[AltWire Interview] CLoud9 Vibes: "If you rest, you rust..."

Straight out of Northeast Florida, meet CLoud9 Vibes! This is a band that truly lives up to their name with the high energy they bring to the stage.

The first time I saw CLoud9 Vibes perform, was on the main stage for the 2017 Rootfire at the Park at Cocoa Florida. Well known for their signature flamingo suits, they are a living party!

AltWire [Omayra Lopez]: Hi guys! As a strong supporter of local music, and a reggae fan, I’m super stoked to be able to conduct this interview with you for our readers at Altwire. For those who haven’t yet heard of you, can you please tell us a little about yourselves, your musical style and any other fun facts?

CLoud9 Vibes: We are CLoud9 Vibes, a 4-piece, fun-loving band of guys from northeast Florida. Our musical style is a mix of Pop, Hip-Hop, Rock, Funk, R & B and Reggae.

AltWire [Omayra]: How did you decide the name, CLoud9 Vibes?

CLoud9 Vibes: The name actually came out of an inside joke with the band. Through the beginning stages of the songwriting process, we were tossing around several different ideas. We wanted something that would capture the essence of our music while remaining easy to remember. After more than a few failed attempts, a friend suggested we use something that was an inside joke. Having been messing around with our singer about the way he vocalized the lyric “Floating up on cloud 9” from our song “Beautiful Day”, we decided to add “Vibes” to the end of that lyric and ran with it!

AltWire [Omayra]: Was music a part of your life growing up?

CLoud9 Vibes: All of us were heavily influenced by music growing up. Our guitarist and drummer cut their teeth playing in punk and metal bands, but also spent a lot of time working with and listening to music in and out of those genres. Before CL9V, our drummer was actually a battle rapper and our guitarist was in a touring Active Rock band. Both of our vocalists have been honing their craft since childhood, learning melody, cadence, etc.

AltWire [Omayra]: What’s your writing process like?

CLoud9 Vibes: Our writing process has evolved a bit since our inception. The group actually began as a “boy band”, believe it or not, and was originally intended to be a rap group. After working with different producers, writing music to beats, etc, we felt that if we really wanted to entertain people and have the energy that we believed the music deserved during our live shows, we would need to form a band to create it. After many fluctuations in our lineup over the next couple years, where we’ve settled has helped improve our songwriting process. Generally, one of us comes in with an idea, riff on the guitar, melody or chorus idea or a descriptive lyric that creates an atmosphere, and from there we just work together to build it up into something we think is pretty cool.

AltWire [Omayra]: How did you decide which songs went into your EP, “Welcome to the Beach? and which didn’t?

CLoud9 Vibes: We actually didn’t leave any songs off Welcome to the Beach. From the beginning, it was a concept album that we hoped would create a sonic landscape for listeners. It was written with that intention; to make people feel good! That’s the way we always feel when we’re at the beach and we wanted to translate that vibe with the music. We wanted people to be able to put the record on, front to back, and have a good time listening. We knew we didn’t want to put out a full album for fear of tracks getting lost in the shuffle…seriously, who has the attention span to listen to an entire album anymore?? Our next batch of songs are in the beginning stages of post-production and will become our next album due out this Spring called #MingoSwag ..

AltWire [Omayra]: What have been your most unusual/strangest experiences while on tour or during a show?

CLoud9 Vibes: I don’t know that we’ve had too many unusual things happen, but I guess maybe unusual compared to others? We tend to get super hype at our shows, especially our vocalists, and after the last couple of years of playing, it is certainly NOT unusual to find one of of them excusing themselves to vomit during our set. Now keep in mind, we’re from Florida and play a lot of outside shows. We also wear costumes, which are full suits with ties…when you’re working so hard to keep the energy level up, in combination with some of the issues you experience in the heat of summer in Florida, it’s become a relatively common occurrence.

AltWire [Omayra]: What personal hobbies do you enjoy when you’re home or off the stage?

CLoud9 Vibes: We all stay super busy when we’re not working with CL9V. Our drummer and Singer both have families with beautiful children that keep them hopping. Most of us are regular video gamers (in fact, our singer used to be a professional) and we all enjoy sports, especially football (Go Jaguars! And also Redskins and Patriots…I know, yikes). Our rapper loves car-racing and can be caught sneaking down to Daytona just about any chance he gets to check out the festivities. Our drummer and guitarist also run a recording studio and t-shirt printing business called Florida Sun Records that they are constantly looking to expand upon. Couple that with rehearsals and family obligations and we stay busy!

AltWire [Omayra]: What advice would you give to up and coming artists?

CLoud9 Vibes: Keep working EVERY DAY. There is always something you can do to get better, whether it’s your instrument, your voice, your knowledge base about the industry, your connections…doesn’t matter. Work EVERY DAY to be a better version of yourself tomorrow. Eventually, it will pay off, and not necessarily in just the ways you expect it to.

AltWire [Omayra]: What is the greatest advice you’ve ever received that has helped you in your career so far?

CLoud9 Vibes: If you rest, you rust.

AltWire [Omayra]: Should we be expecting a full length album in the near future?

CLoud9 Vibes: We are currently in post-production on our next album #MingoSwag. This will be another EP with 5-6 songs that will be released just in time to rock through Spring Break. We may do a full-length in the future, but with the state of the industry, and how easy it is for tracks to get lost, we may stick to our small-batch method. We’re at a point where we try to write every song as though it could be a single.

AltWire [Omayra]: What else is currently in store for the band?

CLoud9 Vibes: We are planning a long summer tour to California and back and have some festivals in the works, and of course our new album #MingoSwag. We’ve kept the winter pretty open to finish the record and prepare for the summer, but we’ll be doing some one-off shows here and there to keep the chops up.

AltWire [Omayra]: Is there a message you would like to send to your fans and our readers/anything else you’d like to add?

CLoud9 Vibes: Be excellent to each other!

Our entire 1st EP is on Spotify and we plan to use Spotify as our best way to promote new music. YouTube will have all of our music videos first.

We also want to give a shoutout to our Sponsor Woodroze for believing in our dream and hooking us up with awesome shades and watches to wear while we are on tour, and our brother bands Yamadeo, Propaganjah, The IntraCoastals, and Summer Survivors. They have all helped us very much in some way or another and we love them very much! Make sure to check all of them out on social media. Tim Hall gave us our 1st shot at the music industry 3 years ago just on our word we had nothing to show him and he still books us to this day. Robert Deuterman aka Deuterman Productions books us hours away from our home town and gave us a chance as well. Without these types of great men we could never have made it this far. Bad Beard Productions as well for always throwing a great show and including little ol us from out of town. We are sure we may have forgotten some people and we are sorry, but there are so many people that show us love it is truly humbling.

Last but not least Alt Wire for helping the little fish like us get some attention.

AltWire [Omayra]: Thank you so much for taking the time with us!