Low Level Clouds is the Honolulu, HI-based project of Chris 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 that 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 would 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.”
Coats is happy to have musicians who have played with John Fogerty, Ringo Starr, and Jimi Hendrix, but he’s proud of every player who helped him bring this record to life. The highlight of the record for him, he says, is all the musicians 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 static areas.”
“My main 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 when they finished their parts. Greg Coates and Mike Love are so creative and brought such now-integral parts that I cannot hear the songs without their parts now. Amanda Adrain and Star Kalahiki’s vocals on ‘Heart Shaped Cliffs’ are a real highlight for me 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 perfect delivery, in the pocket, and tough-sounding; he’s also maybe the nicest guy I met in putting this project together.”
But, the first highlight for him on this record that 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 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 “Through the heart shaped cliffs with only you to jump it with” about his wife.
“My wife and I renovated our house once. When we went to Home Depot to pick out cabinets we were really burned out on all the decisions to make and the work. The girl selling cabinets told me, ‘the top three reasons for divorce are: gambling, cheating, and renovations.’ I was on a sabbatical that year and working a lot on the house and had blown out my back. 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 not only the ups and downs of lovers, but of my relationship in particular. So, that’s one that makes me really appreciate my place and time with my wife.”
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.”
“I can’t remember what that one was about exactly, but it’s something I would write to feel better and that one was a lift,” he says.
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 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 is ongoing and unfinished.”
Further discussing the cryptic lyrics interspersed with personal lyrics, and discussing him 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 Maunaloa 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 beams with pride, 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 as what I grew up listening to, then filtered through my abilities as a player and singer/songwriter. I hear hints of all my favorite bands in there, but hope it sounds like me too, whatever that is. I remember recording once with Seann and Zach and then on playback thinking ‘What the hell 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.”
Now he is just excited to get the record out into the world and see what others take from it.
