David CloudBio

My grandfather, an inventor, created the machine that produced the Baby Ruth candy bar. My dad, also an inventor, created machines that put sugar packets in virtually every restaurant in America. Following in their footsteps, I can claim a U.S patent to my name and, although I didn't invent the resonating metal rods that I call Canna Sonora, I have invented some refinements to the design of the instrument.

I was co-founder of La Boue, an experimental music group in 1970's Chicago. We valued new and unusual sounds and created them from electronic and acoustic sources. The instruments we built included a set of resonant metal rods, played using thin cotton gloves with powdered rosin. Three players at the instrument could produce dense chords of five and six notes. The La Boue instrument was tuned to the standard chromatic scale.

During the 1960's space-race, I wished I could walk on the moon. My first invention, at age eleven, was to modify our backyard rope swing with a harness that let me hang parallel to the ground, facing sideways. Leaning mom's bathroom scale up against a "wall" of overturned wooden lawn furniture, I was able, with careful placement of the wall, to simulate my moon weight. I could walk and jump around as if on the moon's surface, albeit sideways. Other inventions followed, but none were as much fun as moon walking.