Cloud X for Notion 93

Ben: This morning, when I drove to work, I was listening to Calio by Ryan Beatty. The album is a real journey. I also listen to a lot of old music too. I’ve really been stuck on that Alessi Brothers tune, “Seabird”.  

David: I’m in Bristol right now for the weekend. On the way here, I listened to Yann Tiersen, one of my favourite composers. He’s got this incredible album called ALL, which I listen to on repeat. I recommend it. Last night though, I was listening to Lancey Foux’s FIRST DEGREE again. It’s probably one of my favourite rap albums ever.   

D: It goes back to being in church. Singing. Being in choirs. I experienced that sense of community from an early age. We saw the power of sounds in real-time in the parties and illegal raves we did from young. Bringing people together in the same room, dancing, connecting, and telling stories was a big deal. It’s like nightclub culture and raves became another kind of church for us. When we turned 16, we bought together a big crowd in the centre of Brixton and we haven’t looked back since.  

B: As a kid, I had a babysitter called Serena. She was an up-and-coming DJ at the time. She played a lot of vinyl and taught me the foundational bedrock of music and my understanding of it. She played a big part in shaping my taste. I was also trained classically on the piano from a young age. In terms of working in music, though, that all came together when we organised the rave David was talking about.  

B: When we started Cloud X, we didn’t look up to anybody in the industry or think: ‘Let’s get rich off of music’. We put creativity, art and artistic growth first and foremost. If we make a penny or two off music, that’s cool, but I feel that should never be the sole intention and it’s the furthest thing from the Cloud X mission statement. We’re all about creation. 

D: Ben and I are artists. We want to have fun with our art. Whether we talk about our record label space, the Cloud X Festival or the shows we’ve put together, I view them as small curations and art pieces that exist in their own realm. I’m a producer, and I’ve written with most of the creatives I’ve worked with. Ben’s in a band. We’re not musicians in the sense that we put out records, but we’re artists in the sense that we love creating one of one artefacts. Cloud X is an extension of this ideology with a community focus, and it’s what we’re all about.    

B: For me, not really. I don’t think the pivot was that hard. With our raves way back when, we had to curate the sound, music and atmosphere from scratch. Now that we’ve moved into a producer-like space, dabbled in creative direction and formed a label, the process might have evolved, but the foundations are similar.   

D: We can answer at the same time because I know Ben and I are picking the same one [laughs].

B: It’s Woodstock, of course. The whole world was at that festival. If we were organising, it’s definitely Coachella 2017 because Woodstock looked like a real headache. But if we were attending —  Woodstock ’99 all day.   

D: I love all the labels listed, but I’m going with Roc-A-Fella. I’d love to see how that label operates with Dame Dash at the centre of operations. It must’ve been wild — I could learn a thing or two. More importantly, Roc-A-Fella represents a true rags-to-riches story encompassing a grind and vision you rarely see.   

B: I’d probably say TDE. They’ve moved in a way that’s holistically their own, and they’ve made superstars out of pure ambition. Top Dawg has created a modern-day Motown for hip-hop and R&B.  

D: When you mention those massive records above — Epic, Roc-A-Fella, OVO — they all represent homes of some kind. I feel like before Cloud X, the UK didn’t have creative homes like that attached to music with a mythology or face you could buy into. What separates us from other platforms is how we provide infrastructure across different vertical fronts. Since 2016, we’ve worked with Lancey Foux, Bree Runway, Sam Wise and Knucks way before they were household names.    

B: At Cloud X, we don’t actively seek tokenistic diversity. That’s disingenuous and corporate. It all falls apart when you actively look at a roster and say you want a person from X background with Y attributes. I guess when you’re looking at music in a sprawling manner, the diversity occurs naturally. It’s imperative to us, though: I’m queer and Jewish, and Dave is African, so we naturally have diversity coded to our vision. 

B: It’s been super rewarding. Dave and I are super proud of how everything is shaping up. I feel the line-up has so much musical diversity across the board. We bought back some Cloud X alumni from previous years, like Jaz Karis and Etta Bond, but we’ve also taken a lot more risks creatively this time around.   

D: It’s the biggest thing we’ve done regarding size and artistic range so far. We have the incredible Palestinian-French-Algerian-Serbian musician Saint Levant, our first international booking at the festival. In our eyes, it’s not just about big American names with lots of star power: Saint Levant is a world citizen. He embodies the nature of the Cloud X Festival.   

D: Taking Cloud X to the world stage. We have our eyes on Ghana, Japan and France. Specifically with Ghana, we’re looking to build a foundation and start distributing records in Ghana. It’s my home, and I think planting a seed in Ghana will bring things full circle.