After years shaping Buffalo’s music scene as a producer and label executive, David Cloyd reemerges with Red Sky Warning—a lush, introspective album that reaffirms his status as one of indie music’s most singular voices. An equal parts love letter to artistry and meditation on time’s passage, the record finds Cloyd channeling his signature blend of Radiohead’s experimental melancholy, Jeff Buckley’s vocal grace, and Peter Gabriel’s art-pop ambition into his most cohesive work yet.
The album’s lead single “Ocean of Hours”—with its haunting refrain “Where did the time go?”—sets the tone for a collection that wrestles with creative rebirth and midlife reflection. Tracks like the title cut “Red Sky Warning” and the soaring “Fault Lines” showcase Cloyd’s otherworldly falsetto and cinematic production, weaving orchestral flourishes with electronic textures. The result lands somewhere between Bon Iver’s 22, A Million and Beck’s Sea Change—a breakup album not with a person, but with younger selves.
“We live in dark and difficult times, but in all of that darkness, releasing music into the world again has been one of my brightest experiences,” says Cloyd. “The response I’ve gotten to my new music—after a period of working with so many other musicians on theirs—has been utterly beautiful, and it’s given me courage beyond my wildest dreams.”
Cloyd’s journey lends the music palpable weight: from his #1-charting 2009 DIY debut Unhand Me, You Fiend! (recorded in a 9×9 Brooklyn apartment) to TV syncs on KUWTK and Real World, his career has always defied convention. Now, as a father and ECR Music Group’s VP, he brings hard-won wisdom to lyrics about artistic surrender (“The exploration is the answer”) and second acts.
With 400K+ pre-release streams and Apple Music placements alongside The Cure and St. Vincent, Red Sky Warning proves Cloyd’s cult hasn’t faded—it’s grown wiser. This isn’t a comeback; it’s the work of an artist who never left, just deepened.
With ‘Red Sky Warning’, David Cloyd has crafted a radiant, melancholic meditation on time, creativity, and second acts. It’s the sound of an artist who never stopped listening to the quiet truths within
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