Interview with Control The Storm
Beermageddon, 27/08/2021
By Sheri Bicheno
Hello guys! Miss Bicheno here and I have returned to bring you a little chat with Control The Storm that took place at this year’s Beermageddon.
Let me tell you, what an amazing weekend this was, Jim and his team really pulled out the stops to deliver such a safe, friendly and killer event. After the hype and buzz of Bloodstock, this was such a wonderful & chilled environment.
As some of you know, Control The Storm (hailing from the land of Bristol) are currently one of the UK’s most spoken about, up and coming Melodic Rock/Metal bands on the Underground scene. They are popping up absolutely everywhere! And I. AM. HERE FOR IT!
These guys are always so friendly and humble and hugely talented in their genre – the usual “You should go check them out if you haven’t” applies here…but TENFOLD.
In an impromptu moment, I was swiftly taken to their tour van for a catch up chat… To be honest with you, being kidnapped by Firouzeh (Vocalist) and Raedon (Keys and Vocals) – well, I could think of a lot worse situations to be in…
Sheri: I am sat here with Control The Storm! How are you?
Control The Storm: Hiiiii! How are you??
Sheri: I’m good, I’m good! So, so pleased to see you guys after so long.
Raedon: It’s always nice to see you.
Sheri: I think the last time I saw you guys was in Manchester!
Raedon: At The Rebellion!! A long time ago now… Like March 2019 or something like that…
Sheri: That was it!
Firouzeh: Before the Pandemic I think…
Raedon: It was the first gig wasn’t it, with Matt wasn’t it?
Sheri: That was a good gig as well…So how have you guys been? I guess you’re gonna get asked a lot but how have you been through the whole pause?
Raedon: …I got fat. Hahahaha.
Sheri: Me too!
*Everyone starts laughing*
Raedon: We made it…hahaha
Firouzeh: Yeah, we made it through! Thankfully haha. We’re out the other side of it now.
Sheri: I’m guessing you have many plans coming up now that things have been given the green light a bit more? I’m guessing you’re planning plans?
Raedon: Yeah, everything got postponed again so we had a European and UK tour set up for Autumn this year and that’s now been put back to March 2022 so it’s definitely been a thing that happened…
Firouzeh: Download for the third time…
Raedon: Yeah, third time’s the charm for Download haha. It’s weird, when you’re in a band and you find out that you’re gonna play a big festival and then you’re not allowed to say anything until they say…so you have to sit on it…and it’s the worst thing in the world!! Hahaha. Cuz YOU know that you’re playing…and they know that you’re playing…
Firouzeh: We were sat on it for like a year!
Raedon: Yeah it was months wasn’t it, cuz we found out in 2019 and then we had to sit on it until we had to make an announcement.
Firouzeh: Yeah, it was meant to be announced in March but instead, there was a cancellation announcement haha!
Raedon: We didn’t even make it onto the poster and we were like “Argggghhh!” Then when they announced for 2021, we were added to the poster.
Firouzeh: Yeah, so we didn’t have to wait haha.
Sheri: Dammit! So that’s prolonging so much excitement…
Control The Storm: Yeah!
Firouzeh: But that’s gonna be one hell of a gig though! The energy you know…
Raedon: Just think if it’s anything like the Bloodstock show, we’ll be fine.
Sheri: It’s gonna be awesome! Are you doing anything studio wise at the moment?
Firouzeh: Yeah, we’re writing our next album at the moment…which should be out before Download.
Raedon: I think we’re aiming for just before Download.
Firouzeh: There’ll be singles coming out anyways beforehand.
Sheri: We need a bit of injection of you guys because its been so long! You now have Aaron from Akkadian in the line-up, which I’m really excited about as I’ve a little history there with Akkadian. I saw their second ever gig by chance and I was so blown away, I was like “I need you guys to play for me ASAP!” So, they played my gig at the Giffard in Wolverhampton and IT. WAS. AMAZING.
Raedon: Oh wow!! They’re great aren’t they? It’s like Meshuggah and Gojira have had a baby hahaha.
Sheri: Absolutely haha! So, I’m really excited that you guys have got him because he is such an incredibly talented drummer.
Raedon: So are we, I mean it’s a shame that our previous drummer went back to Bulgaria as we love him to bits and we haven’t really said anything online about his plans as he was a bit unsure about what he was doing but as things started going again, he just said that he wasn’t gonna be available so we ended up scouring the internet for people that we knew – cuz that was the thing, I didn’t wanna just put an advert out and be like…do it cold. So, Aaron had come to see us at Bloodstock and he came up after the show and was like “Wow, this is really cool!” and I added him on Facebook, he said he was a drummer and I was like “Well we should give that guy a little shout and see if he’s available and sure enough, he was and he learnt the set in about a week.
Firouzeh: Yeah, he’s very eager and great!
Raedon: Yeah, he’s very very good. Lovely guy.
Firouzeh: So yeah, we are so happy that he’s on board with us at the moment.
Sheri: He’s definitely an amazing addition. In terms of when everything was going on, did you have to wait long for the writing process for your new material?
Raedon: Initially, it was all online as I was still challenged in the housing department. I was living in my van for the lockdown so when I finally managed to get my gear set up again, I finally was able to get the ideas out of my head and we quite quickly got some material together the first time we got together as a band but we were doing that kinda back and forth online for a while. But there’s something about that kinda takes the warmth and makes it feel quite disjointed, we definitely write better when we are in a room together. So yeah, we’ve made a really good start on the next record and hopefully it’s all gonna be finished by January.
Sheri: In terms of songwriting, do you collectively come together or…?
Firouzeh: Yeah, we have individual ideas and they we bring it together and to the table and we write collectively, it just depends…
Raedon: Then we delete it all and start again hahaha.
Sheri: Always the way haha
Raedon: I’ve got a file on my computer of about 300 revisions of songs where we want to change this bit…then change this bit…so they dont come to life until we start playing them live. So, things can change. Hopefully, you know, The Power of Desire will come out tonight haha.
Firouzeh: Yeah, it feels good to be playing it because we wrote that song before lockdown…
Raedon: Yeah, we had it ready for January 2020 and were gonna release it before Download 2020…
Firouzeh: Yeah and then everything happened and didn’t end up releasing it because we wanted to find the right time to release it.
Raedon: Yeah, I think we did. We needed a bit of a boost coming into this year as it was all so crap and we thought “Well we have to do SOMETHING as we’re not playing live, we’re not really putting content out, let’s just release Desire and get it ready to go.” We did a video and we put it out on 8th January…and it’s been the most successful thing we’ve done!
Firouzeh: Yeah!
Sheri: Yeah it really took off!
Raedon: Yeah, to get like 100,000 views on the video on YouTube was pretty cool. So, Spotify took off as well because of it. So yeah, it’s just been kinda nice. So maybe, in a way, lockdown in that respect has been really good for us.
Sheri: You’re in high demand at the moment, you guys…
Firouzeh: Awww! It feels that way haha.
Sheri: Well, you’re playing Beermageddon tonight, which after the hype of Bloodstock, is really nice. What are you guys doing after? Are you heading home or you gonna stay the weekend?
Raedon: I’m gonna get rickety rickety wrecked! Hahaha.
Sheri: Thank you so much for having a little humble chat with me, really looking forward to seeing you guys play!
Control The Storm: Thank you so much Sheri.
Raedon: Love ya!
❤
‘Desire’ (Official Video)
CONTROL THE STORM ARE:
Firouzeh Razavi – Vocals
Raedon Mac – Keyboard/Vocals
Paul O’Shea – Bass
Rich Shillitoe – Guitar
Matt Smith – Guitar
Aaron Wright – Drums
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Sheri Bicheno and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this interview, unless you have the strict permission of said party. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.