Cloud Boat

Tom Clarke and Sam Ricketts of downbeat electronica act Cloud Boat are the new musical existentialists of our time. The London duo met with me on a grey Friday afternoon to talk about melting polar ice caps and broken ideals. They forgot to bring their black capes so we didn’t take them too seriously

Interview by Zofia Ciechowska, photos shot by Nina Strebelle in Brussels

‘There’s a personal rebellion going on inside of us’

Your music has been described as ‘sad but nice’ – where’s all this sadness coming from?

Sam: ‘I like how people have to say “but nice” as if it’s not enough for people to just say “sad”. I think it’s sad that people need to add that. But no matter if you’re happy or sad, it’s far more cathartic to make sad music.’

Are ideals a pile of rubbish?

Sam: ‘Musically we’ve always wanted to do everything. Some acts will split into side projects for different music genres. For us all that matters is that we wrote our stuff and that should be enough for people. It’s quite an uncompromising approach that could be alienating, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.’

You know how far away ice caps are melting, but because we can’t see them we don’t care that much?

Sam: ‘That’s one of the reasons why we write sad music. There are things that you can’t deal with or even if you can help, the problem is bigger than one or two people. That tends to seep through our music.’

Tom: ‘People are living more and more selfishly. They are realising that as a collective we have no real purpose, no real goal and no real ideals. That has resulted in people experiencing a true sense of estrangement and disorientation. That has two results – people become heavily involved in artistic expression, which is great, but then we also have aggressive rebellion, like the riots in Turkey or the London riots. All of this comes from a natural response to how people continue to be disappointed by the system time and time again. I think at some point people will become used to this state but it will be up in the air for the time being.’

‘Everyone comes to a point in life where they will experience disillusionment and rebellion, but if you embrace that state then the result will not be negative’

Are there experiences that have made you more idealistic?

Tom: ‘I studied philosophy at university and because of that I feel comfortable with the fact that I have no faith in ideals or transcendent agendas. I studied a lot of existentialism and nihilism, which was confusing and scary, but now I’m okay with it. Everyone comes to a point in life where they will experience disillusionment and rebellion, but if you embrace that state then the result will not be negative. I try to channel all my grievances into creative energy; making music is very conducive to that way of life.’

Sam: ‘I remember coming back from a show with James Blake at Field Day on the day the London riots started. We’d just played for a huge crowd of people who were so supportive of our music and then we took a train through parts of London that were being completely destroyed by rioters. The riots were happening right on our doorstep the following day, normally a very peaceful area. We wrote two songs that week. I think witnessing that made us more productive after we saw where it had all gone wrong.’

What does rebellion feel like? What are good ways of rebelling against annoying bullshit nowadays?

Tom: ‘I would always consider rebellion to be a positive force. I am trying to train myself into rebelling against particular ways of thinking about things or doing things. For instance, I actively avoid uncomfortable confrontation at all costs, but now I am trying to teach myself to put myself into these dreaded situations and see what happens. Rebellion is becoming a perpetual state for us, the more disillusioned and detached we become as human beings. For me detachment feels like freedom: your emotional state is too present for it to be influenced by what people might tell you to be. There’s a personal rebellion going on inside of us.’

Sam: ‘Rebellion makes me feel like Star Wars.’

If you could be the force that changes things in the world (God/Obama/Thor), what would you do?

Tom: ‘I’d tell people to not follow me and just focus on themselves and take steps that they are capable of taking.’

Sam: ‘What did he say?! I would stop bad weather. It would always be just right wherever you were. Actually, I’d stop bad weather for everyone except for Tom.’

Cloud Boat are at De Nieuwe Anita with soulful Brooklyn R&B duo Beacon on 17 August – free for members.