Dan Cloutier looks out at an iceberg for the cover of his latest album.

Not everyone finds the cold and dark comforting, but indie folk singer-songwriter Dan Cloutier takes it as an inspiration.

“I’m always writing songs about cold places,” he said. “I’m kind of obsessed with weird, isolated places.”

This affinity for the colder parts of the world has led Cloutier on a journey to create his new album, “The Iceberg.” Due out in May, the album is an exploration of growth, healing and mental health.

“The Iceberg” will be the fourth album for Cloutier, who is a former resident of Hopkinton and an executive administrator at the Michael Lisnow Respite Center. He says the record came out of a dark period of his life in the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic.

“My dad died a year after COVID started, and a loved one went through a hard time with their own mental health at the same time,” said Cloutier. 

Cloutier’s father was Rev. Bob Cloutier, the assistant pastor at Faith Community Church (FCC) in Hopkinton. He passed away in 2021 after fighting a rare form of lymphoma. The reverend had served the community at FCC for over 37 years before his passing.

The difficulty of that loss, along with dealing with another family member’s mental health struggles “led to a really dark couple of years in my life,” Cloutier said.

Once the darkness in Cloutier’s life began to wane, the songs that would become his new album started taking shape.

“As I was beginning to heal and grow, I started writing all these songs that became ‘The Iceberg,’ ” he explained.

Cloutier said that he wanted to write songs that would help people, while not glossing over the difficulties of life. Almost all of the songs on the album address mental health issues and the importance of community.

“The theme of the album is that everyone’s going to go through a hard time,” said Cloutier, “[but] you’re not alone — there’s always help around the corner.”

Music in the Arctic Circle

“The Iceberg” is both a symbolic and literal name for the album. With much of an iceberg’s mass hidden below the surface, it seemed to Cloutier an apt metaphor for the message in his songs. But he wanted to add in a unique experience he could capture as part of the album’s development.

“I wanted to go find an iceberg and record a couple songs there,” Cloutier said. “I’d never seen an iceberg before.”

This idea led him to starting a Kickstarter in February 2024 to raise funds for a trip to Newfoundland. There, he would track down an iceberg and record a few of the songs for the album. The initial goal was $6,000; if he managed to raise $10,000, he planned to travel to Greenland as well and record additional tracks there.

He managed to raise just under $20,000 in two months.

Cloutier said he was surprised at the response he received to his Kickstarter campaign. Prior to “The Iceberg,” he had not recorded any new music for several years. His last album, coincidentally titled “The Battle of Greenland,” debuted in 2017.

“I didn’t know if I still had the fans who were going to support me,” he said.

Cloutier has pursued music as a passion since about 2003, although he first got into songwriting in high school. He played his first gig at the John Warren Masonic Lodge on Main Street and sang songs at battle of the bands competitions at Hopkinton High School. 

Over his career, he has opened for acts including John Hyatt, Ellis Paul and Richie Havens. Beyond his work as a solo musician, Cloutier also has performed with a band known as The Great Molasses Flood.

He says the COVID-19 pandemic caused his music career to slow down, which is why the support for his Kickstarter campaign came as a surprise.

“I think a lot of it was because they knew that I’d gone through a hard time losing my dad to cancer,” Cloutier surmised.

With the backing of his community, Cloutier spent the summer of 2024 chasing icebergs and recording music in Newfoundland and Greenland. He recounted having to drive 10 hours in Newfoundland to find an iceberg, along with the time he spent in Ilulissat, Greenland.

“It’s stunning — the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen,” Cloutier said of his journey to the Ilulissat Icefjord.

Cloutier is in the process of mixing the final tracks on “The Iceberg.” He anticipates the first single off the album, “Synapses Fire,” will be released sometime in February.

Dan Cloutier poses for a selfie in front of the Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland. PHOTO/DAN CLOUTIER

Travel videos will promote album

An interesting aspect of Cloutier’s plans to promote the album is a series of videos on his YouTube channel. 

The videos, which chronicle his journeys to Greenland and Newfoundland, feature his new music as the backdrop for stunning vistas and, of course, plenty of icebergs. Viewers can join Cloutier as he takes in the northern lights, eats at a remote two-star Michelin restaurant, hikes trails in Newfoundland and plays his music in scenic locales. 

The decision to document and share his journey was born from a love of travel videos — a passion he shares with his wife, Kalina. But Cloutier said the travelogues also are about taking his fans on the journey with him.

“How can you make these stories more human and more accessible to people?” he said. “What journey can you take them on?”

Cloutier has about a third of the videos he plans to make uploaded to his YouTube channel. More will be released as the album release date comes closer.

The album’s official release date is set for May 2. To celebrate, FCC is hosting Cloutier and his band at its Hopkinton campus. The party will feature Cloutier and his band playing through the album, along with a constant loop of his travel videos playing in the church’s main hall. Worcester-based duo Ash & Eric will open the show.

Apart from the big release party, Cloutier says he plans on working to get his songs on the radio, as well as booking gigs to continue promoting the album. He reported that he’s been working to get press in Greenland and Newfoundland as well as locally.

For Cloutier, all this effort is about “trying to bring goodness into the world.” While he’s not a full-time musician, he feels the need to do his art justice and let it reach those who need it.

“When you push the art with as much force as you can, you let [it] go as far as it needs to go,” he said.