blew up before they had even played a show. It’s been going along at a nice pace and I’ve been able to take it one step at a time.”

And finally, who are some of your new favourite bands?

“Actually, lately I haven’t been listening to too many new bands. The only ones that really come to mind are bands that friends of mine are in. We’ve got friends in that band Beach Fossils and friends in this band Oberhofer. I feel like they’re going to blow up soon, they’re really good. But mostly I’ve been listening to older stuff, like Dismemberment Plan and things like that.”

Cloud Nothings play the following dates next month, and Dylan says they’ll be back here again in February too:

November
05 - London @ Electrowerkz
06 - Brighton @ The Hope (with Veronica Falls)
07 - Bristol @ Thekla (with Veronica Falls)
08 - Sheffield @ Harley (with Veronica Falls)
09 - Manchester @ Deaf Institute (with Veronica Falls)
10 - Glasgow @ Captain's Rest (with Veronica Falls)
11 - Edinburgh @ Sneaky Pete's (with Veronica Falls)
12 - Leeds @ Brudenell (Constellations Festival)
13 - Glasgow @ ABC 2 (with Les Savy Fav)
15 - Brighton @ Komedia (with Les Savy Fav)
22 - London @ Electric Ballroom (with Les Savy Fav)
23 - London @ Madame JoJo's (White Heat Night)