Christian Music Veterans Matt Hammitt, Nick De Partee, & Jake Rye Form New Band, Lo Cloud

NASHVILLE, TN. (OCTOBER 18, 2024)
With decades of musical experience with previous bands (Sanctus Real and Kutless), the newly formed Nashville-based rock band LO CLOUD releases its debut single, “Sleepwalker,” available everywhere today.

LO CLOUD is Matt Hammitt, Nick de Partee, and Jake Rye. The guys draw their musical inspiration from the 90s and early 2000s groups like Jimmy Eat World, The Killers, Weezer, and Third Eye Blind, and the result is a nostalgic blend of fresh hooks and production led by member Jake Rye.

“Drawing from the sound of our youth, these songs explore the bittersweet reality of life and dreams, while preserving the hope that our best days may still be ahead of us,” shares LO CLOUD.

The group came about earlier this year with Hammitt and de Partee started writing together again when everything clicked. They quickly realized that the songs that were being created simply couldn’t have been written earlier in their respective music careers. There is something about the years lived, and the experiences that those years bring, that has allowed them to tap into something extremely meaningful and authentic for this project. The songs LO CLOUD has written are about life, family, pain, regret, and the reality that life is imperfectly beautiful and short, and we must all make the most of the life we’ve been given.

Taking those ideas, the debut single, “Sleepwalker,” is about rejecting life being on autopilot. They add, “It’s about finding the courage to recognize and accept the ways we’ve failed to fully live, so we can wake up to a life of greater intention, passion, and purpose.”

Between the group, Hammitt has won three Dove Awards and was nominated for two GRAMMY Awards with the band Sanctus Real. He also just signed a new deal as a solo artist with Gotee Records. de Partee was the lead guitarist and songwriter for the band Kutless where he co-wrote many songs with the band including the Top 10 radio singles “Carry Me To The Cross” and “Need.” He also was a staff writer with Capitol CMG with various song cuts with multiple artists including Colton Dixon and Newsboys. Rye’s production credits include more than one thousand songs including co-writing and co-producing the song “On Your Knees” on “Born Again” for the Newsboys. He also has had three singles in the Top 20 at alt-rock radio and a number 1 single on the Billboard Rock chart in 2022.