Cloud Control New Album & Tour
Sydney’s enigmatic indie-psych-pop trio Cloud Control return with new single Zone (This Is How It Feels), the (almost) title track off their much anticipated third album, ZONE.
Written in a small beach house near Forster, Zone (This is How It Feels) was a deliberate collaboration between the band’s three members and comprises everything that Cloud Control can do. It’s profound but also flippant, euphoric but conceptual; spaced out layers of looped sounds and samples, with an anthemic, driving melody and an improvised monologue delivered by a friend.
“It’s our album’s flagship song,” says lead vocalist Alister Wright. “It’s sort of like breathing out.”
“We surprised ourselves by how much we liked it. The song became a symbol of tenacity, pushing forward despite everything. It tied the whole album together.” says keys player and vocalist Heidi Lenffer.
Due for release on the 1st September, ZONE was produced by Alister, in various homes and studios.
“I think we underestimated how long that would take,” Says drummer and vocalist Ulrich Lenffer, laughing.
The band expected nine to twelve months, tops. In the end it took three years. ZONE, is well worth the wait: their most cohesive, complex and personal release to date, full of colour, space and undeniable tunes.
Alister describes it as an accumulation – of sounds, experiments, ideas, experiences. In the time it took to make, the band accrued mountains of gear, hundreds of demos, and countless hours refining each track. There were setbacks of course – break-ins, break-ups, communication breakdowns – but through it all there was a sense of freedom and growth. “It feels like a personal triumph” says Heidi.
As a self-taught producer Alister embraces chaos and obsesses over detail, and without the constraints of a timed studio he was able to go all in. He would work for days and nights on a single idea, before overthrowing it in a minute; he would pack each song with disparate layers, and then space them out to sound effortless and whole. “There’s so many different vibes and sounds in there, sometimes all in the one song,” says Alister. But holding the album together is a commitment to the groove.
“I got to make it the way I always wanted to, the way I always felt like the music should sound.” The record is as much an homage to the psych-infused sound that Cloud Control has perfected as it is to their sense of humour, and their diasporic music tastes.
In that, ZONE represents the full record: the band at their rawest, most inventive and most evolved, but still unmistakably Cloud Control.
Some further good news for patient fans of the band, they have today announced they will be heading out on a national tour shortly after ZONE’s release. Anyone lucky enough to have seen the band at one of their recent sold out Rainbow City launch shows will attest to the energetic bliss they impart on fans at their live shows.
ZONE track list:
Zone (This Is How It Feels)
Treetops
Rainbow City
Panopticon
Lights On The Chrome
Goldfish
Lacuna
Mum’s Spaghetti
Summer Rave
Find Me In The Water
Catch Cloud Control on tour
