Adrift With FERS: The Supergroup Takes You Through Its ‘Tropical Shoegaze’ Sound

To many, FERS would be considered a dream group making dreamy music (Credit: Muhammad Zharfan and Nur’Aisyahbi)

When several sparks come together, you have a singular firework that roars radiantly. Such is the effervescent composition of FERS, a local quartet that many might deem a supergroup. Lingering residues from its members’ past projects – which include Giants Must Fall, wyd:syd and enec.e – now rouse the core of FERS’ artistry, and it’s a unified miscellany that sounds both familiar and recharged. This serendipitous voltage runs through the dynamic of the band, and judging from their amalgamated output, they’re clearly basking in each other’s company.

‘Tropical shoegaze’ is the bespoke descriptor they’ve decided to coin when identifying their material, and it’s one that aptly fits the bill. The inherent mistiness is blatant and wraithlike, with generous doses of reverb and delay administered to every crevice. Trails of airy guitar hooks slither around the mix, weaving between eerie, diaphanous vocals that enhance the hypnotism. Yet, these are breezily lifted by grooves from a sturdy rhythm section, abundant with piercing basslines and driving percussions that add a bounce to the blurriness. This is dream music that you can dance to, full of moments that burst wide awake.

In their debut EP, Shallow, FERS have crafted a world that extends this fantasy. Its arrival comes three years after the release of “Neverland”, their inaugural single that gave critics a glimpse of their combined efforts. Never mind the gap; the overdue entrance of the five-track EP shows a band that’s retained its focus in spite of the hindrances that obstructed their execution. Much like the Peter Pan-esque narrative of their first composition, the record is brimming with youth and adventure, and it signifies a creative revival of its composers who’ve been part of the scene for so long.

FERS now invites you into their story via this interview, explaining how they turned their opportune encounters into magic, and what took them so long to get their EP out.

FERS consists of Ridhwan Malik, Jean Low AKA Ferry, Aaron Pereira and Kenneth Koh (Credit: Muhammad Zharfan and Nur’Aisyahbi)

Considering all your past projects, how did y’all eventually come together as a band? Was it serendipity, or something meticulously arranged out of mutual adoration?

FERS: It was a period after the wrapping up (or downtime) of some past projects that motivated us to come together to experiment with a lot with sounds, a narrative and most importantly, trying to balance and incorporate our individual strengths during song compositions. The band came into the first few jamming sessions without a fixed idea of how or what we should sound like, just with the intention of trying to break away from everything that we were comfortable with. Ridhwan actually got to know Ferry through some friends and thought that Ferry would be a dynamically strong textural and melodic element to the rest of the band. Ridhwan and Aaron usually delve in melodic riffs which sit perfectly within the groove and rhythm set by Kenneth. The addition of Ferry’s melodic forefront would then complete the entire FERS canvas.

When arranging the songs, how do you balance each other’s individual influences and fortes?

It didn’t really seem like a conscious choice. I think we all already connect stylistically, and when we hit a nice groove someone would go like “hey, I think this would sound cool”, and then we vibe off each other to capture something that everyone could enjoy in their own way. Generally, we give that space for everyone to figure out their own parts and just play whatever they want to... sound nice can already.

Congratulations on the release of your Shallow EP. What is the narrative or theme that runs through the flow of the record?

Thank you! We didn’t really have one till we wrote “Neverland”. Once we wrote “Neverland”, we knew we had something special, and so Ferry imagined the journey of Peter Pan and this idea of escapism and youth. It had a lot of tropical vibes to it. It was inspired by textures like the beach, vast landscapes, deep waters and shallow waters, and the idea of submergence and dream states. Check out the video on YouTube which Lenne Chai captured perfectly.

Does Ferry work on the lyrics herself? How does her songwriting on FERS differ from the compositions she penned in her past projects like Giants Must Fall?

Ferry usually adds in the lyrics after the song has been arranged and composed musically. With Giants, usually the base structure, lyrics and melody would be brought to the band and then it’s developed further. For FERS, we usually arrange the music first during jams and then Ferry adds the melody and lyrics last. Whilst Giants was a cathartic project and more emotional, FERS was about capturing a vibe and concept.

“Although we really love hazy, ethereal soundscapes, we naturally weaved in strong grooves into the tracks.” (Credit: Muhammad Zharfan and Nur’Aisyahbi)

A distinctive quality of your material lies in the dreamy, ethereal textures that create density in each track. Is it always a conscious effort to forge such foggy soundscapes?

Yes, we love playing with walls of sounds and then figuring out how to create definition within those walls. Then, we add some surprises within those layers. As the tracks went on, it became a conscious effort to put the vocals further away for some tracks rather than at the forefront, so that it becomes textural rather than melodic. We then layer and create that vast expanse with the vocals, almost like mermaids singing in the distance. 

That’s a really vivid description. Beneath their meditative lull, these are still tracks with plenty of groove. Was it fun for the band to deviate from the melancholia with these uplifting detours?

Most definitely! Although we really love hazy, ethereal soundscapes, we naturally weaved in strong grooves into the tracks, deviating from the idea of just being another shoegaze or dream-pop band. We love terming ourselves as a ‘Tropical Shoegaze’ band, as we envision that our music can be listened to under the sun with a Pina Colada or while you’re in a melancholic state with the pitter-patter of the rain outside your home. Technically, for us, we wanted to incorporate more choppy, staccato-like rhythms to colour the space that we create with our heavy reverb and delay effects. These rhythmic grooves also create a narrative in the soundscape.

What’s one track on the record that hits hardest for the band, perhaps on an artistic or emotional level?

As a band, “Neverland” has to be the track that really captured the sound and character of FERS, and so we really wanted to get it out as soon as we could. It was one of those songs that just flowed naturally and has to be one of the highlights of the writing process which we enjoy the most.

“Once we wrote ‘Neverland’, we knew we had something special, and so Ferry had imagined the journey of Peter Pan and this idea of escapism and youth.” (Credit: Muhammad Zharfan and Nur’Aisyahbi)

Speaking of which, the Shallow EP comes three years after that release. Why was there this long gap, and did this create any pressure to deliver?

There was a series of unfortunate events that created a long gap between the debut single and the EP. Other than COVID-19 which, of course, derailed most of our efforts at recording and even writing in 2020, Kenneth went through an injury shortly after the “Neverland” release and we had to take an indefinite hiatus for quite some time. That did hamper our intent to release our EP earlier.

Sorry to hear that; hope he’s all healed up. How did the band recover from the pandemic derailing your momentum?

We were unable to meet up to write together like we normally would. Also, any hopes of playing live shows were ruled out, given the situation. However, it was also a period of us to develop personally as musicians and we are hoping that when we return to writing again, we will have fresh perspectives towards the band’s next venture.

“So far, we’ve been quite energised with the songs since we are at the experimentation stage.” (Credit: Muhammad Zharfan and Nur’Aisyahbi)

How do you think your headspace has changed as a band, now compared to three years ago when you first started?

This EP took a relatively longer time to process and for us to digest internally as we were trying out new concepts and arrangements, which we did not feel very confident about at the start. In this aspect, more headspace was necessary to assess the suitability of certain arrangements to fit a specific vibe. Even though slightly more thought was involved, we were very composed during the process. We enjoyed creating this EP, in fact. Given our respective experiences with other projects, we were already quite familiar on what to look out for in terms of the production of the tracks and also, during song composition. That helped us allocate some of the headspace to other areas such as marketing and branding.

Given your respective longevities in the scene, how have you stayed inspired to create music without feeling jaded or burnt out?

So far, we’ve been quite energised with the songs since we are at the experimentation stage. We’re just trying everything and trying lots of new ideas and sounds. What helps is that everyone is invested in it, however long it takes – even if it’s a slow burn. It’s great that, within the band, we all feel the need to create and need to play. Being jaded and burnt out is usually when the passivity that comes with life really hinders that process and the ‘sian-ness’ is real. What’s most important is that we really enjoy writing the songs and creating them.

Their debut EP was certainly worth the wait (Credit: Muhammad Zharfan and Nur’Aisyahbi)

And now that the EP is finally out, what’s next in the cards for FERS?

Ridhwan is getting married! Aaron and Ken have also gotten hitched recently so that’s incredibly exciting. We’re hitting the studios to jam soon after this EP. Maybe we’ll surprise ourselves with some new tunes. ;)

You can listen to FERS’ debut EP, Shallow, on Spotify and Bandcamp. Follow their Facebook and Instagram pages to stay updated with their activities.