Brooklyn’s Control Group

We’ve caught up with Control Group, the band of Jack Plug, Evan Reynolds, and Darren Korb, who have been compared to Dinosaur Jr, Weezer and Yuck. The band plays Spin NYC 48, East 23rd St tonight – Sat Aug 2nd 10.30pm – and again on Aug 21st at Pianos, 7pm. You can download the band’s single free from their upcoming debut album Hot Swap already or check out their latest video:

Let’s get to the interview:

Who is Control Group and what’s behind the name ?

Control Group is Jack Plug, Evan Reynolds, and Darren Korb. When we write, we try to experiment as much as possible, hence the “science-y” name.

How did you end working with Lana Del Rey?

We didn’t, actually. Our good friend Robbie Fitzsimmons, who we previously collaborated with, co-wrote a song on her latest record.

Ooops, ok… But one of you worked on a very successful soundtrack recently, right? Can you tell us more about this project?

By day, Darren is the audio director and resident composer for Supergiant Games, developers of the video games Bastion and Transistor. The soundtracks for both games have done really well so far and have gotten a great response from fans!

You racked up other impressive credentials individually, how do you split time and attention between the band and as solo artists?

All of us are extremely dedicated to making time for rock! The work we do as solo artists informs our work as a team, and our work as a team feeds energy back into our solo work.

Music Production technology changes on a weekly basis these days. These days you can have a complete recording studio on your iPad or phone… What do you think of these developments and how important is technology to your creative process?

It’s great how accessible recording technology as become. We’ve recorded all of our material ourselves, which is something we couldn’t have done 20 years ago. A lot of how we write is by recording and developing our ideas, so it’s pretty important to our creative process.

When Steve Jobs died, many people said his greatest invention was Apple itself. If you were to leave tomorrow, what would you hope would continue of you? Or put another way, what impact do you hope you’re having, culturally-speaking?

It seems like a lot of music lately has become pretty constrained. It would be nice to remind people to play with a bit more reckless abandon!

And some rapid fire questions to close of this interview. What’s the strangest thing a fan has ever said to you?

Darren was once asked to sign a baby. Does that count?

What was the last physical record you bought?

Boomtown” by Ozma

Your favourite upcoming producer/artist you discovered in 2014 and why?

This came out last year, but Minor Alps is really cool. It’s Matthew Caws from Nada Surf and Juliana Hatfield. Pretty rad.

Your favorite food after a long night out?

Probably Thai food.

What do you associate with Brooklyn?

Artisanal Mayonaise

What’s your favourite place in your town?

There’s a bar in Fort Greene called The Alibi. It’s a scummy little dive bar in a fancy neighborhood. Cheap drinks and no attitude.

Last but not least, please tell us where we can find you online and any of your projects we should check out.

Our website is controlgroupmusic.com or follow us on TwitterFacebook and Bandcamp. You can get to Darren’s work here.

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