Graduate Spotlight – Cloaks

Tell us about the history of Cloaks, how did you end up forming the band, what was your intention behind creating the band and what influences do you draw from?

4 out of the 5 of us met each other by being classmates on the sound production course at Riverside. Thomas and Findlay, who have since become the primary songwriters, spoke a little bit about writing their own music in college and thought, “Why don’t we try to do this together?” This is when fellow classmates guitarist Jamie and drummer Lewis came along. Knowing we needed a bassist, Jamie’s friend Ben hopped on board.

You have recently released a single entitled ‘In The Snow’. Can you give us an insight into the process behind writing this track?

The track started out as an instrumental piece written and structured by Finlay. He showed the rest of the band, and everything just seemed to come together from there. Bass, drums, and lead were all written at the same rehearsal. After the song was finished instrumentally, Thomas began writing the lyrics, and then within the first chorus, ‘In The Snow’ was born.

How did Riverside Music College help you in navigating the industry after you left? What skills / knowledge where most useful to you?

Thomas: “The course helped us understand the music industry and provided us with a wide network of artists, producers, and promoters.”

Finlay: “We learned how to record and mix songs, which helps communicating ideas with the engineer.”

We are very excited to release your RMTV session into the world! How did you find the process of recording and filming? And how was it different from performing as a duet rather than a full band?

Thomas: “Recording our RMTV session was a really fun experience as this was our first time doing something like that. We found the people that were working with us amazing and very welcoming. We found recording as a duo very natural to us. We started out as a two, and all songwriting is done together before presenting the ideas to the rest of the band.”

Finlay: “The process was good. It was just like doing an open mic night, which we did together before we were a band.”

What are your plans for the future? Writing, recording, playing more live shows?

Thomas: “We’re very excited for our future as we have a lot of singles planned for the year ahead. With the upcoming tour support of Kyle Falconer, we feel this could take us to the next level and welcome in a whole new set of first listeners. We will stay grounded and keep working hard.”