Cloudkicker
| Cloudkicker | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Progressive metal , post metal , post rock |
| founding | 2008 |
| Website | cloudkickermusic.com |
| Current occupation | |
| Ben Sharp | |
Cloudkicker ( Engl. Literally "cloud transgressors") is a musical project of American musician Ben Sharp from Columbus , Ohio . The name of the project comes from the character Kit Wolkenflitzer (in English: Kit Cloudkicker) from the cartoon series Käpt'n Balu and his daring crew .
Although Cloudkicker has little in common musically with bands from the Djent movement and he was neither influenced by them, nor initially knew about them, Ben Sharp's solo project became very popular within the scene. Sharp has already received inquiries from bands in the scene who offered him to accompany him as an official line-up at concerts. Reasons for the great popularity within the movement can be traced back to some parallels to the band Meshuggah , as well as to the creation of the music through home recording , with which the scene is deeply rooted.
Ben Sharp publishes all of his music on his own and offers it for free download on the bandcamp platform under the Creative Commons license. With one exception, all songs are instrumental. Sharp has not signed a record deal with his solo project up to now , because in his opinion a label would no longer offer him what he could not do himself. The only exception is the album Live with Intronaut , which was released via Century Media .
history
Foundation & history (2008-2010)
In 2005 Ben Sharp began composing music himself for the first time, after playing in various bands as a teenager. He then published a new, approximately three-minute song usually every week, which was assigned to the ambient and which he offered for free download. After Sharp decided to take a harder musical style, he composed the first songs in the summer of 2006, which he later published under the name Cloudkicker, and played a few small concerts with friends. He then moved from his then home in Los Angeles to Columbus at the end of 2007 for professional reasons.
In 2008 Sharp appeared for the first time under the pseudonym Cloudkicker, under which he released his debut album The Discovery in July of the same year , which he offered for free download on Myspace . In December 2008 and August 2009 two more EPs followed with The Map Is Not the Territory and Portmanteau . In February 2010, Sharp released another EP called ]]] [[[ whose cover featured a person who Sharp found by chance when he searched for the term "Black" in Google's image search . It later emerged that the person was Ned Kelly , one of Australia's most famous bushrangers . In September of the same year, Sharp's second studio album, called Beacons , was released, which, in contrast to the previous releases, was the first to be available not only digitally, but also on CD and vinyl for money due to the great demand . It was also the first album that Sharp released on the bandcamp platform. The following month, Sharp released another EP a month later, called A New Heavenly Body , which was a reissued version of ]]] [[[ .
Further publications & increasing success (since 2011)
In November 2011 Sharp released his third studio album Let Yourself Be Huge , on which Ben Sharp's own vocals could be heard for the first time on the last song, which had the same name as the album with Let Yourself Be Huge . It was also the first album on which Sharp played drums himself. The costs for the equipment and the recording were covered by the income from the second album Beacons , which made Let Yourself Be Huge possible in the first place. Just a few days later, Loop was released, the fifth studio album up to this point in time, which, like its predecessor, was essentially different from the previous releases. With Fade , the sixth studio album was released in August 2012, which was also available on cassette for the first time . At Christmas Sharp released the single Signal Noise , which was used a little later by the demo group Fairlight in a PC demo, which won a price at the revision in spring 2013 .
In early January 2013 Sharp released his second single, which was called Hello . It could be bought with an approximately 45 centimeter square art print , which Sharp himself signed and was limited to 100 pieces. In mid-September Ben Sharp released his sixth studio album, which was called Subsume . The four songs on the album bore quotes from Haruki Murakami's novel 1Q84 , which Sharp read while working on the album and from which he drew inspiration for his songs.
In spring 2014 Sharp went on tour for the first time in North America with Intronaut and TesseracT. Sharp played his songs together with Intronaut. On November 24th, Sharp released his first live album, which was the first time on a label. However, the songs were not recorded on tour, but live in the studio.
style
Ben Sharp's original and most important instrument today is the guitar . Sharp used for the drums at the first shots, the software EZdrummer the company Toontrack after he had moved to Los Angeles and realized that he would probably find for now no one with whom he could form a band. He later used his successor, Superior Drummer 2.0 and Drumkit from Hell, among others . Since the release of Let Yourself Be Huge , Sharp has also played electronic drums himself . Vocally, Sharp appears for the first and up to now only time on the song Let Yourself Be Huge on the album of the same name. Sharp used Cakewalk Sonar software for the recordings of The Discovery , The Map Is Not the Territory and Portmanteau . Since the release of ]]] [[[he has been using the Logic Pro program , which he first used in a slimmed-down version and later bought the full version . Sharp learned the skills of mastering from a good friend.
Discography
Albums
- 2005: Music is Tight (self-distribution)
- 2008: The Discovery (self-distribution)
- 2010: Beacons (self-distribution)
- 2011: Let Yourself Be Huge (self-distribution)
- 2011: Loop (self-distribution)
- 2012: Fade (self-distribution)
- 2013: Subsume (self-distribution)
- 2014: Live with Intronaut ( Century Media )
- 2014: Little Histories (self-distribution)
- 2015: Woum (self-distribution)
- 2019: Unending (self-distribution)
- 2020: Loops (self-distribution)
- 2020: Solitude (self-distribution)
EPs
- 2008: The Map Is Not the Territory (self-distribution)
- 2009: Portmanteau (self-distribution)
- 2010: ]]] [[[ (self-distribution)
- 2010: A New Heavenly Body (self-distribution)
Singles
- 2012: Signal / Noise (self-distribution)
- 2013: Hello (self-distribution)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interview with Ben Sharp on ourstage.com, accessed on August 23, 2020
- ↑ Interview with Ben Sharp from Cloudkicker ( memento from August 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on thenumberoftheblog.com
- ↑ a b c Interview with Ben Sharp from Cloudkicker ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on ultimate-guitar.com; Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ↑ a b Interview with Ben Sharp from Cloudkicker ( Memento of the original from July 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on got-djent.com; Retrieved June 25, 2013.
- ↑ Post to Cloudkickers fan page from Intervals on facebook.com; Retrieved October 8, 2013.
- ↑ Cloudkicker at laut.de
- ↑ a b c Interview with Ben Sharp from Cloudkicker ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on underthegunreview.net; Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ↑ Interview with Ben Sharp from Cloudkicker ( memento of the original from July 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on mruforums.com; Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ↑ a b Interview with Ben Sharp from Cloudkicker ( Memento of the original from March 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on theinevitablenose.com; Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ↑ Interview with Ben Sharp from Cloudkicke ( memento of the original from May 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. r on beardrock.com; Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ↑ Interview with Ben Sharp from Cloudkicker on rollingstoneindia.com; Retrieved October 8, 2013.
- ↑ Cloudkicker releases remixed version of ]]] [[[ ( Memento of the original from March 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on got-djent.com; Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ↑ a b Interview with Ben Sharp from Cloudkicker ( Memento of the original from February 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on cvltnation.com; Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ↑ Let Yourself Be Huge by Cloudkicker on bandcamp.com; Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ↑ Interview with Ben Sharp from Cloudkicker on ourstage.com; Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ↑ Revision 2013: Gut always wins on heise.de; Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ↑ Hello from Cloudkicker on bandcamp.com; Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ↑ Interview with Ben Sharp from Cloudkicker on lastrit.es; Retrieved September 14, 2013.
- ↑ Cloudkicker on tour together with Intronaut and TesseracT. metalsucks.net; accessed on February 24, 2015.
- ↑ Bandcamp page from Live with Intronaut ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on February 24, 2015.
- ↑ Interview with Ben Sharp from Cloudkicker on m3event.wordpress.com; Retrieved June 26, 2013.
- ↑ List of Ben Sharp's equipment ( Memento of the original from May 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on blogkicker.tumblr.com; Retrieved June 26, 2013.
