Highly-rated Americana and blues duo Ferris & Sylvester will soon be releasing their second studio album, ‘Otherness’, the follow-up to 2022’s AMAUK Album of the Year-winner ‘Superhuman’. That was an outstanding debut, building on a number of superb singles and EPs. However, the early signs are that the new record will be even better. To get us in the mood, the pair have just released an EP ‘Side a (Storm)’. Simply put, this is songwriting and precise musical execution of the highest standard. Issy Ferris says of the EP: “When writing this album, we felt each side of vinyl told its own story. This side is called ‘Storm’, as that’s how these songs felt when writing them – like a storm coming thick and fast, unstoppable and full of thunder.” It may be thunderous at times but there are also moments of delicate beauty and the whole thing is driven by infectious melody.
The new material is themed around the loneliness and disconnection that comes from feeling like an outsider, existing on the periphery of things – something that many listeners will be able to associate with. Inspiration was also found in the traumatic circumstances around a trip to a Nashville festival last year. While heavily pregnant, Ferris became dangerously ill and the couple’s son was born six-and-a-half weeks prematurely. Such events alter perspectives and perceptions…and help to create great music, it seems. Archie Sylvester says: “We know how it feels to have everything pulled from underneath you. And yet, somehow the world keeps spinning and we have to figure out a way to move along with it. We hope this album and our story can offer comfort and courage to those going through anything that has scarred them, or shaped them. You are not alone. This album is for anyone who feels like an outsider.”
Here is the latest single and one of the standout songs on the new EP. Aside from the lush instrumentation and textured layers, the most striking aspect of ‘End of the World’ is the vocal performance from Ferris. Her distinctive voice has real emotional resonance and character. There’s heartache and heartbreak as Ferris sings of a love that can only be ended by an imminent apocalypse. Gorgeous stuff.
