We were lucky to catch up with Frekld Cloud recently and have shared our conversation below.
Frekld , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I first learned that I wanted to pursue music when I was in middle school going into high school. I had started writing down my feelings as poems but soon transitioned to writing songs. I had always been struggling with my mental health and being able to speak for myself growing up. Writing helped me be more clear and concise in working through my hardships internally, it gives me a healthy outlet for mainly myself but also others. Sharing what I couldn’t share as a kid and young teenager gives me a sense of emotional stability and power over my mindset. I knew it was what I had to do to keep myself okay and alive long enough to pursue music as a career. Now I’m able to share my battles and help others work through theirs. A lot of people have told me that it’s a waste of my time and I’ll never get anywhere, those same people most likely listen to my words and what I have to say. It’s cliche, I know, but God gave me a gift, that gift is to write and bring other people together no matter race, height, weight, language, sexuality, or gender identity. My music is for everyone and it’s something I’m proud of. It’s more of a difference between knowing it will change somebody’s life and helping them, over wondering if it’s good enough to be on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Hi, for those who don’t know me, my name is Io Dobbins (pronounced ‘ee-oh’) a.k.a frekld cloud. I’m a nineteen-year-old independent artist from just outside Des Moines. I was originally born in Chicago, Illinois, Cook County Hospital on November 10th, 2004 to my mom Sarah Dobbins (Hi mom, I love you!!). I’m a transgender man, an advocate for the transgender community, a proud BIPOC community member, and a mental health advocate. I’ve been writing songs about my own mental health experiences and experiences of growing up as a transgender, Christian man. I’ve been transitioning since I was 13 years old and have been on testosterone for two years.
When I was younger, I never really got the chance to connect socially since we weren’t allowed to be outside and play for too long. But that doesn’t mean I was kept inside just to be isolated. Eugene Martin is a distant relative of mine, he’s a cousin and was unfortunately kidnapped back in the 80s while on a paper route, if you haven’t heard of him you’re hearing about him now. He’s never been found but I do hope he is. His disappearance really worried my family and haunts a few of them to this day. I don’t blame them for wanting to keep me safe but it still affected my ability to properly communicate, I had to re-learn how to express myself properly and not blow up out of anger because I wasn’t being understood. I wasn’t really able to have an opinion on much of anything because of the way the household functioned either. When we moved out it felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders and that I could say what I wanted to say. So I came out and I started my transition into the man I am today,
When I finally started using my writing skills for my voice instead of just speaking, it’s like the world became more clear and more colorful. It was like I was blind to my own sorrows seeping through onto the page from my pen or pencil. Once I started to actually be truthful with what I was feeling, the words kind of just flew out of me. I would word vomit raw and emotionally eye-opening battles with myself, battles with others, and trying to figure out if it’s actually worth my time saying what I have to say in the most universal language of all. Music. On top of that, I don’t stick to just one sound, I feel like that’s the most unique part about myself as a musician. I’ll go and write a sad pop song about losing trust in someone you loved but then I’ll turn around and write a song about how much I love I wanna give in general. There’s so much I wanna say and so little time to say it. But the thing that sticks out to me the most is the voice I don’t give to just myself but to those who’re or were in the same situation I was in as a kid for the first decade or so of my life. I have the power to give someone a voice and that is what I love about what I do.
People need to realize that music is the connection to the soul, everyone listens to some form of music. Whether it be a comedy group like MC Virgins or songs about heartbreak and hardship like Dessy X and Hailee Steinfeld.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
Being open. One of my biggest fears is being open and people leaving because they don’t like who I am. That’s why I don’t hold back emotionally with my lyrics. I want people to see that I’m just as human as the next, whether it be a politician, a school teacher, or even an ex-convict. People are still people no matter how society perceives them. But today governments are trying to cast out those who aren’t “worthy enough” to be deemed human. Anti-LGBTQ bills, Reproductive Healthcare, and the war going on between Palestine and Israel are big issues right now that shouldn’t even be happening. Why? Because those people that are being attacked including myself as an LGBTQ community member aren’t being deemed as worthy enough to be human. It needs to change and if my music empowers people to make the necessary changes in ignorant mindsets then so be it. I have a voice and I’m going to use it and as long as I live I will continue to create and empower others, like music empowered me. There is so much going on and so little said about it because people are scared to be open. Social media is so powerful and people use it incorrectly every second of the day. It takes time to be open, just like it takes time to write and create.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Something I had to unlearn, was being a man. What I mean by that is I had to unlearn society’s mold of what it means to be a man and to just be myself. I had to strip myself down layer by layer and take the time to heal from the damage done. It’s been one of the hardest things I have ever done in my entire life. My standards were too high for myself and the others around me. I had to take time and do deep soul-searching to even begin to go down the right path of the kind of person I wanted to be. When I knew I grabbed onto that little sliver of myself and held onto it. I didn’t let go and I grew into the man I am now. If I hadn’t I would’ve been as bad as a lot of the men that are still stuck in a black and white mindset. A lot of people have that mindset and don’t know how to get out of it. I had to teach myself that it’s okay to be upset and cry, that it’s okay to ask for help, and it’s okay to not be tall, have big muscles, a perfect jawline, etc. I had to learn that it’s okay to be myself and not have to change for anyone to like me or fit a certain unrealistic standard. I just have to be myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/frekldcloud
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frekldcloudofficial?igsh=NDBrNTV1ajZoa3Uw&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frekldcloud?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Twitter: https://x.com/frekldcloud?s=21
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@frekldcloud?si=6eF1QPZaUZvhteHK
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@frekldcloudofficial?_r=1&_d=eb6bh4lki1gmkm&sec_uid=MS4wLjABAAAAww28Hn8jnT3G1E2CdqiqeN5EMXSLMwaEb78eFYgOMToV9BqHx10WDIuaLX68BkOS&share_author_id=7014934481500980229&sharer_language=en&source=h5_m&u_code=dl289i39k63jj1&ug_btm=b0,b0&social_share_type=4&utm_source=copy&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAww28Hn8jnT3G1E2CdqiqeN5EMXSLMwaEb78eFYgOMToV9BqHx10WDIuaLX68BkOS&tt_from=copy&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=client_share&enable_checksum=1&user_id=7014934481500980229&share_link_id=003930AF-F6F7-4A37-BE71-D401173F1CA0&share_app_id=1233
Image Credits
First Image – shotbyscorpion