Having topped the UK’s Official Jazz & Blues Albums Chart, earned an Album of the Year at the Americana UK Awards, and played everywhere from Glastonbury to SXSW, Ferris & Sylvester have announced their new album, It’s A Joy To Be Alive, which will come out on August 14th, released via their own Archtop Records label. As its title suggests, the 11-track album is an exploration of finding joy and hope in the darkest parts of life, inspired by the duo’s own struggles after the premature birth of their son. It’s a record that’s sure to be rich with the songcraft and varied genre touchpoints of their previous records, Superhuman and Otherness, but perhaps more worldly-wise than ever before.
Archie Sylvester adds, “Writing an album all about joy is one thing, but writing it from a place of struggle is something else altogether. In writing these songs, we realised that when there is joy, life is glorious. And when there is an absence of it, there is always hope. And it’s hope that keeps us living. The message is: it’s going to be ok.”
There is also a single, 5-4-3-2-1, featuring Issy Ferris bringing righteous fury to the vocals as she narrates the imbalanced power dynamic during a phone call between a faceless corporate executive and a female employee.
Issy Ferris says, “It was on the very last writing day for this album, and we realised we wanted to inject some grit. This album is a celebration of joy, and the art of finding it where you least expect it. This song is about a time when joy was hard to find. When life, or a situation, or in our case, a bad phone call,l can tip you right over the edge. It felt important to write it, to get the anger and frustration out somehow, and turn it into something fun. And nothing feeds the soul more than playing the blues live in a room with a bunch of friends.”
The duo met ten years ago at London’s blues joint Spiritual Bar. Since then, they have released two albums, toured the world, and are now married with two children. The couple’s lives took an unexpected turn in 2022 when their son was born seven weeks early during a festival trip to Nashville. Thousands of miles from home back in England and with the lives of baby and mother in question, their introduction to parenthood was far from ordinary. They later worked to raise money and awareness for the charity Tommy’s, which funds medical research into the causes of premature birth, stillbirth, and miscarriage, and provides support to people who are going through similar experiences. They’re now patrons of The Music Venue Trust and are building a studio/label hub in the West Country.
The album is available to pre-order HERE. It will be released on pink vinyl with a signed insert and a signed CD, and the album bundle offers also include new merch items.
