Float on...
You could say 2010 has been a pretty good year for Dylan Baldi. The Cleveland, Ohio native started making music as Cloud Nothings little more than 12 months ago, writing brilliant lo-fi pop in between college classes, and recording it through one microphone in his parents' basement.
Next thing you know he's signed to Carpark in the US and Wichita over here, released a string of critically acclaimed singles (collected together on the ridiculously good compilation 'Turning On'), and jetted off to Europe for a month-long tour. Oh, did I mention he was only 19.
With a talent for writing some of the catchiest guitar-pop on the market and his first full-length album waiting in the wings, we reckon Cloud Nothings is going to be huge next year. We caught up with Dylan to chat about the how it all happened and what he's got planned for 2011.
Hey Cool Kid - Cloud Nothings by lvsnez
Hey Dylan. So, you could say you've had quite a successful year from the looks of things. How did it all come about?
Almost exactly a year ago I put up a couple of songs that I had recorded up on my MySpace page. I'd just been getting home from college at the weekends and record music for fun in my parents' basement. The MySpace page was called 'Cloud Nothings' just because that was a name that I had kicking around in my head at the time, and one of the tracks was 'Hey Cool Kid’.
Then I added a couple of bands that I really like as friends on the site, and it all kinda built up from there... Pretty soon I was playing my first live show with Real Estate in New York.
You play all the instruments on your recordings – how have you found performing these tracks live with a band?
The band is made up of some friends of mine from Cleveland, so it was pretty easy to get them together. My favourite live shows are the ones that are different from an artist's records, so when we play live we try and mix it up a bit. I just play my part and sing, and they work around it – it's definitely not like 'Turning On' because they're doing their own thing, and it's not just me playing each part bit by bit.
Got any highlights of 2010?
One of my favourite gigs to play was over in London – when we headlined at Madam Jojo's. It was our last show there and it was really fun. That tour was everyone's first time in Europe – and my first time on a plane – so it was all very strange, but it was great! I really loved London and should be coming over again for a bit, some time next year.
We heard that you dropped out of college to play a gig with Real Estate and Woods. What's the story behind that?
Well I wasn't really dropping out for that one show – I dropped out because I decided to try and make this whole music thing work, and I couldn't really do that and do school at the same time. I was studying saxophone and audio recording – so it was kinda useful for Cloud Nothings, but it's hard fitting it around touring and stuff like that.
We really loved ‘Turning On’. When can we expect from your first full-length album?
It sounds a lot more like our live shows, kinda pop-punky and a lot more energetic. The tracks are a lot cleaner – I've been recording in a studio in Baltimore, Maryland. It’s been really weird – before I was recording at home and I’d just do it in an hour and if I screwed up I didn't really care, but when you go and record in a studio it's ten-hour days. I still play all the instruments on this album, so it was pretty exhausting. It felt more like actual work than 'Turning On', but it was really fun! It should be coming out early next year.
We’ve picked you as one of our artists to watch for 2011. In your opinion, who do you reckon is going to be big next year?
I don't really listen to a lot of modern music, but there's a great band called Reading Rainbow from Philadelphia. They're a two-person band – kinda garagey. They're a boy and a girl that both sing at the same time, and the way their voices work together is really cool.
I'd say another that's gonna do well is Eternal Summers – they're great too.
Cloud Nothings' will be releasing a full length and touring the UK early in2011. Keep checking Witchita's website for updates.
http://www.myspace.com/cloudnothings.
Want more tips for 2011? Check out Alex's interview with Darkstar.
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