Everybody, meet Claud. We like Claud. Once upon a time, they made music under the moniker Toast (we like toast, too) but these days their dreamy bedroom pop is coming out under their own name. Which is significant, really, because after a long and somewhat hectic year, Claud is ready to put themselves out there. Their EP 'Sideline Star' is a testament to their journey here, with songs about love, friendship and outsiderdom vying for space against a backdrop of transition and shifting identity.
The clue here is in the name: that feeling of 'outsiderdom', and being left on the margins, is the point around which Sideline Star orbits. It's also the thing that Claud is actively working to counteract in their music. Already they are crafting an inclusive world around themselves, starting conversations with audiences from the stage and posting their phone number up online in case anybody wants to chat. There is an element of queer community-building going on, Claud acknowledges, but that isn't the whole story.
They turn this over for a moment longer. "Being queer helps me find a community. But I think everyone deserves the community."
For a while, after a rootless few months where they tried to find their feet in several different cities, the lack of a community really weighed on Claud. After dropping out of university to pursue music full-time, they found themselves adrift in LA, with no real support network to lean on.
The sense of isolation came through in their work, with the first few weeks in Los Angeles inspiring 'Miss You', a melodic 'what it says on the tin' lament on loneliness and longing.
