Hey, we’re Cloud Control. We met in High School. We grew up in the Blue Mountains and we always get asked about that. It might influence us a little bit being from there, maybe it just makes us more chilled. We got together to enter a band competition and we weren’t that great but somehow there was always something that kept us going – community radio, local clubs, friends we made on the scene and the desire to make a record that we would listen to.

In 2011 our first album Bliss Release won the Australian Music Prize (like the Mercury but more antipodean) and we’ve been touring ever since. In the last year we played at festivals like Reading, Leeds, SXSW, Latitude, Field Day, Splendour in the Grass and more all over the world. Apart from going it alone we’ve supported some really great bands like Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire, Local Natives, Supergrass and The Drums.

Sometimes people will say we sound similar to a certain band but they can never agree on which band. For example a person will say “Oh yeah you guys sound just like the Go-Betweens” but then someone else will say “Wow, you’re really into Talking Heads”. As far as style goes, the only thing the four of us have in common is that we like to record on tape, mostly with roomy mono sounds. It is also cheaper to record that way. As people we listen to a range of different music (this year in the van it’s been Clams Casino, Fleetwood Mac, Tamaryn, Nas, Kurt Vile, Biggie Smalls, Pavement, Deerhunter and other stuff) but when we get together we make pretty classic sounding guitar music with organs, reverb and songs. Surrealistic Pillow by Jefferson Airplane is a great album. It was so nice back then how you could write straight-up love songs and they were just taken at face value. Now sometimes songs seem clever and cryptic even though you’re basically trying to say the same things.

Anyway, if you see that we’re playing near your town (and we probably will be) come and say hey, we love playing music and we could share that with you. When times are rough, good times become important. Forget who you are and come get lost with some friends, if you sing and dance a little it will make you feel like everything is going to be OK.

Cloud Control’s debut album Bliss Release, was released in the UK and Europe in May to critical acclaim.

The Guardian’s review gave Bliss Release four stars: “There’s an appealing open-heartedness about the debut from Australian psychedelic poppers Cloud Control, a sense of wide-eyed, slightly fried wonder.”

The BBC’s review said: “Essentially, this is some of the most consistent songwriting to come from Australia since the loss of The Go-Betweens, and some of the most arcane performing available anywhere outside of Arcade Fire.”

“If you’re looking for the bands of the future, then Cloud Control would seem likely contenders… they have taken the elegant folk harmonies of Fleet Foxes and Mumford & Sons, and given them a boot up the backside with great whooshes of psychedelic rock. Their sound is at once serious and joyful, intimate and epic. They deserve to be huge.” **** – The Independent (Live Review)

Cloud Control are Alister Wright (guitar, lead vocals), Jeremy Kelshaw (bass), Heidi Lenffer (keys, vocals) and Ulrich Lenffer (drums). They are signed to Ivy League (Australia), Infectious (UK/Europe) and Turnout (North America).