Out supporting their latest record, The Shadow I Remember, we had a chance to speak with Cloud Nothing’s singer and songwriter, Dylan Baldi last Saturday at the Shaky Knees festival here in town. They put on a great show and it was great to chat with him for a few minutes.
Atlanta Music Guide – John McNicholas
So your latest record, The Shadow I Remember, when did you record and write that? To me it feels almost like the first post-COVID record.
Cloud Nothings – Dylan Baldi
We did it pre-COVID actually, we finished it in February of 2020. Yeah, and we went home and that was it. Nothing else.
AMG
And just sat on it for a while to see what would happen?
Dylan
Yeah, it just didn’t come out for a year, because what’s the point? We like to tour. I mean, it’s hard to do that with everything.
AMG
What was that like, sitting on that record for so long?
Dylan
Um, it was fine, but it was weird because we started putting out a lot of other music online that was newer, essentially. So the timeline got real warped and confusing for a minute, but now we’re back up to current reality. Yeah, so everything’s good.
AMG
Your website has the 10th anniversary of Turning On, it’s like new stuff, old stuff.
Dylan
Yeah! Middle stuff. Everything. It’s all coming at once. Time has been demolished.
AMG
What was it like revisiting a 10-year-old record in the middle of everything that was going on?
Dylan
Yeah. Yeah. I’ve listened to that record here and there throughout the last 10 years… But yeah, it’s funny, it just feels like a different person wrote it, you know, so it’s funny to hear that stuff.
AMG
The first cut, “Oslo” on the new record, it starts with the lyrics:
“The world I know has gone away
An outline of my own decay
The body’s broke and the blood is warm
Is this the end of the life I’ve known?”
The first time I heard it, it just felt exactly like what was happening right now and to hear that you’d actually worked on it before, it just felt so perfect. So I played that song, like, 10 times in a row the first time I heard it. Oh, my gosh, oh, my…
(laughs)
Dylan
He knew! Yeah, no, no, that’s about a movie. That song actually comes from a movie called Oslo, August, and then like a date that I can never remember. (Oslo, August 31st) But it’s like a Norwegian movie, and it’s really depressing. Um, it’s about like, an ex-junkie who gets clean and comes out of rehab and just tries to have a life again and just can’t get it together and ends up dying. Yeah. Spoiler alert. So, the song is literally about that and then it turns out that’s somehow an allegory for life.
AMG
When I first listened to the new record, I thought it felt a little bit different. It felt like eavesdropping on a band in a practice room, bashing things out, and then I saw that Steve Albini was the producer. It’s very intimate. What was that like, working with him, and did you really just bash it out in the room?
Dylan
Yeah, we did it almost too fast. I think we kept him there really late the last day. I felt bad. But yeah, we kind of just played it until it sounded good. Everything.
AMG
When the new record came out last February, at that time, did you do anything to celebrate its release?
Dylan
We did a live stream show from a venue in Cleveland called The Bookshop. But we had recorded that already, so it was like, you know, we just broadcasted it. I guess that was it because there wasn’t much else to do.
AMG
Was that just a little strange to think like, here’s our new baby out in the world?
Dylan
Yeah, I guess you know, usually we just go on tour when a record comes out but this just came out. We didn’t go anywhere.
AMG
Speaking of touring, what do you have coming up?
Dylan
Yeah, we have like a month after this. Pretty much.
AMG
Where are you headed?
Dylan
We’re going on a cruise. The Coheed and Cambria Cruise which will be interesting, and then we go West, then up, and then back to Ohio.
I just want to say, earlier today we watched Songs for Kids do their thing, and I just think that is great, and I really liked what they’re doing.
AMG
Josh and that crew are amazing. They do it every year. Tim (Tim Sweetwater – Shaky Knees creator) is nice enough to have them play at least twice on the big stage every year and sometimes a bigger band will play with them.
Dylan
They had a big band, well, it was 8 people or so on ukuleles. Well, yeah, I like that. If you can throw that in there somewhere. A pitch for them.
Links:
Website – http://www.cloudnothings.com
By John McNicholas
