More about: Claud

Quirky yet world-wise rising artist Claud endeavours to put messages and lessons of self-love through their dreamy pop soundscapes. Set to make waves as a Gen-Z icon with the debut album Super Monster (out 12 February), the artist - who is the first signing to Phoebe Bridgers' Dead Oceans offshoot label Saddest Factory - is crystal clear about the impact they want to make with their music. 

Telling the coming-of-age story of a young queer artist, the album speaks of self-acceptance becoming the foundation for loving someone else. It's part of a much larger picture that Claud wants to paint. 

From a general penchant for encouraging others to love themselves through their craft - "no matter what anyone says you’re worthy of good things, even if it sometimes doesn’t feel like that. Learning to love yourself something I want to put out there" - to a more specific theme of acceptance on Super Monster, Claud’s music and personality are rooted in resonance and relatability. 

Claud is explicit on these themes in describing the inspiration behind their full-length debut: "the album is about accepting the fact that you are lovable, that you can let your guard down a little bit and accept love even when you've been taught that you don't deserve it. Especially growing up in the era of the internet, where the insecurity that you’re not good enough is shoved in your face, I think it's important to have that reminder that you’re good enough and that you deserve to be loved.”

Speaking of love, Claud delves into their process of writing and making music by first revealing that they completely fell in love with music at a young age. "I was shown a Feist song when I was around 11 or 12 and I decided that I wanted to write songs just like it.” 

Thinking about how they have gone about making the music they've wanted to since that moment, Claud credits their love for self-exploration. "My music is about figuring out what makes you whole as a person. I think sometimes I let the music speak for the song and sometimes I let the lyrics do all the talking.” 

While they describes their musicality as 'indie-pop', Claud has managed to break down the confines of what pop can be through thoughtful lyricism. "The more I get into poetry, the better my writing gets" they reveal, "I have so many notes in books and my notes app filled with random phrases, words and ideas. Whether it's something that happened to me or something someone said to me or it's just something that suddenly pops in my head..." Claud pauses, then adds: “I really focus a lot on my songwriting, as long as my songwriting continues to get better and better, I’m happy.” 

Claud is allowing themself to evolve as an artist as they grow as a person, simply by keeping in mind that perseverance is key. Their ability to keep moving forward and growing comes in part due to a free-flowing creativity, and partly from the personal heroes they draw inspiration from. 

Talking about the latter, Claud says that "in my personal life definitely my mom and my grandma [are my heroes]. My family's gone through a ton of generational trauma but they have persevered and they're just the strongest people I know.” The creative process itself can even see Claud take on the traits of others: "sometimes I embody personas when I write a song, especially if I'm feeling sick of my own life. It's fun to step outside of myself.” 

"Inspiration," they continue, "is so random. I wrote this song called 'Anna' imagining myself as this older married man who wants to leave his wife to go do like self-exploration. The song is like a letter to his wife saying 'I never deserved to be your man in the first place if I don't go better myself as a person'. It was weird because I wrote this song from the perspective of  a 40-year-old man at the age of 21 and didn’t realise or think about it [as strange].” 

While they may not think much about the oddities of their creativity, Claud is undeniably a thinker and dreamer. Just a few items in their line of sight: "I want to play at Radio City Music Hall in New York. I want to record at Abbey Road in London. I want to headline a world tour. I have so many things on my bucket list that I'm really excited about.” 

Despite the incredible wisdom and unique perspective Claud offers, they're more hestitant in describing themself. "Who am I?" they repeat when we ask them to describe themself in a few words. They do at least know why their hair is coloured the way it is, though. "Nobody ever asks me why my hair is green and blue! Why is it green and blue? Because it looks like the grass and the sky. I spent a ton of time at my childhood house last year and when I looked out the window all I’d see is the tops of the green tree and then the blue sky. Every day it’s what I saw and that made me dye my hair like that." Like their hair, Claud's music is eye-catching and wholesome; indie-pop innovation made by a bright young talent set to take the world by storm - armed with limitless love and a little bit of wonderful weirdness. 

Super Monster arrives 12 February via Saddest Factory.

More about: Claud