Crack Cloud

Crack Cloud is a Canadian art punk collective founded around 2015 by Zach Choy in Calgary, Alberta, and later relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia around 2018. From the beginning, the project drew its membership largely from people connected to addiction recovery and mental health programs, both as participants and as support workers. Choy has described it as "a means of unravelling, dissecting trauma, negative feelings and cynicism" and, simply, "our rehabilitation outlet."^[1]

Central to understanding Choy's work is the story of his father, Danny Choy, who was diagnosed with leukemia at age 29 and died when Zach was 11. Danny left behind poems, song transcriptions, carvings, and audio journals for his family. Choy's own addiction struggles began in the aftermath of that loss. Crack Cloud became, in his words, an outlet during "the early days of my rehab."^[2] When Choy was 29 himself, making Peace and Purpose in his basement during a winter of grief, the parallel was not lost on him. Footage of Danny in his final days in 2001 appears in the music video for the album's lead single, "Safe Room," threaded through images of the band's recent life.^[1]

At its peak, the collective numbered over twenty members spanning musicians, filmmakers, graphic designers, and choreographers. The current core includes Choy on vocals, drums, and synthesizer, along with William Choy (guitar), Bryce Cloghesy (saxophone, guitar), Jesse Atkey (saxophone), Eve Adams (vocals), Mackenzie Cruse (vocals), Aleem Khan (keyboards), Nat Philipps (saxophone), Aidan Pontarini (creative director), and Emma Acs (vocals).^[3]

Their music fuses art punk, post-punk, new wave, avant-garde, and industrial hip-hop. Sonically they draw comparisons to Gang of Four and early Talking Heads. Their cited influences include the anarcho-punk collective Crass, Malcolm X ("for his extremity and conviction"), and Lydia Lunch ("for her obscurity and audacity").^[4]

Crack Cloud released their breakout album Pain Olympics in 2020 to near-universal critical acclaim, followed by Tough Baby (2022) and Red Mile (2024, their first for Jagjaguwar). Their fifth album, Peace and Purpose (2026), returned to Meat Machine and Tin Angel Records and was recorded entirely by Choy alone in his basement using a single microphone, born from a winter of prolonged grief.^[1]

The group won the 2021 Prism Prize Hi-Fidelity Award for consistent creative innovation in music video production, reflecting their commitment to visual storytelling as an integral part of their artistic practice.^[3] Many members have also worked directly in harm reduction services in Vancouver, giving the collective an unusual proximity to the communities their work addresses.^[5]