The band He Films the Clouds goes well beyond an average mix of metal and emo—pouring intense thought and deep messaging into both the lyrics and the music.
For years, the band has provided emotionally charged, thoughtful songs and albums, gut wrenching visuals and music videos, and a wildly energetic live show. Songs like “Dissociate” and “Mothertongue” show an elevated approach to metalcore that will make listeners reflect on life, and the music video for “Together (at Meadows Edge)” is a tear-jerker.
He Films the Clouds is adding to their seven-year-plus legacy with “Your Seven Embers,” a new song released on Friday, July 26. Throughout the four-plus-minute rager, the band navigates through brutally heavy instrumentation, while beautifully melodic and bright sections uplift the listener.
During a recent phone interview with frontman Xavier Hernandez, he talked about how the song emerged out of a bit of soul-searching.
“We’re trying to start a new chapter of what He Films the Clouds is, and part of that was really trying to figure out what we could do together creatively, especially in light of changes that have come across in the band over the years,” Hernandez said. “… How do we approach things now, and how do we accomplish the things we want to accomplish, while also still keeping intact the things that we’ve done before? This can be a very weird path to navigate, especially when you put five people in a room together. We knew we wanted to release a couple of new songs, and experiment and really figure ourselves out in a way that makes sense for everyone involved.
“We just threw ourselves into the fire a little bit. We rented an Airbnb out in the middle of nowhere. It’s a place called Needles, Calif., and we spent three days straight just in this house, writing and workshopping a bunch of new sounds and new ideas—and what came out of that was three singles that we’re now getting prepared to release over the next few months.”
Hernandez appreciated the feelings that came with working together to write music, a process that has become less common.
“In our music community, it’s very easy to just do things on your own,” Hernandez said. “We can record stuff at home; we can just send ideas to people, and it takes out some of that interactive necessity that comes with creating something unique. You need a little bit of everyone together, instead of just people (adding to) one or two people’s ideas.”
The lyrics for “Your Seven Embers” add to the band’s emotionally driven catalog, with lines like: “You wonder what’s enough / or why you’re alone / and if you’ve ever loved.”
“Whenever I’m trying to approach writing things lyrically for the band, I’m trying to operate in two worlds at the same time,” Hernandez said. “I am lucky enough to be the mouthpiece for He Films the Clouds, but I’m not He Films the Clouds, and no single person is. Whatever He Films the Clouds is, is what I’m trying to invoke. I’m using my own personal experiences, or drawing from my own stories, or stories that I’ve encountered through other people, or movies, or things that I’ve read, and see what any particular song is trying to tell me. Those two things are coming together—what is this song trying to say, and what can I use, with the tools that I have, to draw that out.”
Hernandez values the importance of having a creative vehicle like He Films the Clouds to understand his emotions, because he is using the songs to reach others.
“You’re putting yourself in a very vulnerable place, but I realize that the more I’m willing to do that, the more authentic it comes across, and someone, somewhere, is going to come across that and realize that it’s OK—like they’re not alone in what they’re going through, and they’re not crazy for thinking what they’re thinking or feeling what they’re feeling,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time growing up like thinking that there was something wrong with me, and the older I get, the more I realized those things that I told myself out of fear or insecurity were just lies, and that there are some people, who I think are the most put together, dealing with those same things, or dealing with those same emotions.”
Hernandez credited a recent surge in the hardcore scene to a need for connection.
“We’re just coming out of a very weird time in society where a lot of people lost control over their own lives,” Hernandez said. “We had to be locked up in our houses and had to be away from everything. … It took a couple of years for people to get back a sense of freedom of expression, and that is very palpable at a DIY show. … When you go to a show, you’re there with people who are interested in the same things as you are, who you may or may not have ever met otherwise, and you’re enjoying something that is just pure, raw energy. It’s the best therapy you can get. You’re getting to do that with a community, with a culture, and you feel like you’re part of something. That was something that I feel like a lot of people weren’t able to have for a good two or three years, and we’re seeing that with this new generation of showgoers who finally get to experience that.”
Because He Films the Clouds was on the forefront of this current wave of heavy music with heavier lyrics, many local musicians and bands I’ve spoken to have high respect for the band.
“When we hear things like that, it shows that whatever we’re trying to do is paying off somehow, and it’s helping others,” Hernandez said. “We don’t take any credit from that, because we just feel like we’re trying to do for others what music has already done for us, and we’re just paying that forward. We just want to show people what it’s like when music isn’t just something you do; music is who you are, and how much you’re willing to give yourself of that will really help other people along the way.”
The themes behind “Your Seven Embers” and the rest of the band’s upcoming EP work in tandem with their previous LP, Node.
“(Node) is about someone who has survived an overdose and is trying to overcome their insecurities and their doubts and their self-image, but realizing that there’s a process to all that—going through cycles of ups and downs, like getting better and falling short and beating yourself up, then getting yourself back up again, and doing better each time around,” Hernandez said. “… With this EP, it’s like a different angle to the same story: If that person didn’t survive that experience, and they had to look back on their life, what would they think about everything that happened? All their worries, all their regrets, all their dreams, all of their memories—what did it all mean? I try to present that in the form of someone who is haunting their own life, trying to pick up the pieces of realizing that there’s so many things that they held on to that led to emptiness, and using that as a cautionary tale. Not everyone gets the happy ending, so what can you do to learn from that? Even with the tragedy of someone’s life, there’s still something that someone can learn from.”
For more information, visit instagram.com/hefilmsthecloudsofficial.
