Cloud Control
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Cloud Control

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Only recently did Kelshaw opt back into the band, a stint on the sidelines owed of course to the arrival of his baby daughter. The transition from his new-found parenthood back into the life of a touring musician has proven interesting. “It’s a bit weird, yeah. I think whenever you kind of go from parent world to band world, or vice versa, it takes you a few days to kind of get your head around it,” Kelshaw admits. “I think life with the band is a pretty known quantity but life as a father is a pretty unknown quantity… it’s pretty easy to go straight on the road because you know what to expect. But you don’t have that luxury being a dad.”

“I think it does [change you]. It changes your priorities a little bit. You’ve got somebody else to think about, somebody you’re directly responsible for. It’s a huge thing and an amazing thing and it’s not a burden at all. It’s a privilege to have that responsibility,” he muses. “I think it changes you but you change out of necessity as well because you’ve just got to be able to kind of cope with this little life who needs you to sort it out. We’re still only four and a half months in so there’s still a long way to go!”

Though Kelshaw did take some time out from touring, his band mates saw fit to involve him wherever possible, securing one of the most memorable moments of this year’s Splendour In The Grass in the process. Mid-set, impassioned tribal cries would usurp a rendition of Gold Canary, The Circle Of Life – lifted straight from Disney’s The Lion King – taking precedent. Festival screens would display an infamous still image of Rafiki holding the newborn Simba aloft and, soon enough, footage of Jeremy and his daughter would be superimposed over the image. “We all knew that I wasn’t going to be there and understanding of why I wasn’t going to be there but at the same time, disappointed that we couldn’t find a way that it would work. Then Ulrich was like, ‘we totally need to make a video!’ So it was his idea and it was awesome! It was really great that we could make a statement as to why I wasn’t there. I think we did it perfectly.”

Amazingly, in the same set, an enthusiastic flash-mob would form upon the banks of the amphitheatre. The impromptu parade became an unforgettable spectacle, hundreds of the festival’s fun-loving patrons swept up in a true show of festival euphoria. Kelshaw made sure he caught up to speed with the outburst. “Watching on YouTube some of the replays and videos of all the people running up and down the hill… you can’t plan that kind of thing. It’s awesome to see people running literally and metaphorically with an idea and everyone getting behind it. I’ve never seen that before and I don’t know if I’ll see that again. It’s great to have something unique like that happen.”

Nowadays, Kelshaw is back on the road with Cloud Control, hoping to witness such spectacles and reclaim the magic of live performance. As you would expect, touring plays an enormous part in driving not only Kelshaw but the band as a whole. “I definitely think we’re a band that wants to play live music for as long as we can,” Kelshaw affirms. “We’re going to play to anybody who wants to hear us play. We’ve been lucky enough to put an album out here at home to an audience that wants to hear it. We have played lots of shows and we love playing lots of shows. We’re now at the point where we’re like, ‘let’s make sure we don’t play too much!’, which is an enviable position to be in. I’d rather have that problem than be underground!”

Though support from abroad continues to amass for Bliss Release (the band recently signing with US label Turnout Records) Cloud Control have begun working their way through ideas for their next project: a sophomore LP. “We’ve started working on new stuff. I think we’ve already moved from our EP to the Death Cloud EP to Bliss Release and showed some movement and with the stuff we’ve coming up with now, it’s all kind of moved again,” explains Kelshaw. “It’s hard to say what kind of road we’re going to go down because we’re really only two to three songs down that road. But none of us want to stay still or rehash old material or anything like that. We want to come into it with fresh ideas, a fresh approach.”

According to Kelshaw, either way, creative integrity is paramount. “You’ve got to please yourself first because you’ve got to sell it. You can’t make music that you don’t have your heart in because that translates through your performances. You’ve got to love it first… otherwise it’s not convincing for you or anyone else.”