today hadn't exactly been easy for anyone attending devon's funeral, regardless of if they were close to him or not. she could feel the emotion, the tension that was seeping through the air. while it had been a beautiful service in attempts to capturing and honoring his life - it was still heavy. the girl found herself outside of the building, needing some fresh hair and away from all the crowds inside. exhaling the cigarette smoke from her mouth, she nodded her head at the person who had apporached her from a distance.
"you have the same idea as me?" the blonde questioned.
Cloud wasn't sure how long he'd been out here for, but he was pretty sure that it had been too long. No matter how many times he tried to convince himself, he just couldn't seem to bring himself to go back in, and return to feeling like some sort of an imposter or a liar simply due to the fact that his grief wasn't as pronounced as most of the other attendees. He didn't regret coming, a fact which surprised him given how he had spent the entire time he'd been inside feeling like he shouldn't have been there, but he was ready to go home. Just as he was resigning himself to this fact and mentally preparing himself to leave the property behind, he took notice to a familiar face coming outside through one of the other doors, and his thoughts of heading home were temporarily put on hold as he slowly approached, replaced with musings on what he should say. Her question as he arrived to where she stood prompted a small chuckle and a shrug of his shoulders. "I did yeah....about an hour ago now." He admitted, shaking his head a bit at himself. "I tried to force myself to go back in but I uh...well..." he shook his head as he trailed off and sighed. "Listen, I know this probably isn't the time or place, but I wanted to come over here and just say that even though you gave me a rain check for last night, I want you to know that if you change your mind you can take it back at any time. You know, if you had second thoughts or whatever. It's all good." He said earnestly. "But also I....yeah...I hope that you don't," he added, grinning sheepishly in spite of himself.
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Wiping a tear that escaped her waterline she turned to the person stood beside her. "How could somebody do this?" A small sigh leaving her lips as she attempted to compose herself. "He was a good person, he didn't deserve this. Nobody deserves this."
Cloud had come to this funeral anticipating that he would probably spend the entire time feeling like he didn't belong there, but what he hadn't anticipated was how much worse seeing people he cared about hurting would make him feel about it. Seeing Fran shed a tear had him feeling helpless, useless, and like all his presence here was doing was taking up space, all at once. "You're right. He didn't." He said in agreement with her words, feeling that it was completely inadequate, and like he should say more, but having no idea what he could say that wouldn't sound hollow or dishonest coming from his mouth. Finally, after a long pause, he said the one thing that he could say that was appropriate and true to how he really felt. "I wish I had the chance to get to know him better."
maisie hated funerals - although, didn't everyone ?? she wasn't even sure if she belonged here, she was an acquaintance of devon's at best. but still, maisie knew she needed to go and say her final goodbye. it didn't help that she was stuck in the same itchy black dress her mother had picked out for her abuelita's funeral - the one she'd sworn she'd never wear again. funerals were usually a sad occasion, but this felt...heavier. maisie couldn't get her head around any of it.
there was only so much small talk she could take. slipping out before anyone could stop her, maisie made her way outside, drawing in a quiet breath of fresh air - only to pause when she realised she wasn't alone. ❝ hey. do you mind if i stay out here for a little bit ?? i just...needed a moment. ❞ she asked softly, careful not to intrude. her hand dipped into her bag, pulling out a cigarette. ❝ do you mind ?? i've got one with your name on it, if you want to join me. ❞
Cloud couldn't help but feel like he didn't belong here. He'd liked Devon, and gotten along with him well enough the few times they'd chatted in the halls or waiting for the elevator, but he had hardly known the guy. Hell, he hadn't even known about Devon's podcast until it was mentioned in a news report about his death. Of course what had happened to him was terrible, and it did make Cloud feel sad to know he'd been taken at such a young age, which was why he had shown up to pay his respects, but he couldn't shake the feeling that, comparing his own internal feelings on the matter to the displays of grief he was seeing from some of those around him, he was intruding on something deeply personal.
He'd excused himself the first moment that it felt like he could get away with doing so and made his way outside, where he breathed the air in deeply, rubbing at his temples to try and abate the headache that he could feel beginning to take shape. He was just considering if he should take out one of the joints he'd brought along with him when he heard the sound of another person taking in a breath beside him. As he turned to face the culprit he couldn't help but chuckle a bit at her expression which gave him the distinct impression that she was just as surprised to find another person out here as he was. "As a fellow "needed a moment" myself, I think I gotta say that it's fine right?" He said with a shrug and a small smile, before waving off her question about the smoking. "No, no, go right ahead. I was actually about to have one myself. Well...not a cigarette but-" he dug through the breast pocket of his jacket and produced a joint, which he held up to show her and nodded and shrugged again, before lifting the joint to his mouth and lighting it up with his lighter.
"So...you uh, you overwhelmed by your own grief, or by the grief of everyone else?" He asked in an all too casual tone, considering how personal the question was. To his credit, he realized it almost immediately and decided it was only fair for him to volunteer his own answer to the question. "I'll tell ya the truth: for me it was the latter. Not like you're probably thinking though. I don't begrudge them that grief at all; it makes perfect sense, it's completely natural to feel that way. I just...I feel like I probably shouldn't be here. I do feel grief, but mine feels pretty small compared to what I'm seeing in there. I don't know if that makes sense but uh, that's where I'm at right now."
Cloud: [attached a selfie in his bathroom where you can clearly see the floor is covered in water]
Cloud: think i could maybe get a rain check?
Cloud: picture was just so you know i'm not making up some stupid excuse to blow you off. trust me, i'm bummed. and not just because my bathroom is flooded.
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Cloud: So...if I did, in fact, want to "look further" what might that entail, and how would i go about making it happen? 👀
Cloud: as always asked with the utmost respect, of course.
“you know me, a regular miracle worker.” arden laughed, her head turning at the sound of his voice as her fingers idly tapped against the counter. “i’d love to take credit for saving you, but really, you can thank me getting tired of drinking at home. i figured i deserved something stronger than my own company tonight.”
she gave a small nod toward the bartender as he moved off to make her drink — it was more confirmation than anything. her attention slipped easily back to him, a smirk already tugging at her lips. “ooh —” she winced, just enough to fake a little sympathy. “that bad, huh?”
her gaze moved past him briefly, like she could already picture the disaster, before settling back on him with a little more interest. “so what are we talking — awkward small talk, or full blown train wreck?”
there was a beat, her eyes dragging over him in a way that wasn’t subtle if you knew her well — which he did. she shifted just slightly against the counter, closing the space between them by an inch or two — casual enough to pass for nothing, but not really. “lucky for you…” her voice lowered, playfulness slipping back into place. “i tend to have a soft spot for bad decisions when i’m out for a drink.”
"Oh believe me, I do know. I've seen you perform what can only be called miracles too many times not to know." Cloud replied with a suggestive smirk and low chuckle. Though it was meant as a joke, there was more than a hint of truth laced into the words; the times they'd spent in each other's company had given Cloud ample opportunity to see and experience (and be the beneficiary of) her doing things that could rightly be described as miracles.
He laughed lightly at her explanation as to what had brought her to the bar and nodded and shrugged his shoulders in agreement with the sentiment. Perhaps he would have even replied with something witty and flirtatious in keeping with their usual banter, but then she was asking about his date, which prompted a heavy eye roll and a exasperated sigh to escape him instead.
"Oh it's worse than awkward small talk. Way worse. Small talk would be something, at least. No, this was absolute apathy to my presence, and complete lack of engagement in any attempts at conversation." He explained with an expression of indignation. "I'm not saying that she needs to think I walk on water or that the sun shines out of my ass or anything like that, but I swear to fucking god that I could have burst into flames right there at the table and she wouldn't have glanced up from her fucking phone!" After a moment spent seething through gritted teeth, he released a deep exhale and shook his head. "Sorry. I don't even know why I care. It's not like I like her, or wanted to go out with her in the first place. Only did it as a favor to my buddy Doug, who's spent the whole night with his face glued to her friend," he gestured over to where Doug was, indeed still making out with his date across the table and rolled his eyes again. "Honestly, I'm real fucking glad that you walked in here just now." As she moved in closer to him, his annoyance at the situation he'd just left behind quickly evaporated, his attention now firmly on her. "Bad decisions eh? Funny that you say that, cuz from where I'm standing, you and me spending time together has never been a bad decision. Quite the opposite, actually." He replied with a playful smirk and a shrug as he moved even closer to her, lowering his voice so that only she would be able to hear it now. "It's not a bad decision unless you regret it later. I don't. And I won't. Not with you. No fucking way."
Laying upon his back and looking up at the sky, Cloud strummed gently on the strings of his acoustic guitar that lay upon his midriff, playing random chord progressions in search of a breakthrough. This, up here in the dead of night, alone on the rooftop, was his favourite way to write music. It brought him back to the boarding school days, when he used to sneak his way up onto the rooftop of his dorm building and steal moments for himself there and it quickly became the place where he was free to be authentic and creative without fear. Even after all these years of being Cloud and no longer needing to hide, there was still a feeling of serenity and safety that came from being a little closer to the stars.
"Drowning in a sea of stars/ lost in a galaxy of cocktail bars/ blinded by the neon lights/ I lie awake and say your name tonight" he sang softly in rhythm with the melody created by the chord progression he was playing, before pausing and releasing a satisfied and contented sigh; the kind that came from having finally found the piece of you needed to complete the puzzle after working on it for a good long while. "Yup. That's it. That's the one." He said to himself with a nod, before resuming his strumming of the same chord progression and continuing into the next verse of lyrics. "I guess she's gone for good/ she don't call me like I thought she would/ She went west to chase her dreams/ she took my money but she didn't take me-" he paused briefly as he noticed for the first time that there was another presence on the roof with him, the arrival of whom had gone unnoticed by him, though unperturbed, he carried on. "Why go wander unknown worlds?/ Stay right here and let the cosmos twirl/Blind without her source of light/ I light a flame and say your name tonight."
As he reached the end of the section of the song, Cloud sighed softly again and turned his gaze towards the person who, at some point, had joined him up on the rooftop. "Well hey there. Welcome to the edge of the universe itself." He said with a chuckle, setting his guitar to sit beside where he lay and reaching into his pockets for a rolled joint and his lighter, which he used to light the joint before taking a long drag from it. "What brings you up here at this time of night?" he asked as he exhaled a long puff of smoke straight up towards the sky. "No judgement, obviously. I mean, I'm up here too. Just curious."
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Cloud never should have let his drummer, Doug, talk him into going on this double date with him. He’d only agreed out of a desire to be a good friend, bandmate, and wingman, and had pretty low expectations going into it to begin with. But, between the fact that Doug was now making out with the girl he was with across the dinner table, and the fact that the girl Cloud was supposed to be there with could not have seemed less interested in him, hardly engaging in any attempts and conversation and giving bored sounding responses without ever looking away from her phone screen, and Cloud was pretty sure that he could disappear, and no one at the table would notice he was gone. It was right as he was having this thought that a familiar face walked into the restaurant and he caught her eye as she went and took a seat at the bar, prompting a smirk to find its way to his features and a feeling of thrill to rush over him. Getting up from the table, he walked over to where she was sat, smirk still in place. “I’m not sure how you managed to tune into the frequency of my silent prayers and know to come here and save me from my misery, but I’m not about to complain,” he joked. “No, but for real. What are you doing here? Got a date that you might wanna blow off? Cuz I do.” he added hopefully, a flirtatious grin upon his lips and a suggestive and mischievous gleam in his eye.
Josie felt like her brain hadn't shut off since the night she found out about Devon. Between sleeping too much and not being able to sleep at all, she was exhausted and figured that some sun might be able to help with it all. She brushed her hair out of her face as she laid on one of the many empty chaise lounges alongside the pool, letting out a heavy sigh as she tried to take in her current surroundings. Feeling a tinge of hope pop up in her chest when her eyes met another person that seemed to have the same idea as her, "Take the one next to me, pleaseeee." Dragging out the word to try to convince them more. "I really could use the company today."
The tension and anxiety that had been present in the air in and around the building ever since Devon's death was palpable, and Cloud didn't like it one bit. He found himself in a frustrating limbo of not really wanting to be anywhere near the building for any extended period of time, but, at the same time, not wanting to be away for too long either. It felt to him like everyone in the building was in an unspoken agreement that they waiting for something, but none of them were particularly sure what it was they were waiting for. No matter what it was though, Cloud was feeling more and more restless the more time that passed without it happening. After pacing around his apartment until the walls felt like they were closing in around him, then taking to pacing in the hallway until the same thing happened there, he made his way out to the pool, hoping that maybe being outside, but still technically on the building property, would bring down his feeling of restlessness.
At first he thought he had the place to himself and he waltzed in with a carefree ease, until he heard a voice he recognized speaking out to him, which prompted his stomach to do a nervous flip that was rather uncharacteristic of him at this point in his life. He was guitar player and the front man of a band, after all; being nervous around women was something that, until he'd met Josie, he had been quite confident was firmly in his rearview. Still, it wasn't exactly difficult to understand why this one particular girl had such a pronounced effect on him; when you're in a conversation with the person you are convinced is the most beautiful person you've ever seen in your life, it's only natural to be a little thrown for a loop. The only thing that really surprised him about the whole thing was that passage of time and growing familiarity hadn't seemed to make her effect on him lessen in the slightest, much to his chagrin.
Cloud stared blankly for a moment, his own vain struggle to get a grip on himself having him questioning if he had heard her say what he thought he'd heard. Everything about her expression and demeanor led him to think that he'd heard right and that she wanted him to join her and with a nervous chuckle and a quick "Yeah, okay" he nodded and took the seat next to her, whilst silently cursing himself for his severe lack of chill. "You uh...you been out here long?" He asked, whilst cringing a bit at how unsure of himself his voice sounded asking the question. Thankfully, it was at that moment that he remembered what he'd intended to do in here, and he realized that it could help a lot. "Oh. Do you mind if I...?" he held up a bag of weed and a pipe that he'd just taken from his pocket to show her. "If you do, it's no problem. I can move. I...yeah. No worries. At all. None."
( JOE KEERY, CIS MAN, HE/HIM ) CLOUD BLACKWELL the TWENTY NINE year old lives in ROOM 101 on FLOOR 1. It is said that they have been here at Ellswick Tower for TWO MONTHS. The MUSICIAN is said to be AUTHENTIC and IMPULSIVE which makes sense when you think about how they were a ACQUAINTANCE to Devon Carrington, who was just found dead. { JACK, 30, EST, HE/HIM. }
Basic Information
Full Name: Keith Harrison Blackwell Cloud
Date of Birth: May 7th
Place of Birth: Chicago
Immediate Family: None, as far as he's concerned.
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Star Sign: Taurus
Face Claim: Joe Keery
Sound Claim: Lord Huron; specifically selections from their albums Vide Noir and Cosmic Selector Vol. 1, and especially their single Who Laughs Last
Culture Rock Fan Magazine Interview
For The Spotlight Column by Frankie Demarco
Hey rock'n'rollers! Welcome to another edition of The Spotlight: the monthly column where I sit down with local musicians on the scene and pick their brains like guitar strings! My subject this month is one that some of you have wrote in to request quite a few times over the past couple months. But trust me, you didn't need to write in; this guy has been on my radar ever since he and his band first burst onto the scene in Boston after winning The We Will Rock Off over in NYC this past summer, and I've just been waiting for the right time to sit down with him and talk shop! Well, now that the band has relocated to right here in the LA area and the first single "Who Laughs Last" is out and being listened to and talked about by seemingly everyone I know, it seemed like it was finally time. So, I sat down with Cloud, guitar player, vocalist and primary song writer for LAs hottest new band, Cosmic Attraction, for his first ever exclusive interview. And trust me, dear readers, you are in for one hell of a tale with this one!
I: So glad to finally have you here, Cloud. Thanks so much for doing this!
C: No problem at all, man. I'm glad to be here.
I: So, I wanna start by asking you about the name Cloud. I think a lot of us have been thinking that it was just a stage name, but when you came in here today, you introduced yourself as Cloud. Can you tell me a bit about that? No way that your parents actually named you Cloud!?
C: Ha oh God no. It's not the name I was given at birth, but it's the only name I go by.
I: Would it be pushing it too much to ask what your real name is?
C: Cloud is my real name, man. Like I said, is it the name I was given at birth? No. But it's the only name I acknowledge. But since, I'm sure, there will be some people who read this and go out of their way to try and find out what my birth name is, let me just put this out there right away: Just don't do it. It doesn't matter what name I was born with, Cloud is my name. The guy I used to be is dead, and nobody is gonna miss him.
I: Why do you say that? What makes you think nobody would miss the old you?
C: Why should they? There wasn't really much to that guy to even miss.
I: What do you mean by that?
C: I just mean that the life I had as that guy wasn't really much of a life, and I wasn't really much of a person. I grew up a part of this real illustrious, but also really conservative Christian family, and yeah that meant that my life growing up was a life full of wealth and privilege, sure. But it also meant growing up with the strictest of expectations and standards weighing down on me. .
I: What kind of expectations?
C: Ha. Well, in the family that I grew up in, boys are expected to grow into "great men" and leaders, and bullshit like that. That's just how it's been for generations. A lot of politicians in the family. My father is a State Governor. So it was drilled into my head over and over and over again that the boys in that family don't fool around with trivial pursuits like art, or music, or fiction; they leave that stuff to the girls, and they study law, and politics, and math, and most importantly, The Bible, and they prove their dominance and inborn right to lead through excelling in athletics. Real textbook misogyny and patriarchal bullshit. Men in that family are expected to be alpha males, in the truest and most fucking toxic definition of the term. If you're not drawing crowds of admirers and followers with natural charisma and social dominance, and ensuring that everyone knows you're at the top of the food chain, then you're a fucking disappointment.
I: And you weren't like that?
C: It's not that I wasn't like that; I played the part just fine. It's just that I was never really comfortable with it. . I mean c'mon, no kid wants to be a disappointment to their family, right? So I gave it my best shot and tried to be exactly what they wanted., all while kind of resenting the fact that I wasn't allowed to choose my own path or figure out who I was on my own.
I: I think I understand what you mean. So when you say there wasn't really anything to who you were before, you're saying that you didn't really have your own identity outside of who your family wanted you to be.
C: Exactly man. I didn't come by any aspect of who I was honestly. I was molded in the image of what my family wanted me to be.
I: So how did you come to find yourself and become the person you are now?
C: The answer is every bit as cliche and cringe-worthy as you might expect, but it's the truth: The genesis for who I am today was finding music. Let me take you back alright? Boarding school, little fourteen year old me was told that I had to take a mandatory art class, and so I reluctantly signed up for Freshman guitar with Mrs. Elliot. I'll never forget walking into that room on the first day of the semester; probably the most nervous I've ever been in my life. Mrs. Elliot had a reputation for being hard on her students; something I'd only learned after I'd already signed up to take the damn class and it was too late to pull out of it. I remember, I sat down, and some of the other students around me already had their guitars out, and were playing something that, at the time, to me, sounded really good, but then Mrs. Elliot scolded them for their poor and sloppy technique, and I remember wishing right then that I'd signed up for Freshman Art instead. I thought I'd made a huge mistake.
I: Really?!
C: Oh yeah absolutely. I thought I had absolutely no business at all being there. But then I took the guitar I'd been assigned out of its case, and I can't explain it, but it just felt right in my hands immediately. I started playing and liked the way it felt and sounded, and even though I was still nervous, there was some excitement in there too; something I was not too accustomed to feeling at that point. I'd never really felt excited or passionate about anything before that. Even sports. I was a great athlete, but I didn't really like any of the sports I played. I didn't choose them, my Dad did. Anyway, playing the guitar made me feel excited like nothing ever had. But I said to myself right then "Boys in my family don't waste time with useless pastimes like music" and I promised myself that once the class was all done and over with, I'd put the guitar down and try to focus on what was "really important." And even when it turned out that I was actually good at the guitar, like naturally had a gift for it, I kept telling myself the same thing. But let me tell you something: I was fucking lying. And you know what? I knew it from the minute I picked up that guitar. I knew I wasn't putting it back down again if I could help it.
I: And of course, you didn't.
C: Nope, sure didn't. When the semester ended, I didn’t return the school guitar. I hid it in the back of my dorm room closet and claimed I'd lost it. My father, furious as he was, ranting about the stupidity required to lose an instrument, still ended up paying the school to replace it. It was the first time in my entire life that I had ever done something in direct defiance of my parents; the first time that Cloud peeked out from behind that obedient kid that I'd always been. With guitar in hand, I really began to feel like myself for the first time. This was something that was strictly mine. I loved the way that playing and making music made me feel, and guilty as I felt for enjoying it, I can't deny that there was a thrill that came with knowing that I was doing something that my family wouldn't approve of. It made me feel empowered in a way that I had never experienced before, and my confidence started to grow as a result. I figured as long as I continued doing the things they wanted me to do, I could have it both ways.
I: So what happened after that?
C: Freshman year after that is a bit of a blur in more ways than one. Probably a mix of the constant thrill of having this secret and the fact that around that same time was when I first got introduced to the wonders of sweet leaf and started indulging pretty heavily. Good timing, because I don't know if I could have handled the nerves of trying to hide everything I was doing from my dad without it. I do know that I binged hard on any and all music I could get my hands on. My stack of vinyls got taller by the week, and by the time the summer came, I realized there was no way I was going to be able to hide them all in my suitcase, so I stashed them in a hollowed out log in the woods near the school. They were, unsurprisingly, gone by the time school started up again.
I: Aw no way!
C: Yeah way. (laughs) The idea came to my when I was high as a kite and in a bit of a panic about what I was gonna do to keep my dad from finding them when I got home. Some of them he might not have cared about but most of them he absolutely would have. Like I said, my family are ultra conservative Christians, and they take that to the extreme, so any rock and roll music is considered the devil's work to them. If I'd brought home my Sabbath or Stones or Beatles records and they found them? It would have been bad. But it was still stupid of me to think I could hide them in a log for the entire summer and they would still be there when I went back for them.
I: What about the guitar? What did you do with that?
C: That was harder to try and hide. And honestly, I didn't want to be without it for the entire summer. So I sent it to a family friend through the mail and asked her to hold onto it. Probably should have just done the same thing with the vinyls.
I: This is fascinating! Your old man sounds like a real Thomas Oregon, if you catch the reference.
C: (laughs because he did in fact understand my truly amazing reference) That's exactly what he was, yeah. My life really was like a rock opera. Or at least it felt like one to me. I unfortunately didn't have a spaceship shaped like a treble clef though.
I: So what happened next? I'm on the edge of my seat listening to this!
C: Well, Sophomore year of high school is where things really started to change, because sophomore year is when me and some other dorks who loved music just as much as I did decided to start a band. Well, okay, to consider us a band at that point, you need to have a very loose definition of the word, but we were playing and writing music together and that's what matters. We did, eventually, get to be pretty alright too. We were good enough that when we found out that a local pub near the school was hosting a band night, we lied about our ages and snuck out of the school to go and play there. I won't name the pub in question just so that they don't run into legal trouble.
I: That's pretty rebellious of you. Were you scared of getting caught?
C: Oh fuck yeah. But I also desperately wanted to do it. I'd never had the chance to play music in front a crowd before, and I wanted to see what it was like. I was definitely afraid of getting caught though. So much so that I told everyone to call me Cloud. (laughs) Yeah, that's where the Cloud name comes from. I was smoking a joint at the time and had just exhaled a cloud of smoke when someone asked me what my name was, and I panicked and said Cloud. But yeah, that first time playing in front of a live crowd really awakened something in me. It was really a transformative experience. It was totally worth the risk as far as I was concerned, and I was dead set on doing it again and was a lot less worried about getting caught after that. Of course, we eventually did get caught
I: Oh shit. What happened?
C: I don't really know. I figure someone ratted us out. How we didn't get caught until senior year, I have no fucking clue. But when we did, the consequences were swift and severe. I was only spared from being expelled because my parents pulled me out of school and made a huge donation. They sent me to an even more rigid school where we were kept under constant supervision. I also had to watch as my father burned all the music I'd written and frantically muttered some prayer about redemption for my soul.
I: Damn. That sounds pretty extreme.
C: It was. Honestly I felt pretty terrible about it. And for awhile I tried to fall back into line. I kept my head down, focused on my studies, graduated at the top of my class. Went to church every Sunday. I was right back to being the dutiful son that I'd always been. Except I wasn't really, because now I knew that I could be so much more than that and I couldn't seem to forget it. I was definitely conflicted about who I was supposed to be.
I: So how did you get back to being your authentic self?
C: Well after I finished high school I went off to college for political science, and just being away from my family and out on my own kind of, I don't know, brought me out of the haze, I guess. Time with myself made me realize that I was never going to be able to fully go back to being who I was before I found music, and I didn't really want to either. I started to slowly step out of line again, but the more I did it, the more I wanted to do it more. Eventually I realized that I was going to have to make a choice between my family and myself, and I chose myself.
I: How did your family take that?
C: I know it's not what you want to hear, but I don't actually have all that much to say about it. What you're imagining it to be is probably spot on. It was pretty terrible, honestly. I wish I could say that I walked out with my head held high and feeling self assured of what I was doing, but that's not what happened. It sucked. My parents aren't bad people, they just...they have a different idea of what's right and wrong than I do. I still miss and love them, but they've made it clear that if I'm going to pursue this path, they want nothing to do with me, and I've just come to accept that.
I: So that was the moment when you really became Cloud?
C: Not long after that yeah. I signed a paper and changed my name legally.
I: That's an insane story! So what did you do after that?
C: Well I got the hell out of Chicago and bounced around to different cities for awhile. Tried doing the solo act thing for awhile, but missed being in a band, so I joined one that needed a guitar player. Was on the road with them for a couple years, but then left due to creative differences. That's when I ended up in Boston and started Cosmic Attraction, and yeah we've just been killing it. Won the battle of the bands as you know, and got to come out here to LA to record a single from that. Decided at that point that being out here was going to be best for the band's future, so we all moved out here. It's definitely proven to be the right move. I expected the crowds to be a bit smaller than what we were getting in Boston for the first little while, but that hasn't been the case at all. It's been pretty wild.
I: Well, this has already been a pretty long interview, and I didn't even ask half of the questions I wrote down before hand! This definitely took a turn I did not expect, but I'm sure our readers will be fascinated to hear your story! But I guess my last question for you today is: what can readers expect from you in the future?
C: They can expect more music. People reading this mag have probably already heard a good chunk of what will become the first album from seeing our shows, but trust me when I say there's still a lot that nobody has heard yet, and once we get it all recorded it's going to be mind-blowing.
I: I for one cannot wait to hear what you've got cooking. Readers! if you haven't already, go listen to Who Laughs Last, the first single by Cosmic Attraction, available wherever you get your music! Anything you'd like to add, Cloud?
C: Yeah! If you haven't had the chance to come see Cosmic Attraction, we play every Thursday and the third Saturday of every month!
Tldr Version: Cloud comes from a highly conservative Christian extremist family who are highly respected and are known to produce "great men." Cloud grew up doing his best to be the person that his parents wanted him to be, always being dutiful and obedient to their wishes, the perfect "golden boy" of a prestigious family. This continued until he went off to boarding school and discovered music. Through music Cloud found his confidence, and identity, and although he was eventually forced to give up music and return to the acceptable path by his family for awhile, he did eventually break free of them, putting his birth name of Keith Blackwell firmly to rest, and pursuing his dream of being a musician. His new band, Cosmic Attraction, have become quite a sensation in the local music scene, after they won a big battle of the bands competition in New York City during the summer, the prize of which was an all expenses paid trip to LA to record a single in a professional music studio. That single is the song Who Laughs Last, which can be found here. After the success the band has been having, the decision was made to relocate to California, which saw Cloud moving into the Ellswick Tower two months ago.
Additional Info/Headcanons:
After spending so much of his life having such specific and strict expectations on what he was supposed to do and how he was supposed to behave, Cloud is very much the opposite of that these days. He really just goes with the flow of how life comes at him and doesn't worry about the hows or whys. As far as he's concerned he's on the correct path, and he'll get to where he's trying to get to one way or another. The weed definitely helps perpetuate this attitude.
Cloud has an arrangement with his supplier which involves getting his supply for free in return for helping with distribution. He also gets a cut of the profits, which he's saving to pay for studio time.
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I'm gonna leave that city far behind and get a long, long way from there
I've got a burning feeling deep inside of me and don't know where to put it
Now that I've left that place I feel like someone for the first time in my life
You don't remember what I said, but you'll remember what I did
I sure like the feeling of an endless road
(My life is still a tale untold)
I gotta stop believing in a long-gone past
(If nothing stays forever, who laughs last?)
I sure like the feeling of an endless road
(I'm tired of doing what I'm told)
I know that life is fleeting and it all goes fast
(If no-one lives forever, who laughs last?)
