Carousel Clouds – Control Zed

Interview and album preview

One of the joys of being involved with IYE is the chance to speak with the bands who create the music you love. I’ve been a fan of Salford’s Carousel Clouds for some time now, so when guitarist/vocalist/founder member Neil Meehan got in touch with yours truly with the exciting news of the upcoming release of the bands’ second album ‘Control Zed’ on 17th October, I just knew I had to find out more.

The album features three previously released tracks, among them my favourite CC song ‘The Drums.’ Featuring intense, tortured vocals and guitars, it’s the driving drums with their unique time signature that truly stand out.

“We never played that song as a band until it existed,” says Neil. “It started with Matt playing the drum beat you hear in the chorus in the rehearsal room. I loved it straight away so I pressed record on my phone so the beat didn’t get lost. In terms of time signatures it’s quite unusual so I wanted to preserve it. Dickon (Kyme-Wright, guitars, programming etc.) and I worked backwards to build the song from it, and because we’d done it that way we hadn’t played it as a band.”

The song was subsequently played on 6music by none other than Steve Lamacq, which is definitely the stamp of approval from one of the best arbiters of musical taste out there. 

For the album, there are some very interesting features to mention. Halfway through the album (side 2, track 1 for the vinyl lovers among us) Control Zed is an instrumental piece, which features a sample from the 1930’s with instructions on how to make the perfect cup of tea. 

“It’s a bit like a tea break in the middle of the album,” muses Neil. 

However, this hasn’t come without its own problems.

“Because it’s a sample some of the streaming platforms won’t support it. It’s perfectly fine to use, but the algorithms recognise it as something that already exists and automatically block it. It’ll be on the Bandcamp site, and definitely on the vinyl for all you readers out there!”

With the penultimate track being built up from a piano demo, and the final track featuring lead vocals from Tamsin Middleton, its obvious that there are multiple new elements to this album, all of which will add layers to the Carousel Clouds collage of sound. The band also plan to play the album in its entirety at The Peer Hat in Manchesters Northern Quarter on Friday 23rd January next year, definitely an event which deserves to be sold out. I’m making my travel plans already….

Control Zed by Carousel Clouds is released on Friday 17th October, and will be on streaming sites and available on vinyl through Bandcamp.