Crack Cloud – in session for Marc Riley at BBC 6 Music on August 17, 2022. Together a relatively short period of time, and just getting started when COVID hit and with the subsequent Lockdown, Crack Cloud have managed to release two albums; one in 2020 and the other in 2022 and not miss a beat in the process.
Formed in 2015, Crack Cloud started as the solo project of lead vocalist and drummer, Zach Choy while living in Calgary, Alberta. Soon after, the project moved to Vancouver in 2018, where most of its members met through various addiction recovery and mental health programs both as participants and as support workers. Choy stated that the purpose of Crack Cloud is a “healing mechanism” The group’s logo is also notable as an appropriation of the exclamation mark used by Concerned Children’s Advertisers, a series of public service announcements aimed towards children on various topics (drug abuse, peer pressure, exercise, etc.) that were broadcast on Canadian television during 1990’s until the mid-2000’s.
Crack Cloud released their first self-titled EP, in 2016, followed by another the next year called Anchoring Point in 2017. These two EP’s were re-released as a self-titled compilation via Deranged and Tin Angel/Meat Machine Records on June 1, 2018. Following those releases, the group toured internationally and featured at several music festivals including Levitation, End of the Road, and Roskilde which garnered the group considerable exposure between North America, The United Kingdom and Europe respectively.
Crack Cloud released their debut studio album, Pain Olympics via Meat Machine Records on July 17, 2020, preceded by four singles, The Next Fix, Ouster Stew, Tunnel Vision and Favor Your Fortune between May 2019 until October 2020. The record was received favorably, based on the album receiving an average score of 87 from 8 reviews on Metacritic, indicating “universal acclaim”.
On July 8, 2021, the group were named as the winners of the Hi-Fidelity Award, a prize for Canadian recording artists use of innovation within their music videos at the 2021 Prism Prize.
On May 11, 2022, Crack Cloud announced their second album, Tough Baby released September 16, 2022 via Meat Machine, with the release of the album’s first single, Please Yourself. The album’s self-titled second single was released on July 8, 2022. Costly Engineered Illusion, the album’s third single was released September 1. 2022.
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