CLOSE UP Artist Spotlight – FAERS
Close Up Promotions’ Artist Spotlight this week comes from London boys FAERS who are now back in business releasing those singles. Check out what the guys have been up to in this exclusive interview.
You’ve been bubbling up on the London indie scene for a little while now with numerous sold out shows, and you’re set to release your debut EP! What was the single biggest thing that made you decide now is the time?
Steven (Vocals): We spent a lot of 2018 writing. Not necessarily with the intention of putting together an EP, but the four tracks we ended with just felt like they came together as a body of work.
Sam (Guitar): Travelling to Sweden and Germany had really influenced our writing as well. Particularly ‘Death Sails’, which we will be releasing this month. Experiencing those music scenes in other cities and working with our producer Michael Smith helped us to shape our sound.
Your tunes have been listened to by hundreds of thousands across the world as Spotify informs us, Spotify is now such a big player in the industry, how important do you think it is for emerging acts?
Alex (bass): We feel so honoured that all of those people took time to listen to our music. There’s a lot of new music being released all of the time, and I think Spotify is really important for new artists or bands getting their music heard by new fans. It also helped us massively when we were looking where to play shows, we saw that a lot of our streams were coming from Hamburg in Germany and because of that we were able to get a show out there.
If you created a FaersFestival, and could pick three headliners, who would you go for?
Steven: Good question! Foals and the Mystery Jets would be my choices for headliners. If we could get the Maccabees out of retirement for a comeback that would be sick!
Sam: We all have quite different tastes in music, so I reckon we would need a stage each. Steven could look after the main stage; Alex can take the acoustic tent; Morgan could curate a blues stage and Ryan would put on a heavier stage. I’d probably want to have one day of hip-hop and maybe a day of post-punk. Artists like Fontaines DC, the Roots, Slowthai, Idles, would be on my booking list.
What’s your favourite song of the FAERS back catalogue to play live?
Sam: I always enjoy playing new material live. Putting a new creation out there and seeing how people react can be pretty exciting. There’s a new one from the EP called ‘Closer’, which I’m enjoying playing live. It has a breakdown section with some electronic beats in it, making it quite different from our other tracks.
Steven: Lust and Youth for me! We have a heavier live ending for it, so it goes well at the end of our set. It always goes off!
The band’s new single ‘Warriors’ is currently featured on The Indie Playlist. Follow our playlists on Spotify to discover new music and unearth new artists.