Mixing Realities: An Interview With Producer cktrl

Art via Evan Solano

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Staley Sharples says that writing is telling yourself you’re worthless and a God at the same time.

His moniker is an acronym for “can’t keep to reality.” London-based multi-instrumentalist Bradley Miller works through lush and expansive instrumentation as cktrl to mine the depths of his personal experiences. Releasing a series of critically acclaimed EPs from 2020 to 2022, cktrl generated a co-sign from Beyoncé with a feature on her visual album Black Is King, along with gigs composing for Dior and Virgil Abloh’s Off-White runways. But within this success, Miller found himself yearning still for broader means of self-expression. spirit, his debut album, captures Miller’s deeply personal and unconventional evolution.

To understand the present of spirit, we need to look back 10 years to Miller’s buzzy NTS DJ residency and a 2015 Boiler Room debut. In spite of his accolades, Miller wasn’t finding the community he was hoping for through music. Then, the pandemic happened. Clubs shuttered, community spaces withered, and Miller took the silence as a moment to search for a renewed sense of purpose. Connecting his background in electronica, classical, and jazz, Miller formally launched his multi-faceted instrumental project cktrl with the 2020 single “Robyn” on UK label Touch N’ Bass.

Classically trained as a saxophonist, clarinetist, and pianist, Miller’s sound is just as much influenced by his Jamaican and Montserratian heritage. Barring a few tracks aided by Hans Zimmer’s go-to collaborator Tom Bailey, Miller mixed the majority of spirit to help crystalize the intangibles of falling in love with a record.

“Whenever you hear a sound system playing, you’ll hear the bass, a little bit of the highs from the distance. You can’t make out what the song is, but as you’re driving past it, it starts to come into what it is, and then you go past it again and it comes back into that,” Miller says. “I just love that feeling. How I’ve mixed the album is very much for that. Even the tracks that are heavily orchestral, they’re still mixed like a reggae song. That’s what also brings out more of the feeling in the music.”

Community is spirit’s driving force, with the words of bell hooks, “healing is an act of communion,” pulsing through the album. The songs are a triptych of pages torn from his diary, tracking the emotional flow of Miller among the seasons of his life transpiring during the making of the album.

“The process happened in three stages,” Miller reflects. “I made something in April, which ended up being called ‘April,’ those were the first tracks that were made on spirit, then I made some more music in November. In between April and November, everything I made didn’t fit what was going on with spirit. In November I kind of got back into another groove, did some sessions with my friend, and then in February, I did another set of sessions, and it just came together from that.”

In the three-year wash of time between releases, Miller laid the foundation required to turn his vision for spirit into a reality, building a new team of management and publicists to help him execute his next chapter. “This album has brought so many people to the table that it’s kind of crazy,” he remarks. “When you find people who actually believe in you, make you feel valued, and great, and find ways to make your ideas come alive, it’s amazing. It’s been a blessing, everyone who’s come into my life.”

cktrl and I spoke about his debut album, the power of live performance, self-expression, and his dream venue.