Low Level Clouds is the Honolulu, Hawai’i-based project of Christopher Coats who, with the help of friends, has completed his debut, self-titled full-length album, a record that mixes breezy 60s and 70s melodic pop with an indie-rock bite. “Gerardo Valez, a guru percussionist, told me, ‘no one is doing this anymore,’ but he said it in a way that made me feel he misses this pop-rock era I’m attempting to quote from. He was in the Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsy’s, so I am beyond honored to have met him and see him take an interest in the project. He found insanely cool rhythms that no one else could ever come up with.”
Another musician Coats is proud to have on Low Level Clouds is Bob Malone, “a master of the keyboards.” He filled in all those areas that needed more orchestration. He plays in John Fogerty’s band and recorded with Ringo Starr right after this project, so he’s definitely a top tier musician.”
He’s equally proud of every player who helped him bring this record to life. The highlight of the record for him, he says, is all those musical moments made by all those who made this record a reality.
“I love what others brought to the music. These were all written on acoustic so bringing them to fruition through a band was a great way to add interest to those otherwise static feeling areas.”
“The first drummer,” he continues, “Peter Park, moved to Portland after we recorded. But he and others, Seann Carroll for instance, each brought different strengths to different tracks. Bass players sometimes changed the sound of the songs so much I had to adjust to it for a bit. Greg Coates and Mike Love are so creative and both brought such now-integral lines, that I cannot hear the songs without their parts now. Amanda Adrain and Star Kalahiki’s vocals on ‘Heart Shaped Cliffs’ are another real highlight too. They added such beautiful parts that it sounds like a full choir at the closing round.”
Coats also likes to point out “Replaced by a DJ,” an upbeat rocker that fits perfectly in the middle of the album.
“The single most unique part of the whole record is the rap in ‘Replaced by a DJ.,’ he says. “‘From a band to a man, instruments to synthesized…’ Illisit is the only rapper I know of out here that really has a perfect delivery, in the pocket, and tough-sounding; he’s also maybe the nicest guy I met in putting this project together.”
An early highlight for him was what made him realize they were moving in the right direction is “what Zach Parlee brought with his exceptional contrapuntal vocal parts that we hashed out over acoustics. Of course there are many others that helped me get it all together, but those are some of the highlights for me.”
Low Level Clouds is a deeply personal record for Coats, who doesn’t shy away from telling stories in his lyrics, including the song “Hearted Shaped Cliffs,” about the ups and downs in relationships, singing “There through the heart shaped cliffs, with only you to run & jump it with” about his wife.
“My wife and I renovated our house once. I was working a lot on the house and had thrown out my back. In recovery, I was strumming my guitar while laying face up on the floor, because that was about all I could do, and just sort of came across the progression and melody first. It just captured the ups and downs of life & love for me.
Though he will admit there is a lot of personal lyricism in the album for him, he says he likes to “blend some fictional character with fragments of real-life experiences in prose.”
A prime example of him mixing fiction with reality is “Weather Belle.”
“Pacify me with the channel changer.
Whatever happened to when we watched these shows together?
Flippin’ through channels forever,
we came across the weather channel rain,
and then blamed each other.”
The result is a record that mixes upbeat melodies with dark lyricism.
“I think that, usually, I feel like writing lyrics when I’m kind of down, as a distraction from whatever I’m dealing with. But the progressions and melodies come together when I’m hanging out with my guitar. I really appreciate juxtaposition as a concept in the visual arts so maybe that seeped into these songs a bit,” he says with a laugh.
Originally a concept album that resolved around a news weather girl, once he began writing the lyrics, it took on a life of its own.
“She represented a lot of moving things: current issues in Hawaii, cultural changes, and even the sovereignty movement & sustainability issues. A lot of the lyrics are very cryptic; they don’t make sense unless you know what it’s about. But, at this point, that story line is ongoing and unfinished.”
Further discussing the cryptic lyrics interspersed with personal lyrics, and discussing his home state of Hawai’i in the songs, Coats adds that, “There are movements out here in Hawaii to restore natural resources and culturally significant landmarks. The lyrics of ‘No Stone’ speak to some of these. That song went out in an email blast to members of a group called the Maunalua Fishpond Heritage Organization that my friend Chris Cramer oversees. It came out when they announced the closing on some lands they raised funds for. So the lyrics may be more contemporary than the rock and roll music underneath them.
“‘Wild Things’ is about a wolf for which a hunter sets a trap, but the hunter gets too drunk to remember where he set it. It’s just another analogy for the way some people treat the earth and about what’s been happening to it.”
With the record done and ready for release, Coats looks forward to next steps, happy to have completed it with a strong cast of friends who helped him flesh the songs out. Though, going back to the 60s and 70s pop-rock that inspired him, he discusses the instruments used in the recording.
“I love vintage instruments and the youngest instrument on this record is from 1972 (other than the keys on ‘Heart Shaped Cliffs’). I wrote and recorded these for me and not as something that would be ‘in’ right now or anything highly marketable. It just came out sounding a bit like what I grew up listening to but filtered through my memories. I hear hints of all my favorite bands in there, but hope it sounds like something else too. I remember recording once with Seann and Zach and then on playback thinking ‘What did we make here?'”
Low Level Clouds is ten tracks of thought-provoking songs that sound great if you’re just enjoying the melodies but, much like an onion, have layers and layers once you start delving into the lyrics.
“Sometimes I don’t know what the song is about until I am pretty far along. It takes awhile to hear it more objectively, but usually if I move on, then I know I’m done as I overlap a lot when writing. There are some lines that were actually filler lines at first, I meant to go back and improve them. But sometimes you just have to say it’s done.”
For any artist, saying “it’s done” can be a tricky one when it comes to feeling complete enough. When do you know the song is done? When do you know the lyrics, harmonies and delivery all work well together? The ten tracks found within this self-titled debut are snapshots of where Coats got to when he could finally leave it to the next step. Having reached that ever-elusive “enough” state, he hands it off to you, the listener, with aloha and the hopes you will be the final completion, as that’s the true wrap.
