Gain Ctrl

“This is the first proper picture of us together.”

That was Westy’s reaction when he saw the photo of us shared on the Arsenal website, and honestly, it hit different.

We’ve been friends for most of our lives, yet when you’re deep in it, you forget to pause and capture the moments.

That’s also why we’ve been quiet on here. We’ve been heads-down, focused on doing the work, but we haven’t been sharing the journey. That changes now.

Being invited to be part of the No More Red program with Arsenal & Addias means so much to us. We remember Holloway before the Emirates. Things were very different. Abandoned buildings were our playgrounds and I’m not even exaggerating.

I still remember the day I stopped my bike to photograph the change coming to our doorstep. I was so excited. So proud that we were finally getting something nice.

To us, No More Red is vital community work focused on helping young people experience their world safely. An initiative I wish our generation had. The same reason we created Gain Ctrl, because it’s what we wanted growing up. (Shoutout Westy’s old home studio setup 😂 mine wasn’t much better)

So many of our old members have reached out with incredible messages, and there’s one word they all used when describing what Gain Ctrl was to them: home.

And that is what Emirates has always been for us. A part of home to be proud of. Something that brings hope.

He’s to community, togetherness and home. North London Forever.

Sem - Gain Ctrl Founder

It feels crazy writing this, but Gain Ctrl is now officially over ten years old! We made our first instagram post on the 5th June 2014 and started our first sessions in what was then called Platform just a few weeks before.

So much has happened in that time that we’re proud of and we really wanted to post a celebratory video but the thing is, we’re too busy working on all our exciting new plans 😅

We will get around to it, but for now let’s just enjoy the milestone and celebrate all of the amazing people we have worked with along the way.

All of our previous members, we hope you’re all still creating and carrying those good vibes! Shoutout to our current members also! All the amazing partnerships we’ve had with other organisations over the years and who could forget the amazing previous Gain Ctrl staff members that helped us get to this point.

Huge thanks to each and every one of you!

Big news coming, but for now, go listen to some in celebration 🎉

Can’t believe we’re already over half way through the year, time is moving so fast

Let’s make sure our work rate keeps up, where are you at with your goals for this year?

Come in on Tuesday to assess and plan to make sure you hit your targets

When we’re not working hard in the studio we’re sometimes hosting one of our many popular Game Ctrl tournaments

Though last year we put together Game Changers with local philosopher Adam Ferner to look deeper into the games we love

Why do we play them? what do we get from them? what do we learn from them?

This workshop alto explored the making of games and introduced young people to the tools used by the professionals

Hopefully we can run this workshop again sometime in the future. Summerversity will be around in no time this year!

Just before Covid kicked in we were approached by to collaborate on a huge project

We facilitated the recording and mixing of 8 East London primary school classes over a super intense four day schedule at

Each school had written their own original song which featured a large number of instruments and vocalists

The recordings along with a little more information can be found on the Barbican website under ‘Barbican Box Album’

Outside of our weekly programming we would also do bespoke work with external organisations

We know we shouldn’t be bias but we loved each time would come to record with us

My AKF do some amazing work and have some incredible young people that always leave us wanting to record more

We thank you for collaborating with us and hope to see you all again this year