Last week Carousel Clouds released their second album Control Zed, the follow-up to 2018's Tales Of Coincidence. We caught up with Neil from the band to walk us through the eleven songs that make up the record.
1 The Drums
The first track we released from these songs, so the perfect start to the album. It’s short, frenetic, melodic, and hopefully cohesive! The song was born from a drumbeat Matt (Anderson, drums) started playing one night at the rehearsal room. I recorded it on my phone, took it home, and started working on it. I had a lyric referencing ‘the drums’, so it seemed to be a good fit, as all I had musically was the drum beat at that point. It considers venues like The Roadhouse and Sound Control in Manchester closing, spaces where so much music, connection, life had once been. Matt features heavily in the video and artwork, keeping the drum theme. The song itself is 2-and-a-half minutes, with at least three time signatures, but got played on the radio! Joking aside, we were really pleased Steve Lamacq played it on his 6 Music Recommends show - it reassured us we were on the right track with this album.
2 Splendour
Written about being visited by, and going to a festival with, a ghost. It originally felt its way out of the guitar in 5/4 time - initially quite a different acoustic guitar pick part. When putting down the demo, I accidentally added a beat, so it is now a bit in 5, then a bit in 6, and back again. Luckily, Matt can count in 11s, and created a monster drum beat that flows and makes it all seem intentional! We added some haunting effects, stripped the verses back, dialled up the dark, and added whispers to enhance the ethereal effect. Dale (Moran, bass) put his walking baseline down in the chorus, and brought the whole thing to life, so to speak.
3 Shake Shake
A song written following the strange existence of regaining consciousness, where you can hear or see - or both - but things are not yet fully clear. It was written on the guitar and more or less finished, then we worked it as a band. This was in our live set before we began recording, so came together quickly for the record. We put this song out as an EP lead track. The video was all the inspiration of the director, Rod McFarlane. It was a dark, damp cellar and I had to perform my own stunt - hands tied and falling off a chair! The fake kidnapping also raised a few eyebrows, but the finished video looks great. A ghost story, but an uplifting one.
4 Escape From The Cross
This song tells a story. The characters are looking to ‘escape’. ‘The cross’ here could signify lots of things; a place of reference, a marker on a map, an item of significance, perhaps symbolic or spiritual, and that feeling of being tied down to something. Is there a way out? Do we even need to ‘escape’ at all? Musically, it began as a guitar part - an early demo part still forms the intro in the final mix - which was looped into a psych track, and a different song structure for us. It included electronic drum parts, and Dickon (Kyme-Wright, guitars, various other instruments, programming, engineering) evolved these and the demo parts up into the song we have now. The final vocal was re-recorded, and Dickon added the harmonies that give the song’s coda that choral, gospel, almost hymn-like crescendo. Do we need to be tied down to things? Well, we certainly pushed our own musical boundaries putting this song together.
5 Skin And Bones
We debuted this song at the Tales of Coincidence Manchester launch show, so it links the two albums together. Jam (James Hayward III, keys) had joined to play that show, and we were also working on this song around that time. The keys really added to it, got the song ready to be performed and recorded, and that gave us something to focus after the album release. Sometimes when you work on something for so long, that when it’s done, there’s a hollow as you can think, ‘What next?’ But having this song helped us to fill that, and to answer that. Musically, and lyrically, it starts intentionally sombre, before building a gradual rhythm, an assurance, a defiance. It’s a song about hope, and finding some even where it might seem lost. Another video by Rod. It was a very early start for filming, and my brief was, “Are you ok in caves? And are you scared of bats?” Intriguing! The track closes Side A, and Dickon created a crescendo of rhythms, sounds, and even a ukulele to really centre things off. Time to flip to Side B…
6 [Control Zed]
An album interlude. After building up to the drama of Skin and Bones, it seemed appropriate to have a pause for reflection… This instrumental started as a guitar part idea recorded in my kitchen, which Dickon worked up into the full track. Ended up sticking with the original guitar recording from my phone, as I couldn’t remember how I had played it originally! It contains a sample of how to make the perfect cup of tea, appropriately enough. It has been cleared for use, but some streaming platforms are not keen on the BFI sample, so this track will be on the vinyl and downloads. Listen carefully, and take a nice tea break, before Side B begins…
7 Paris
The beginnings of this song actually came in the moments after we came off stage from our first ever gig. Another song from an idea by Matt. He wrote a guitar part, which formed the basis the song was built around. I love how loose the band appears to have recorded this song, to me it sounds almost as if being improvised, but yet staying perfectly in sync. Lyrically, it’s about people helping each other out when they most need it, and people being helped at their time of need.
8 The Answer
A heavy track. Loud. Writing and performing music, being on stage, can be an amazing experience. And totally different when in the ‘centre’, as opposed to my previous year on bass, stage right. This was written about seeing nothing but lights, but with the feeling most eyes behind them are looking at me. Are they expecting anything of me? Am I doing what I’m supposed to be? Should the band be more how they want, or do we just do what we want? Or am I thinking too much into it all, if people keep coming to see the shows…? Although it may sound uncertain, it does come from a place of confidence and clarity in what the band and I are doing, self-belief conquering the doubts. With the drums and guitar crashes to hammer that point. Hopefully, that message of defiance and belief comes across, for any given situation.
9 Hide The Sky
This really took hold once Matt put his drums down, and laid the groove for the track. It was written whilst considering whether we treasure what we have enough, whilst we still have it. Sometimes a building, a group, an area, or a whole scene can change very quickly. Gone forever. The track opens with the sounds of construction works Dickon recorded outside his, and ends with some birds and nature sounds from outside mine. We thought these committed a permanent reminder of these instances to tape, and embellish the themes of the song. The harshness of construction and change to start, the soothing remind of nature and contemplation to finish. The importance of both, side by side.
10 Where The Light Comes In
Ben Mulvey, who played keys on our first record, recorded an instrumental, piano-led track, and chose this title. He donated it to the band, and I added a vocal part. We kept the song structure and vocal idea, but Dickon completely re-worked the track, which means that - apart from Ben’s initial piano intro - I have no idea where the instrumentation came from! It is a real collaborative effort, three of us interpreting the track and each taking it to a new direction. But I think the result is incredible; dark, mysterious, uncompromising. Which is all coincidentally a great match for the lyric - which was written about battling those darker times to create something positive. Un unintentional match!
11 Through The Wall
A song about connecting - with ourselves, with those near to us, with our surroundings. There may be barriers or walls, physical and metaphorical, but can we reach beyond them? It was inspired by true events, and then demoed very quickly. I remember listening back on repeat that same evening, on a train to a gig. The violin really elevated the reflective emotion. The final addition for the whole album was Tam (Middleton)’s vocals for this - which i think is just wonderful, perfect, and entirely fitting. I’d given her the track but not much background, and her interpretation and imagination for is just blew my mind. It closes the album, to end with that message of connecting, reaching out, and positivity.
And that’s our album Control Zed! A bit about where it came from, how we wrote and recorded it, and some info behind it.
Carousel Clouds' website can be found here and they are on Facebook and Twitter.
The album is available to preorder via Bandcamp.
They play Didsbury Art Of Tea (November 6, acoustic) and Manchester Peer Hat (January 23, 2026)
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