A Cloud take on Snow by Red Hot Chili Peppers

I am a huge fan of R.H.C.P. HUGE. Suffice to say my top came off (couldn’t say it was accidental) in the August 1999 Californication Tour that hit Paris where I was a Philosophy student on my Summer break, yea go figure right?

I often get shaken by a sense of disbelief when an artist from this generation dares to create a cover of a song I quite love, by a band I quite adore. For a few seconds that was what gripped me when “Snow (Hey Oh)” was covered by a young singer-songwriter based in Barcelona. In my 9 years of writing about music and art, the aforementioned gripping emotion occasionally transposes fairly quickly from ‘How dare they’ to ‘Oh wow…’

Liam Cloud’s cover of Snow is one such instance. Play this as a quick reminder in case it’s been eons for you as well or if you have never heard this version—when the beautiful Anthony Kiedis poetically delivers 'Snow' in Stadium Arcadium:

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Now play Liam’s cover where he transformed Kiedis’ rap and gaps to a sort of soft-spoken verse and lyrically delivered it with more emotion articulated by his beautiful singing voice. It is emotive, it draws you in and it made me, for one, want to know where he was going in the video:

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As it turns out, just a tiny bit of digging uncovered that particular recording session was actually an artistic eureka moment for both Liam Cloud and Producer Jason Boshoff. Kevin Tracey, Boshoff's co-founder in Lemote, shared that Liam “…approached the song in the brilliant way that he does but quite similar to the original…and Jason did that thing he does, eyes on the floor, hand to chin thinking it through - and he suddenly asked Liam to stop and do it again, to sing the gaps. To sing the pauses…Liam nailed it.”

The video hit 10,000 views in less than 48 hours thanks to the hard-working folks over at Lemote. Boshoff is a Mercury Award Album of the year nominee as well as MPG Breakthrough Producer of the year nominee; and I personally cannot wait to see more collaborations between Jason and Liam.

For now, see Liam Cloud and his band Jezebel Lies play the main stage in Sidecar on 7th of December. Get Early Bird Tickets now as they will be considerably more by Halloween.

But in a relatively more intimate and craft beer fuelled venue, they will also be playing on the 2nd of November in EDGE Brewing Craft Beer Venue in Barcelona. Tickets are only €8 for 3 concerts in one night. Every ticket comes with a craft beer.

You'll also find his music in Spotify , iTunes and all the usual places.