5Q

What inspires Codes In The Clouds to continue creating music?

We all love playing together as a unit and we are all excited by creating something new and writing new songs. Hearing new music that we love also inspires us to try and create music that may inspire others, and I guess we try and surprise ourselves by trying out new ideas and ways of writing to keep things fresh.

Your last release, Paper Canyon, was a great success, what’s next?

Well, the difficult second album! We’re taking a bit of time out at the moment to write new material and wondering whether it’s too early for a change of direction! But yeah, we’ve been trying new ways of approaching writing our songs so that hopefully we’ll keep current fans excited and maybe gain some new ones along the way.

How does Codes In The Clouds decide which tracks will be on a release? Testing them at gigs, or a different method?

We usually try out new material at shows first, so its a good chance to try out potential track orders by arranging them live. But when it comes down to the final decision, we’ll always go for what sounds best for the record, trying to achieve a kind of flow to the album, and in a way we pick the tracks depending on the kind of mood or atmosphere we’re trying to create as the album progresses. We try and write too many songs and pick out the best, rather than writing a song specifically to fit a certain part of the album, or to fill a gap.

What have you been listening to recently that you would recommend to your fan base?

Everyone in the band has different music tastes, so we’re always listening to a lot of different bands and genres. But bands we’re all into at the moment include Tubelord, Gold Panda, Baked Clouds, Message To Bears, Worriedaboutsatan, amongst others.

The obligatory digital media question: We all know that digital downloads (legal or not) are changing the music business, would you say this is a challenge or an opportunity, and why?

Well it’s difficult for bands in our position especially, where we’re torn between wanting to get our music out there to as many different people as possible regardless of how they find it, but also trying to make a bit of money to help pay for recording and touring costs to keep going! I guess it’s a challenge and an opportunity – I think it’s still a challenge to find the right way to market music digitally, but no one can deny that digital downloading has given small bands especially, a chance to get their music out to a wider audience than ever before. There will always be those people who want the physical release of an album, regardless of people downloading it, so I don’t think digital will ever kill physical, I guess it can only help.