20 March 2023

London‘s synth-dream-pop FERAL FIVE – Kat and Drew Five – released
their long-awaited debut LP TRUTH IS THE NEW GOLD last month.

They introduced it with this message: “It’s an evocative voyage through a Feraltropolis style future city, and an offering of sonic elixir for heart, feet and mind. Leading us through secret spaces, changing skies, personal truths and revelations, the Ferals glide seamlessly between bold alt-pop, experimental electronica, and cinematic landscapes.”

What can I add? Turn Up The Volume‘s ears are FF fans for several years now and
this debut longplayer spoiled them again and again with a series of spins and many
more to come. Kat and Drew took their time to come up with a first full-length, and
they hit all the right buttons with this golden trance-dance-pop accomplishment.

Kat and Drew will tell us all about it in this Q&A.

Hello FF,
welcome and thanks
for taking the time
to do this interview

This July it will be 10 years since you released your debut single SKIN.
Since then several swirling singles followed. Why did it take so long
to have an album out?

“We wanted the album to be all killer no filler! Skin was a cracking single, we still love playing it live, and we’ve evolved a lot since, both as musicians and producers. We didn’t just want to put an album out because we could. We’ve released 4 EPs and a load of singles, plus we’ve been producing and remixing for other artists. We’ve been busy.”

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Now that it’s here how does it feel to have that CD and vinyl in your hands?

“Awesome. It’s a culmination of recent ideas, sonic explorations and experimental pop tendencies. It’s also a story and a journey. To have it literally in our hands and not just as
a DL is pretty cool, and it’s been great working with ethical record label Reckless Yes for
this release.”

Which artists and or music was your biggest inspiration along the way?

“We’ve a huge melting pot of musical loves from Siouxsie Sioux to Killing Joke,
Goldfrapp to Hot Chip, Billy Nomates to Billie Eilish, Daniel Avery to Kelly Lee Owens,
Hans Zimmer to Hildur Guðnadóttir. There are many.”

What’s the story behind the album’s title ‘TRUTH IS THE NEW GOLD’?

“It sums up exactly what we think, and our values right now. It came from our
song of that name, Truth Is The New Gold. We’ve experienced so many devastating
shifts in the world and people manipulating truth and reality. We wanted the title
to be purposeful, clear, and give hope.”

All songs are no older than about 2 years, besides PET SHOW
released in 2018? Does that track mean something special to you?

“We wanted the album songs to be ultra new as we were heading
in fresh lyrical and sonic directions, and most of them are.

Pet Show was our first exploration of the world of Artificial Intelligence, a playful song
about AI robo-companions. It spawned our idea of the journey for the album, which explores different kinds of truth and trust, and includes some AI sonics.”

I miss that 2019 dancefloor banger SHAKE IT. Did you
ever thought of including this one on the album?

“We had a vision for our album, and it had to be a cohesive and inspiring
piece of new work. Shake It still finds its way into our live set though.”

All the artwork for your music used to be glossy, glamorous and flashy. The cover sleeve of the album is different. It’s the title that dominates the look. A conscious choice?

“The album is high concept and thought-provoking. We wanted to make a statement. It was very exciting working with cover art legend Malcolm Garrett (Buzzcocks, Duran Duran, Simple Minds) on all our artwork and band merch, and we had many meetings to discuss ideas.

We took a very bold step in not putting our band name on the front cover – but letting
the statement speak for itself, and there’s gold on the cover! Plus wearable glamour, we collaborated with cult UK jewelers Tatty Devine on a gold mirror necklace based on the album artwork, and we’ve gold t-shirts.”

Visit FF’s shop

You recently launched a video clip for the LP’s title track.
How did the content came about? What’s the idea behind
the visuals?

“The Truth Is The New Gold music video is all about the search for truth in melting worlds. Set in beautiful landscapes it’s also unsettling as we stride across the narrows, caped in gold and morphing into new shapes ourselves.

It was entirely shot using drones, and the drones became characters too, like surveillance machines. Kat directed it, along with David Morris from Flying Film Labs who did the amazing filming.”

Any memorable anecdotes of the ‘making of’ in the studio?

“No trashed TVs just trashed hard drives! A lot of the sounds on the album were
taken from field recordings that we made and interesting objects. We were doing
lots of experimental sound making, using things that would disintegrate and never
sound the same again.

For example, never use crystals as percussion instruments!
Listen carefully and you can hear the sound of crystals
splintering.

In Feral Five we have our studio language. When one of us says ‘can
we make it sound more silver’ we know exactly what that means.”

I suppose you got this question already a million times. What about
the Artificial Intelligence vocals? What does that mean? How does
that work?

“Playing with reality in sound, we collaborated with Berlin technologists Birds on Mars who created an ‘AI Kat’ for us. Kat had to record her voice, and they trained their AI on it to give us AI vocal synthesis that we could use to make new and unique otherworldly vocals on four of the tracks.

It became a character too, an instigator, an oracle. In Silver Sky it almost sounds like an AI child, retorting to Kat’s human vocals telling her: “it’s not the end, it’s not the end.”

GOLDEN RULE is one of my favourite pieces. It’s about what we need to survive: togetherness. Should we be hopeful that this can actually happen in these troubled times?

“It’s great to hear that Golden Rule resonates with you. That was the reason it’s the final track on the album. Togetherness is key, and yes that can happen. The more chaos there
is in the world, the more people respond to each other as humans, and that is a superpower.”

Will you go out and play THE TRUTH IS THE NEW GOLD on the road?

“Yes for sure. We are working with a leading audiovisual artist on a new show that will bring the album to life, make it grow, and create a unique performance in each location.”

Is this the end of a FERAL FIVE era, a continuation or
the harbinger of a new beginning?

“We’re all about newness and new beginnings. Feral Five is on a continuum.
Anything can happen in Feral land. This is just the start.”

Thank you very much for this interview.
May the road rise with Feral Five!

STREAM/BUY
‘Truth Is The New Gold’

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