Here’s the latest single from the new album It’s A Joy To Be Alive by UK americana favourites Ferris & Sylvester, and it’s a little slice of self-mythologising as the duo go back to their early days as a couple. The Game takes us back ten years to when Issy Ferris and Archie Sylvester first met in the bustle of Camden’s renowned folk and blues venue the Spiritual Bar. As the song tells, there was some to-ing and fro-ing, some phone calls and some walking you home…and the rest, as they say, is history.
Issy Ferris says of the song, “It has taken 10 years for us to write a love song about ourselves and our story. We were touring a couple of years ago, and we had this sudden urge to swap out our darker, heavier material for something light and fun. I think Archie’s working title for the project was ‘I really f*cking love you’. The Game was one of the first songs we wrote. We wanted it to feel like the great British love songs of the 1970s. A bit Kinks, a bit Carpenters. It turns out, we are hopelessly sentimental and romantic.”
We’re more contrarian than hopelessly romantic, and we’d say there’s more than a touch of Dusty Springfield about the song, and if you think that’s a bit much, then can we settle on Sandie Shaw?
Americana UK’s interview with Ferris & Sylvester is coming in the next couple of weeks. They talk about the new album and how it feels like it’s the start of a new phase of their career.