Gem Rey

One afternoon during a rainy day in the Summer, I arrived at Youth’s (Martin Glover) London studio. He was in a recording session so couldn’t hear the bell. I stood there a while and then all of a sudden the front door opened and these two lovely faces greeted me, a little amused as I was perched on top of a mountain of camera equipment, lighting gear, suitcase and an umbrella. “How long have you been sitting here for?” asked the girl. I sort of landed in the hallway equipment and all. We had a quick chat, “I’m Issy, this is Archie”. We said goodbye and that was that. On arrival at Youth’s Space Mountain Studio’s in Spain for Puretone Resonate Festival in September 2016, I popped my head downstairs to say hi to the studio… and there were those same two gorgeous faces, but this time I got surrounded by a sound I could not get enough of as their vocals travelled down the mic.

Such a pleasure to catch up with you both once again and to hear you in your true zone that makes you tick. So young and with so much enthusiasm and hunger for what you do. EP launch coming soon. Pic from our London photoshoot below.

Introducing you to Ferris & Sylvester...

We are Issy Ferris & Archie Sylvester

Issy’s from Warwickshire and Archie’s from Somerset. We now both live in London.

We’re coming up to 12 months.. It’s been a busy year.

Issy has a background in Folk and Country music and Archie has more of a Blues background. Our musical influences do crossover and by combining these genres, we’ve found our sound.

We met at a few gigs as solo performers. Then we did a couple of shows with Archie’s band and our voices sounded good together. We started writing and recording after that.

Archie – Playing guitar, good beer and any chance for an adventure.

Issy – Listening to music, watching good theatre, cooking, my family, friends and dogs.

The Room – we wrote this one together. The song describes how life is London, trying to make money and build a life for yourself. It’s a song that we think everyone who’s trying to keep afloat can relate to.

We both did. The most important thing in our songwriting is to tell a story and talk about something real; we both work by that philosophy so it’s brilliant writing together.

We want to write songs that people can relate to in their everyday lives. In the words of Bruce Springsteen, ‘when you write a good song, you shed light on people’s lives and honour their experiences.’ If we can do that, then we’ll be happy.

The thought of performing our own songs in front of a great crowd is really inspiring. Also, listening to our favourite artists really motivates us. Putting on a record by Simon & Garfunkel, Dylan, Joni, Johnny or Jimi makes you want to pick up the guitar and write.

We had made plans with Youth to record an EP that we had been working on. He asked if we would come to his place in Albunuelas, Andalucia during the festival week to work on the project, then perform during the weekend. It was an amazing week and we had such a great time, meeting so many inspiring people and working so hard as well. We worked closely with Youth and his team, tucked away in the studio for most of the week. Then we performed throughout the weekend. We’re so proud to have been part of it.

Right now, we are putting the finishing touches on the EP that we recorded in Spain with Youth. We’re continuing to write and perform as much as possible.

2017 – Stay Tuned!

We were in Camden at our favourite venue, Spiritual Bar, just a few weeks ago watching J. B. Paterson who was outstanding.

In 2017, we’ll see the release of our first EP and will be working as hard as we can to promote that. At some point in the future, we’d love to spend some time in the East of Iceland, set up a studio out there and record an album or two.. after our world tour of course.