cloud collecting #29: Lisa Sonoda ☁️
on sound based in feeling, the expanded sonic potential as a group + focusing above our own mentality
I discovered Lisa Sonoda’s music last year and was immediately captivated by her pure, timeless dream pop sound. This past summer, I had the chance to meet her at an LA candle shop where I was DJing women of ambient selections (true story), and a few months later, I got to experience an intimate performance of hers. It was clear that her gentle spirit would be a perfect fit for cloud collecting. I'm excited to share our conversation with you, and I hope it inspires you to explore more of her soundscapes.
Sonoda (so-NO-duh) is a meditative pop ensemble based in Los Angeles, CA. The quartet approaches live music and dream pop with a delicate, spiritual, and therapeutic perspective. A gentle glow of crystals, salt lamps, candles and flowers adorn the stage as the band creates a welcoming wash of ambience with warbly guitars and oscillating synths. Each performance opens and closes with a soothing ‘Ohm’ sung by front woman Lisa Sonoda, who resounds deeply on stage with her singing bowl, tingshas, chimes, guitar and sometimes synth. It is in this dream world where Sonoda’s lullaby-pop sensibility conjures the auras of influences like Broadcast and Beach House. From these influences, Sonoda offers a new take on music and dream pop, bringing us a collective deep breath— a refreshment, a renewal: Meditative Pop. The band started with Lisa Sonoda’s solo projects, Clearing I (2016) and Clearing II (2017), which were later compiled and released on a small tape run on Never Anything Records. Lisa soon expanded to a full band with the help of musicians like Adrian Garcia on additional synth and guitar. Together they made their first full band demo album Karaoke Life (Never Content, 2018). With current members Eddie Ramos on drums and Jacob Maag on bass, they released singles Half-Life / The Mark (Anniversary, 2019), Point of View & Purpose (Flexible/Terrible Records, 2021). They have also toured with Vanishing Twin, Mutual Benefit and Jane Weaver, and performed with bands Good Morning, Claud, Juniore and many more.
You often describe your style as meditative pop. I’d love to hear how you approach the creative process to achieve this delicate and immersive atmosphere in your music? And are there any pieces of gear you can't live without?
A few years ago a good friend Jordan Lee (Mutual Benefit) described our music as “meditative pop” after we played a show together and I fell in love with that immediately. It’s not something I particularly have in mind when I’m writing a song though since it’s more-so something I feel subconsciously that works its way into the music. I think it’s what my soul resonates with— to make music that is melodic and compels you to sway, yet mixes in healing, introspective and spiritual elements. To me that mixture alludes to the interconnectedness of the mind, body and spirit. So in short it’s more like a way of thinking, an intention, or a state that leads to the atmosphere.
Creating the atmosphere is like a meditation where you listen and follow the sounds that conjure a feeling. Our approach to sound is based in feeling, where our emotions, our gut, and our subconscious act together as a compass that leads the way. Often this compass is tuned to follow atmospheric, otherworldly territory.
In terms of gear, I’m not sure there’s anything I can’t live without. While writing music I usually find comfort in the familiar feelings of old Casio keyboards, Mellotron flutes, a Goya nylon string guitar from the 60s, tape delays and spring reverbs.
But I feel like I can find inspiration with any new gear so I’m not especially tied to anything in particular. While working on the new record we've been embracing some unexpected sounds that lean into mystery and curiosity— wood block, harpsichord, tubular bells— finding new gear and sounds to shift the sonic landscape.
What’s the most surprising or unexpected aspect of your music-making process that you’ve discovered since expanding Sonoda from a solo project to a full band?
The main difference between solo and full band is the sonic potential is expanded so much further from all four of our energies— both while writing and performing live. The songs and sounds can go in totally different directions than if I were to be looping parts solo (another whole world with its own potential as well). Instead of being limited to my own ideas and capabilities, I can follow new paths that are forming from being in a room together. I love that surprising feeling when a song finds a new shape or color when someone says "what if we....?" and we try something in a new way.
For live performances, I’d say it’s also more relaxing playing together as a group than solo in some aspects. It’s like sailing a ship with a team, vs being solo and having to manage everything yourself. Maybe it’s like how Nathan Fielder’s recent episode of ‘The Rehearsal’ that argues we have greater confidence while part of a group or a pack versus alone. Plus playing as a group also keeps the songs more alive over time. We’ll each change a small nuance in how we play something or by listening to each other, and we often record our demos and practices in case we need to listen back to something. This helps the songs grow and evolve when something sticks.
How do you cloud collect (connect to childlike wonder) in your creativity?
I think I cloud collect by frequently having a spiritual outlook. I feel like I always have a TV on in the back of my mind that’s playing and reviewing things from a spiritual perspective based on what I’ve experienced or learned from others. That, and just getting in a state of flow while creating (or doing any activity like exercising or even working depending on the work), it kind of lets the tv channel of new, creative ideas and intuitive feelings clearer. Sometimes it takes a little while to get into the flow state because of overthinking, or ‘loud’ thinking, or ego, but once the task at hand is the focus above our own mentality or any other distractions, then the clarity lets the cloud collecting stream flood open.
The best online place to find Lisa is through her Instagram, linktree + website. A new album is in the works and some of the new songs will be played in Southern California this Summer:
Thu 7/10/25 at the Constellation Room in the OC with Gold Celeste and Vinyl Williams. Gold Celeste is from Norway, and they’re celebrating the 10 yr anniversary of their album The Glow!
Sat 7/12/25 at Lodge Room in LA with Gold Celeste and Vinyl Williams.
Tu 9/30/25 Desert Daze Nites at Golddiggers in LA with Al-Qasar