Having topped the UK’s Official Jazz & Blues Albums Chart, earned Album of the Year at the Americana UK Awards, and played everywhere from Glastonbury to SXSW, Ferris & Sylvester now unveil their brand new single ‘5-4-3-2-1’. It comes from the husband-and-wife duo’s third album, ‘It’s A Joy To Be Alive’, which follows on August 14th and will be released via their own Archtop Recordslabel. Listen HERE.
A stomping gritty blues number played with the frenetic garage-rock energy, ‘5-4-3-2-1’ shows that Ferris & Sylvester excel just as much when putting their foot on the accelerator as they do with their more introspective slow burners. Issy Ferris’s beguiling vocal brings righteous fury and sheer passion in equal message 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 where joy was hard to find. When life, or a situation, or in our case a bad phone call 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 new single joins the recently released title track and ‘Fishing Song’ in previewing the ‘It’s A Joy To Be Alive’ album. As its title suggests, the 11-track album is an exploration of finding joy and hope in the darkest of parts of life, inspired by the duo’s own struggles after the premature birth of their son. It’s a record that’s rich with the pure songcraft and varied genre touchpoints of their previous records,‘Superhuman’ and ‘Otherness’, but stronger and more vulnerable than ever before.
Archie Sylvester adds, “Writing an album all about joy is one thing, but writing it from a place of struggle is someone else altogether. In writing these songs, we realised 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.”
‘It’s A Joy To Be Alive’ is available to pre-order HERE. It will be released on pink vinyl with a signed insert and a signed CD. Album bundle offers also include new merch items.
Ferris & Sylvester met ten years ago at London’s blues joint Spiritual Bar. Since then they have released two albums, toured the world playing festivals and selling out venues, and are now married with two children. Straddling the worlds of folk, blues, soul and Americana, honest storytelling born from their own personal experiences is at the centre of all they do. They have shared stages with personal heroes such as Robert Plant, and earned praise across the board, including Rolling Stone, BBC Introducing, Classic Rock, Clash, Wonderlandand many more.
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. Having also welcomed a daughter, Issy and Archie’s story continues to unfold as they’re now patrons of The Music Venue Trust and are building a studio / label hub in the West Country. They remain the driven, joyful souls that first met in a blues bar a decade ago.
