Going from a nationwide tour with legends Supergrass to a job in Industrial Relations may seem loathsome to some, but Cloud Control bassist Jeremy insists it isn’t all that bad, but it doesn’t provide much inspiration.
“I don’t think there will ever be industrial relations rock. Sounds pretty boring to me.”
Putting the Industrial Relations music genre on the backburner for now the band has concentrated on touring like a dog in heat, crossing the nation to capitalise on their burgeoning reputation.
“We’ve been probably playing shows for about two and a half years now and just in the last two months, since the release of the EP, things have been coming together a bit.”
“It is kind of shifting gears right now, that is really cool. I think we’re getting more media coverage, more people coming to our shows, just mustering a little bit more interest. We’re also getting more recognition, which is nice, it’s a hard thing to break into.”
Breaking into things is hard (except cars which just takes dedication and a coat-hanger) but the band has pushed past the initial phase, and been rewarded with a nomination for the strangely named Smack award (other nominees include Greg Bird).
“It’s really nice, it just feels that through lots of hard work, you know. But I don’t know a lot about the Smack awards so I’ve been listening to FBI to try and get some info on from them, but yeah it’ll be fun.”
Cloud Control got noticed with their infectious single Death Cloud. It was at that moment people picked up on the recurring cloud theme. Alas, the band are not budding climatologists, just coincidental, they claim.
“The two weren’t really connected, the band name came before we wrote that song. We never intended to have this airy fairy cloud theme, so hopefully putting death in the name shoots that down. But it was just an appropriate name for the song, there was no over-arching plan for world domination through various cloud names.”
World domination may be out of their reach for now, but Cloud Control are blowing in the right direction. They’ve landed a spot at Peats Ridge, joining an impressive line up.
“Yeah it’s going to be really good, getting a few festivals like that under your belt is really helpful. I was listening to the FBI wrap on it today and there are over 200 bands playing so it’s going to be pretty mental I hope. Should be a lot of fun and hopefully we can make a weekend of it.”
The band is composed of three uni students and one full-time worker, which makes for an interesting dynamic. Three quarters of the band get cheap train tickets and stress over footnoting while the hard-working Jeremy watches on in bemusement.
“It can be annoying with students,” he laughs, “they always whinge about how much work they have to do, I was a uni student too and I know you just leave it till the last two weeks and then go nuts.”
This blasé attitude served the band well when they toured with Supergrass. Being in the presence of greatness may have unnerved lesser bands, but Cloud Control took it in their stride.
“Well it was pretty funny, they’re so iconic we didn’t know what to expect, but chatting to them they’re really lovely guys, Gaz the front man is really lovely. Dan the drummer, is kind of like, if you put a drunk Hugh Grant in a band, and told him to play shows every day that’s him. He’s the perfect English gentleman but he is just always drunk and always talking mischief.”
Drunken mischief appeals to everyone so make sure you scuttle on down to Peats Ridge and watch Cloud Control.
