 The duo wanted to "write some heavier music" that was "very guitar-based and thrashy" but had to slow the songs down due to "various injuries".In order to promote "Take Control", Slaves initially announced a 15-date UK tour in November 2016, although later announced a smaller-scale "Back in the Van" UK tour for September 2016 to precede the release of the album, in which the band are set to play much smaller venues across the UK, which normally "never get bands coming back to them" when they become more widely known.In order to acquire tickets, buyers had to pre-order the album from the band's website before tickets went on sale.