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, ‘Two Hands Bound’.

“I wanted to create a song that addressed an immense amount of weight I felt at the time.  Specifically, the weight of those first few years into the real world and the work force was the most pressing struggle I had.  I was working in the restaurant industry at the time. 

My heart goes out to anyone who works in this environment— especially in the U.S.  Our relationship to work and to our jobs is increasingly complex and I wanted to focus on this relationship and it’s correlation with love and joy.  The song is very pointedly joyous and celebratory, an intention of solidarity.

The lyric I’m most proud of in the song is “Talking is also love”. At a point in time where the weight shifted on and off my chest and every successful attempt in relieving it came with a realization just like that.  When I listen to the song, all shades of green come to mind, like sun was poking through leaves.”

Two Hands Bound lyrics;

I fell so low

Some things you’ll never know

How odd to pray

Tried again the other day

C’est la, c’est vous

Got work in the afternoon

Born to die a thousand days

And, oh, to see what life remains

‘cause losing is a way of life

And building is another way of life

Says the man with his two hands bound

Says it all with his two hands

Man made me a wage slave

Time made me a gelatin

A day so nice

You can shake it off sometimes

And love is good

Mostly misunderstood

Like how we talk

Talking is also love

Born to doubt and see what it’s about

And, oh as I dance

I help myself to live

And if I don’t

To keep my self from loss

I lather a friend,

A vial of peppermint!

Says the man with his two hands bound

Says it all with his two hands

Man made me a wage-slave

Time made me a gelatin

Time made me a bitter one

An animal

An animal is what I’ve become

Long Island’s Cloud (aka Tyler Taormina and friends) debuted for Audio Antihero in 2013 with the lauded Comfort Songs LP. Taormina returns in 2018 with his new album Plays With Fire; nine songs and 32 minutes of quiet optimism and greying nostalgia, mixing the wide-eyed naïveté of Jonathan Richman with the cold-weather pop of Yo La Tengo and the fractured soundscapes of Galaxie 500.

‘Wildfire’ is the free lead single from the upcoming new album. Decidedly homemade, with processed beats and loops as well as guitar from Infinity Girl’s Nolan Eley. It’s one of the more immediately accessible moments from the new album, chanted, frantic and vibrant, recalling hints of Panda Bear Electronics, Animal Collective Psychedelia, Mazzy Star fog and Cocteau Twins atmospherics.

In “Wildfire” Taormina asserts that “every light’s racing towards the ends of everything,” but there’s hope in the darkness. A recurring theme of the new record is the passing of time. 2013’s Comfort Songs was an autumn-toned guitar record that saw Taormina coping with love and loss in his early twenties, while 2015’s dreampop-esque Zen Summer found him newly arrived in Los Angeles enjoying a warmer climate and better spirits, full of dreams and excitement. But Plays With Fire suggests that the colder months have come again, unsure of himself once again and afraid of the future.

With the years between records growing, Taormina sounds unsure of how many albums are still to come and of who is still listening. It’s an album that doesn’t appear to know if it’s a letter of introduction or a formal resignation, but it’s a perfect soundtrack for long nights and uncertain times. The polarizing voice remains, the sincerity remains, the sadness and the joy remain, but this is a new experience from Cloud.