Control Of The Going's debut album I Love You, But It's Going To Rain is released today. To celebrate the release, Liam Hart, the band's front man walks us through the recording process of the album and some of the songs that make it up.
MANCHESTER - OCTOBER 2016 - THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
"She wandered the streets of Ashton-Under-Lyne. I'd see her in the libraries, the museums and galleries. Just walking around. Minding her own business. Sometimes there was a man with her, sometimes she was on her own. I wondered what her story was. I never spoke to her. I just wrote what I saw. That's where She came from. I don't see her anymore, and I wonder where she has gone.This song is her unknown legacy. She started this story."
"She was proving to be a huge success. While I was in Chicago, we were being played on KEXP, WZRD and a few other stations in Chicago. We were even played at the Slippery Slope in downtown Chicago. Unfortunately, during this time myself and Ashley lost our Grandad Ken Atkinson. He was a huge early influence on our musical development, and it was a huge blow to us both to lose him. Though, in me this sparked a new period of songwriting. The album now bears the fruits of this development through Clouds, Save My Memories and Sell Your Soul. The majority of those tracks were written in Chicago."
"She really took me by surprise. I knew the track was good, and that it was really catchy. But the amount of attention we were getting was unprecedented. It would eventually lead us to Glasgow, Scotland on our first tour, where we impressed indie record label, Wrong Way Records. Within a few months, we were signed, and work compiling the album was about to begin."
VIBE STUDIO - FEBRUARY 2017 - IT'S GOING TO RAIN
"We officially signed with Wrong Way Records on the 16th February 2017. At this point, She hadn't been officially released yet. On the 4th March, we let our single loose to a sold out crowd at Gulliver's, Manchester. Hot off the heels of the successful single launch, we began recording our then untitled debut album on the 14th March. Being back at Vibe was exactly what we needed. We were working in the same environment where we recorded She, with the same engineer and producer who sculpted it into a masterpiece, Dean Glover."
"Without Dean, I very much doubt that this record would have been completed, let alone sound as good as it does. The quality of the record is first class. This is a testament to the hard work of the band and the expertice of Dean. Dean is a very active producer. He was involved in every aspect of the recording. He played acoustic guitar on Family and parts of the lead guitar on You're Mine and Star. During the recording of the record, Dean was the 7th member of the band."
"We decided on 10 songs for the album. She was not one of those songs. We felt that this new record was strong enough to stand on its own and we were really proud of that. As recording continued, 10 turned into 11 with The Message being converted into a double track to blend sides A and B together."
"At one point during the recording of my lead guitar we had over 30 guitar effects pedals all daisy chained together to create this truly original tone. Effectively I was playing through three pedal boards with all kinds of effects going on. This was especially prevalent on tracks like The Message. We really went to town on this track. There's all sorts of "reverse guitar shit" going on there. Reverse guitar shit... yeah we coined that recording this record too."
VIBE STUDIO - JUNE 2017 - THIS IS MANCHESTER
"We wanted the album to tell a story. We didn't want it to become a collection of songs because we wanted it to flow naturally and take people on a journey. Unfortunately, we didn't know what the story was while we were writing it. The album and its name, in a way wrote itself for us. We had decided months before that we would call the album I Love You But It's Going To Rain. This didn't really mean anything to me at that point. It took once again, tragedy to force me to realise something. This time it was the loss of my Dad, Andrew Hart on the 20th May and the Manchester bombing on the 22nd."
"I Love You But It's Going To Rain was in fact a premonition of what was about to come for us and in that moment, it all made sense. The album is a sad love story. It is hope with an foreboding sense of doom. It is life, and it is death, and to me it is both brutal and beautiful. It is a reflection of what it means to be from Manchester. It too is a warning. We all know the rain will come, and we should be prepared for when it does."
VIBE STUDIO - JULY 2017 - REVERSE GUITAR SHOT
"There was a moment when I thought that this record will never see the light of day. We started to hear rumours that Wrong Way Records would be unable to fulfil their contractual obligations to press the record and that subsequently we would need to find a new record label. Eventually these fears turned out to be very real and we were searching for a new label again. Unlike other bands, who I am truly gutted for, we found a new home almost immediately. Our new home would be Sister 9 Records. It is thanks to them that we managed to release this record and it is also thanks to them for encouraging us to put She on the record!"
NEW MILLS - NOVEMBER 2017 - MAKING THE BEER
"Discussions on creating our own ale began in September. The idea stemmed from an idea which Ste had. He approached Torrside Brewing from New Mills, Derbyshire and pretty much straight away we'd agreed on a collaboration ale. After a few weeks of intense research and development involving much ale drinking, we settled on the style of ale which we thought would suit a gig atmosphere but would also compliment the listening of the album and also something which we liked to drink too."
"Brewing for the first batch began on the 12th November. Chris, Nick and Peter did most of the work, but myself and Ashley broke down all the hops and added them to the mixture. After a lot of standing around and drinking, we added the yeast and let the ale do it's thing! Hopefully, you're enjoying a nice pint of our ale as you are reading this pamphlet. Cheers!"
PS MIRABEL - DECEMBER 2017 - BEHIND THE LYRICS
"Control Of The Going is a brotherhood of sorts. We all know each other through family ties, through being friends at school, nursery, college or have met throughout our journey. Therefore, all of the royalties from our music are shared evenly between us. Which means as of right now, all of what we make goes back into being musicians and we all have full time jobs while we moonlight as musicians."
Warcrime
"That being said, writing credits are acknowledged for posterity. Warcrime, is one of the oldest tracks on the album. It developed in 2015 while we were practising at our old practice space above Aatma and the Peer Hat. Ashley developed the main guitar lick and the lyrics, I jammed along on the drums, and eventually Matt refined the drums to a level of perfection. I also adjusted/rewrote the lyrics to serve the song better. During the recording of the album, Dean suggested that we changed the structure to create a more dynamic. So that's what we ended up doing!"
Star
"Star is my baby. I have always loved this song, since I first imagined it in my sleep, however at the time that I wrote this song, I was unable to sing it the way I heard it in my head. While learning how to sing it, I learned how to better use my voice. This song assured me of the kind of singer I was. Written about a close loved one (They know its about them), Star was also the beginning of me trying to tell stories through my songs. For that I have Sofia Sourianou to thank. The recording of Star was very unique. It isn't a technical masterpiece, it is a repetitious 4/4 beat made up from 3 different chords. The structure doesn't change either."
"Yet Star is a song of two halves. The first half is dominated by a solitary acoustic guitar, vocals and some percussion. Whereas the second side becomes a ballad of some sorts. It develops from nothing into this huge machine with many different moving parts, all small but integral to the song. For example, little things like how Dean followed my singing with an overdriven slide guitar. Now completed finally after years of working on it, Star is exactly how I wanted it to sound. "
Collaborations with Rob Manton
"Love you more, Family and Fade Away were all written in partnership with Rob Manton from Hey Bulldog. Family is a homage to the fans that have got us here so far and Love You More is a personal homage again to someone I love very much. Love You More and Family developed out of playing together for a special gig at the Castle in November 2016. I wrote the lyrics for all three, but everything else was sculpted as a team.
Fade Away is dedicated completely to my Dad, and I struggle to listen to it as it is very close to the bone. But I hope that everyone else enjoys it. Rob actually came into the studio to record the guitar for Fade Away and it was the last track which we recorded on the album. He is a professional. He came in during an afternoon session at Vibe having played the night before with Hey Bulldog, and knocked the acoustic guitar tracks out within a couple of takes.
The rest was up to us. Tom, being a really useful musical Swiss army knife, stepped in to play the Hammond style organ which we ended up using to back the acoustic up, as the song is very naked and delicate. Hopefully it showcases a different side to us, as it is a departure from the wall of sound we normally have track to track."
You're Mine
"Those of you that have been following us for a long time now, will notice the similarity between In Line and You're Mine. If you did, well done. They are pretty much the same. That is because when we got into the studio to record In Line, I wasn't happy with the lyrics and the structure of the track. To me, the lyrics didn't mean anything. For my own sanity I had to rewrite them. I rewrote all of the lyrics the night before recording of the vocals started. All of the lyrics apart from You're Mine! I couldn't find two words that had the same syllables as In Line which also rhymed with In Line. So I slept on it, hoping to find the right lyrics in the morning. They didn't come. It took Ste suggesting random words which rhymed with In Line for us to come to the conclusion that You're Mine was perfect."
"The vocals for the album were all completed over a two day weekend session. How I did this, I have no idea as I was recovering from a bad case of bronchitis and I was struggling to sing like I normally would. Star in particular was tough to do as I just couldn't hold my breath long enough. After many honey brews made by Tom and Katie, and a lot of positive encouragement from Dean, we managed to get what we were after."
"One of my favourite aspects of You're Mine was again an idea suggested by Dean. To once again use the lead guitar to follow the vocals and to reinvent the guitar solo, which when the track was In Line, I was never happy with, despite many fans being a fan of it. To do this, we used the daisy chain of 30+ effects pedals. It had all sorts going on. And once again, we decided to let Dean have some fun on the guitar. All of the lead guitar on You're Mine was played by Dean, and personally, I think it is some of the best guitar work on the whole album. Cheers Dean!"
Control Of The Going are on Facebook, Twitter and Soundcloud.
Read our interview with them about the album here.
Our review of the album can be found here.
They launching the album with an instore at Altrincham's Honeybeat Vinyl Cafe tonight (February 23rd) and on home territory at Ashton-Under-Lyne Witchwood tomorrow night (February 24th).
The album will be released digitally and on vinyl and can be ordered from their Bandcamp.
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