HeartSongs - 20180209

Welcome to HeartSongs, our regularly scheduled (probably) look at songs and the people who write them. We spoke to Tyler from California’s Cloud about their recent single ‘Wildfire’.

"This track is a study of the forces of life. I listen to it now with a interesting sense of irony as the state I live in, California, has been engulfed by some of the largest fires to date. My good friend’s home was burnt down entirely, a chimney remained and the outlines of a bathroom. 

“Every flame wants to be a wildfire,” sums up my views on life as a sheer force of wild intentionality and the consequences that come with these forces “untamed”.  Greed is an easy parallel. I wanted the song to be as chaotic as a flame’s dance and as pulsating as an orgasm which is a big point of focus in the album; looking at this sensation we live with from a distance and with much skepticism, bewilderment, and awe. 

The music video is one that I conceived, produced and directed myself. I used a fairly large pool of actors that I’d worked with on a number of short films. The piece was actually developed with quite a narrative which to me still shines through but I found through the collaboration of a fantastic editor, Carson Lund that the story is best told via fractals.  A story about weariness for “the third home,” meaning the place you consider home that isn’t your house or workplace.  I’ve studied this area in our culture and it fascinates me. 

To me, it seems like a total opportunity of commiseration and community.  But in my hometown and many many other places I’ve traveled in the U.S., I find that our third homes are in danger of being tarnished by ill-intention not too dissimilar to the greed I spoke of earlier.  That’s how this video came to be.”

Wildfire lyrics;

Every flame wants to be a wildfire

Every day needs to lead to something says my mind

Looking back to when it all was better

Hard to see photos of my smiles

I know if I want to live

Something’s got to give

Every night goes on as I’m mindless in it

Every light’s racing towards the ends of everything

Hard to hold photos of the one’s who left us

Every orgasm makes you wonder oh, “is this it?”

This is it