Cloud Control: Towards The Summit

Blue Mountains-reared quartet Cloud Control have come a long way from a group thrown together for the sake of a university “Battle of the Bands” competition. In the midst of a cross-country tour with Leader Cheetah, they talk to DOUG WALLEN about their evolution thus far and their forthcoming debut LP.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] Cloud Control have ticked all the right boxes since forming for the sake of a band competition at Sydney University. Record a promising self-titled EP? Check. Land a record deal? Check. Tour with another rising Aussie band? Check. Whet appetites for a debut album with a bewitching lead single? Check.

Formed in the picturesque Blue Mountains in NSW, the affable quartet are in the midst of an “East Coast Smackdown” tour with Adelaide upstarts Leader Cheetah. As heralded by the harmonies-gilded, Afropop-tinged single ‘Gold Canary’, the band will release their first full-length next year on Ivy League. The album should highlight Cloud Control’s low-key yet hypnotic knack for casting familiar sounds in a new light.

Just minutes after a recent appearance on Sydney’s FBi Radio, singer/guitarist Alister Wright and drummer Ulrich Lenffer chatted by phone with cheeky enthusiasm while keyboardist/singer Heidi Lenffer (Ulrich’s sister) and bassist Jeremy Kelshaw missed out on all the fun.

So is the album done?
Wright: Pretty much. It’s getting mixed at the moment. Just gotta do a few more vocals.

When’s it coming out?
Wright: On my birthday, April 16.

Is there a title for it?
Wright: As yet there is no title.

Lenffer: No, not even any working title for anything.

That’s strange.
Wright: People say that’s weird, but I don’t understand why. I would’ve thought that you get the whole package at the end and [then] figure out a name.

Some bands have a working title so they don’t just say “the album” over and over.
Lenffer: I guess.

Is it right that only one member of the band is still based in the Blue Mountains?
Lenffer: Yeah, Jeremy. We’re all from there originally, but he’s still up there because he’s married and all that.

And the rest of you live in Sydney?
Lenffer: Al and I live in Darlinghurst and Heidi lives just under the Harbour Bridge.

I read that Cloud Control once won a band competition at Sydney Uni.
Wright: Yeah, that was like three years ago. That’s the reason we formed, because Heidi entered the band comp and didn’t have a band and roped us all in.

Was there some stiff competition?
Lenffer: We thought so at the time. We weren’t very confident as a band. It was a massive surprise to win. There were bigger bands that had been playing gigs all around.

Wright: I can’t remember, who were the other bands in it that year?

“We’ve just really looked at ourselves as a band and tried to figure out how we work and what we actually want to play.”

Lenffer: I think Richard In Your Mind. There were actually some pretty good bands in the final, who we’re now friends with. It was a really good field, so it was good to win, actually.

Wright: When we won, in my head I was like, “Oh my god, now we’re going to be huge.” I didn’t realise that being in a band is actually hard work.

The new single ‘Gold Canary’ is quite different from the previous EP. Is that song an anomaly or is it hinting at what the album’s like?
Wright: I don’t know. It’s been two years since we put out the EP. The album is definitely quite related to the EP but it’s also a time thing, just getting bored of playing the same stuff. In my opinion the album’s got a lot of different sounds on it. So I wouldn’t say ‘Gold Canary’ is indicative of the whole thing.

Lenffer: I think what happened was we wrote a whole bunch of songs really quickly for the band comp. Not to say that we didn’t put a lot of effort in, we just smashed them out. They were really fun to play and they were loud. We recorded those and that was the EP. Then we started looking towards the album, and in the time since then, we’ve just really looked at ourselves as a band and tried to figure out how we work and what we actually want to play.

Wright: Oh yeah?

Lenffer: Yeah.

Wright: It’s funny because we don’t talk about this sort of thing as a band very much. I feel like I don’t know what we’re doing. We just write whatever.

Lenffer: I’m not saying this is what we’re going to sound like forever, but it’s just a natural evolution. That’s how bands operate, I guess.

Was it easy picking ‘Gold Canary’ as the advance single, or were other songs close in the running?
Wright: I don’t know. It’s a weird song to have as a single because it doesn’t have a mad chorus or anything. We just liked it and thought it was a good song. But there might be another couple of songs more suited.

Lenffer: I think we also picked it, maybe subconsciously, because it is a bit different. If we put out another song that was really similar to the EP, it could get a bit same-ish and not really have much impact, if any at all.

Whereas this song illuminates the possibilities of the album.
Wright: Yes, many possibilities.

Lenffer: Limitless.

The video clip is interesting in how you embrace the lack of a budget.
Wright: There’s a lot of freedom in having a low budget. You’re not really under pressure to make something [slick]. We just wanted to put heaps of colours in it.

Lenffer: If you have a good idea, it doesn’t matter what the budget is. Our idea was just to use that effects machine and get some crazy-looking stuff. And do whatever we wanted to do: dance, jump around…

Wright: And get babes.

Lenffer: Yeah, that was important.

You recorded the album in two different people’s parents’ living rooms. Why?
Wright: I suppose there’s a few reasons. We want to get the best sound possible [but] with a budget like ours, you can’t really go into a studio for months. So it seemed like doing it by ourselves a little bit was the best way to go about it, because then we could experiment a bit more and have a lot more control. And it’s worked out really well.

And you had help from Liam Judson of Belles Will Ring?
Wright: Yeah, Liam is pretty much producing the album. There was a period when we were thinking of doing it ourselves, and we tried, but it was just crazy. Everyone got ridiculously stressed. I think you need that element of another person there. There’s just something about having an impartial person who can mediate between everyone.

Just finally, I was wondering what it’s like you for you, Ulrich, to be in a band with your sister, and for you, Alister, to be in a band with two siblings.
Leffner: For me, with my sister, it’s fine. A lot of people ask about that, and it’s not really an issue. It just means that I know her much better than anybody else. There’s none of that shit you get with people when you’re trying to figure each other out all the time. Especially in a band, that can make things really awkward. But for us, we know each other and of course we have our little fights, but we know it’s just sibling stupidity.

Wright: I reckon it’s good. With [that and] the other arrangements in the band, it’s not like there’s ever going to be any [romantic] relationships between anyone in the band. Jeremy’s married and Heidi’s married and me and Ulrich are not gay, so it’s not going to screw up for the band for us really, unless there’s some kind of outside influence. The chances are fairly slim, I’d say.

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Cloud Control are currently on tour with Adelaide’s Leader Cheetah. More tour dates here.