The New Dynamic And Process That Shaped 'Zone'

Cloud Control

Cloud Control's latest offering, Zone, is somewhat of an in-joke. Maybe it doesn't seem that way on first listen, but that's the conclusion from the band when asked about their third album.

"I think the album is like our other albums, it doesn't have anything that we sat down and were like, 'We're going to write an album about this specific thing,' but then when we wrote Zone, the song, it felt like a good way to sum up everything and be a good entry point," explains frontman Alister Wright.

"You know, it's pretty vague but I feel like it's funny and it has hard times in it, but it also has a big relief feeling to it and a big coming together kind of feeling and that's sort of through some songs on the album and the sense of humour, just jokes. It's got that vocal over in the middle by our German mate Colin [Lovrinovic], so like I don't really know... How do you say what it's about? I feel like it's self-evident, like it's almost an in-joke that is about being in the zone but it's actually about being in the zone,"  says Wright, bandmates Heidi and Ulrich Lenffer laughing along.

The making of Zone offered a number of changes and challenges for the group. There were multiple moves and makeshift studios, their former bassist Jeremy Kelshaw left the group, and Wright took on the role of producer.

"Well, we lost a bass player so that was... I think that was a thing we needed to adjust to that took the longest time, just finding a new dynamic as the three of us," shares Heidi. "And Al really stepped it up on bass, so he's playing bass on the whole record except for one song I think.

"The process lacked a lot of the jamming from previous records because there's just the three of us and you're lacking the key infrastructural instrument."

When asked if that meant the group had to be more structured in their approach to songwriting, Heidi disagrees. "The opposite. I think it was more like we layered up things to write a song, which made it harder to find what the song was going to be."

Wright's role as lead producer also had a huge influence on the record. "Obviously it shaped everything about it, down to the process, the sounds, the recording techniques, unconventional recording techniques," continues Heidi. "Al would be like, 'Hey guys, I watched this YouTube clip about snare placement and I'm going to do it this way,' but then a month later he watched another thing and then he had a whole new process for doing the drums. So sometimes that, that was great and he learnt on the fly, but it also meant you needed to revisit some things to make them match up."

"It just would have been different," says Ulrich of the experience, and of working with an internal producer. "When you look at this whole process, you can say this and that and the other, but it's just a different thing. We did this together over a really long period of time and changed our lives. Like, over that period of time so much stuff happened to all of us and the band and readjusting to losing Jeremy and stuff."

At the time of chatting Zone was yet to be released, but their two lead singles had been positively received by fans, particularly live.

"Rainbow City, I think that was our first one," says Ulrich. "I think it was a similar - or something people could understand - like a Cloud Control song that [people] are like, 'Yeah, cool, alright, we're used to this.' I think they really like it. And we've put out [single] Zone since, which has, you know, it's a bit more of a complex song in terms of like, it's slower and it kind of deals with some heavy stuff, I guess."

Adds Wright,"Some radio stations have been a bit like, 'Wow, what is this?' But when we played it at our show, and because it's just been on the internet, it really felt mad, like you could see people totally getting it, like people were singing along.

"Everyone was singing it and there were people crowd surfing and it felt like a real moment in the set, and sometimes when you play a new song, you can just see it fall flat because you don't really know what's going to happen, but I think let's just see what happens."