How Claud learned to take the joke seriously

Original Photography by Jaxon Whittington There is a pivotal question hanging over Me and the Music, Claud’s third album: does everything really have to feel so heavy all the time? Three years after Supermodels and five years on from their debut, Claud approaches life from a different angle, leaving more room for jokes, friendships, love and the everyday. Still, Me and the Music is not an uncomplicatedly happy record. “It’s still a very honest and heavy record at times,” Claud says as they open up about songs such as “Let’s End on a Good Note” which deals directly with closure and moving on. “This song even makes my mum cry,” they confess, “and fair enough, right? Letting go of feelings is always really sad and really hard.” Yet Claud acknowledges that this album bears witness to their efforts to learn to live alongside those feelings. “I think like on my best day, I don’t take life too seriously,” they say, “but it’s a constant reminder, like something I need to write on my wall to remember to do consciously every day.”That lighter outlook also found its way into the process of making the album. The title track became a turning point for Claud: after looking back on the “situation...