Artist Interviews

Q&A: Cloud Control

By | Published on Thursday 12 May 2011

Cloud Control

Hailing from the Sydney-adjacent Blue Mountains, indie quartet Cloud Control began making harmonic psych-pop in 2007, making their UK debut with ‘Meditation Song #2’ earlier this year. Featuring Alistair Wright on guitar and lead vocals, with Heidi Lenffer on keyboards, Ulrich Lenffer on the drums and Jeremy Kelshaw on bass duties, the group won this year’s Australian Music Prize with their first album ‘Bliss Release’.

Their latest single from that, ‘This Is What I Said’, comes complete with the jaunty bass hooks and ethereal harmonies that go some way to characterising the band’s sonic style. It’s scheduled for release via Infectious Music on 16 May, followed by the album on 23 May. As the band tour our shores in support of these occasions, they will make two stops at The Great Escape, at the Corn Exchange tonight and The Hope tomorrow.

Ahead of all that, we spoke to bass-wielding bloke Jeremy to gauge his antipodean answers to our Same Six line of questioning.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
The Blue Mountains is full of garages, basements and spare rooms begging to be taken over by time-rich teenagers keen on making noise, melody and rhythm. Birthday parties and school halls was the best we could all do for gigs until we moved to the city, realised we couldn’t ditch the need to make music and eventually quit our jobs.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
It’s hard to say, this is our first album so you have a lifetime of ideas, experiences and relationships to draw upon on your first. It’s hard to say, everything and nothing at the same time. It’s a collection of fragments sewn together, given some context and sent on their way.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
We make music in a variety of ways which can be a good and bad thing. It could be a loose idea or jam that spontaneously inspires those present and half an hour later you have a song. Or it could be a demo written over six months. We wade through a lot of half baked ideas to find the stuff that sticks and when we have writers’ block we eat home cooked meals.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
We have never really tried to emulate a specific artist or style. It has been said that art is a good balance of tradition and innovation, I can’t disagree. Musicians are but musical vultures that sometimes have fresh ideas and later discover they didn’t.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Listen in headphones without the TV on.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
This album was recorded in living rooms on a shoe string, released without any expectation and did better than any of us thought. We just wanted people to listen to our music, some people actually like it. From here on out, we are in uncharted territory, staring at the prospect of actually making a living from this. Not sure what else there is after this?

MORE>> www.cloudcontrolband.com



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