Video Interview: Chad Ross of Comet Control Talks Inside the Sun and More
The third album from not-quite-Toronto’s Comet Control, Inside the Sun (review here), came out on Aug. 24 in a partnership with Tee Pee Records that extends back to before Comet Control was a band. It is a record that is both consistent with the band’s two prior outings, 2016’s Center of the Maze (review here) and 2014’s self-titled debut (review here), and marked by change, finding upon its release that guitarist/vocalist Chad Ross and bassist Nicole Ross (née Howell) have relocated to Northern Ontario, and working on a home studio there while also parenting a soon-to-be-toddler. Meanwhile, the band has also restructured at least in its studio incarnation, with Andrew Moszynski moving from guitar to drums — Marco Mozin will handle the task live when/if that becomes a thing again — and Jay Lemak has taken over on keys. Oh and they built a studio for themselves too, but apparently that’s no big deal. They do it all the time.
Honestly, a new keyboardist would be enough change for most groups on one record — “Well, we’ve got a new keyboardist, so…” — but if you listen to Inside the Sun, it still sounds very much like Comet Control, and that aforementioned consistency comes from the partnership of Chad Ross and Andrew Moszynski, who’ve been working together since their days in acid explorers Quest for Fire. The foundation of that collab and the writing of both, as well as the pervasive melodicism and songcraft central to the band’s approach means that Inside the Sun is very much a third Comet Control album, and brings with it the sense of manifesting the essential aspects of their sound that one hopes a band who’ve now been at it for eight-plus years would be hitting toward. If I called it one of the year’s best records — it is — would that be enough summary?
Probably not, which is one more reason I wanted to talk to Ross about putting Inside the Sun together. And as we dug into the record, particularly the uptempo opener “Keep on Spinnin'” and the manner in which side B unfolds from there in lush fashion as it does, I grew more curious about the Ross/Moszynski writing as the core of Comet Control, especially as is pertained to their prior work in Quest for Fire, which is, if you listen to the two side-by-side, a different band. Ross discusses the divergent purposes between the two and the growth of Comet Control as its own thing, as well as where it might go in the unknowable future. In the more immediate, he’s also got a new solo record coming out next Spring under the moniker C. Ross, and if you ever dug into the stuff he released as Nordic Nomadic, you know that’s something to look forward to as well. I asked him outright for an early listen. Nothing yet, though he did tip me off to the new Dark Bird, and the Rick White & Eiyn Sof 2019 release, Secret River, Hidden Place, both of which are well worth searching out for the curious.
We spoke in the morning earlier this week, I in the wood paneling, he in the woods. The trees in his background were amazing, and he described going out there with an acoustic guitar and noodling around, which, yeah, made sense. How could you not?
Enjoy:
Comet Control, Inside the Sun Interview with Chad Ross, Sept. 13, 2021
Inside the Sun is available now through Tee Pee Records and streaming in full below. I’ll post more info on the forthcoming C. Ross album as I get it. More at the links.
