Cloud Factory is a one man shoegaze band led by Glasgow musician Benjamin Lewis-Ing.
I caught up with Benjamin to talk about his early musical experiences, how he started writing songs and the making of his new E.P. “Is It Time To Go?”
CMM-What was the first music that really made an impact on you as a kid and what artists or bands did you enjoy the most?
Benjamin-I grew up on the music of my parents so I owe a lot to them. I loved The Smiths and early Morrissey because my Mum is a huge fan, I can still remember singing along to “The Queen is Dead” in the car when I was very young doing my finest Morrissey impression. My Dad introduced me to shoegaze and Radiohead, he played in bands during the 1990s and never really made it so him introducing me to something he loved so much didn’t seem like much back then but now is really important to me. The first time I heard “The Bends” it absolutely blew my mind. I think getting into shoegaze really changed my life in a way because it shaped the way I look at music today.
CMM-When did you first start creating your own music?
Benjamin-I’ve been around music all my life really, I’ve been singing since I was really young. Just before lockdown happened I taught myself how to play guitar and that’s when the obsession really started, I would lock myself in my room for hours at a time writing songs and recording covers. I come from a really small rural village in the far north of the Scottish highlands and there was never really any people that played music that wasn’t traditional Scottish folk. When I moved away to go to university I started my first band and had so much fun, that really cemented the fact that I wanted to pursue music fully.
CMM-Your new E.P. “Is It Time To Go?” is a brilliant collection of song. What was the writing and recording process for those tracks like? Any particular gear or instruments you used during the recording sessions that helped inspire you?
Benjamin-Thank you so much! All of my songs are usually written on an acoustic guitar first and my recording setup is really simple. Just a guitar, my pedalboard and an interface going into a garageband session. I’ll record a demo track before sending it off to my long time producer Hugo Leedham to work his magic. This EP was a little different to my previous projects as the majority of the songs were written a while ago. “Space, Time, Whatever” was written five years ago when I was 17. Gear wise, I have a semi hollow fender jaguar that is my absolute pride and joy and a pretty huge pedalboard so it’s hard not to get inspired when you love your instrument and have a lot of tonal options to play around with. You simply cannot go wrong with the combination of a Big Muff going into a Strymon Big Sky, truly my favourite sound.
CMM-If you could score any film director’s movie who would it be and what would the film be about?
Benjamin-Ooooh great question! I love cinema and I love soundtracks. My favourite film score of all time is “28 Days Later,” I love how post rocky and dystopian it is and it’s actually quite a big influence on my work. I also love the soundtracks for Gregg Araki’s “Nowhere” and David Lynch’s “Lost Highway” which are two of my favourite films ever. I would probably say i’d love to score a Gregg Araki film, just something really weird and dark but also funny. He also has a very well documented love of shoegaze so I think it would be a match made in heaven.
CMM-What do you have coming up next?
Benjamin-At the moment I’m just trying to write as much as possible. I’m always trying to create new material that inspires me! I’m also planning to play as many shows as I can throughout the rest of the year and play these songs I love so much live to get them out there.
