Photo: Press
The ‘difficult second album’ is a well-worn cliché that provokes eye-rolls from most musicians. However, speaking candidly to Gigwise, electro-pop quartet Fenech Soler say that the only difficulty with their sophomore effort 'Rituals' was battling against 'the rest of the crap out there'.
In the three years since the band’s summery, anthem-filled eponymous debut, a lot has changed. Electronic music has left its underground domain of late night slots on the radio and clubs, entered the mainstream and taken over. Bands like Disclosure and Rudimental have assisted in making electronic music a prominent force and the dominant genre, kicking indie rock to the curb in the process. Meanwhile, Fenech Soler have been keeping a low profile, seemingly biding their time. Why? Well – er, dubstep, basically.
“It was quite difficult to imagine putting electronic music out into a fairly commercial market that didn't sound like all the crap that was there,” says drummer Andrew Lindsay. “It would have been hard for us to do what we're doing when dubstep was as big as it was. Luckily, people had too much of that so it's OK now.”
Lead singer Ben Duffy acknowledges that the band were indeed away for a long time. So what were they doing in those three years?
“In the best possible sense, experimenting," admits Ben. "Sometimes that can produce weird things, but we just experimented and we went back to the start and learnt how to do it again really."
Listening to Rituals, it’s clear to hear how they have evolved. Crisp production and infectious basslines make most of the tracks definite single material. Lindsay says the time they had allowed them to cast the net wide in terms of influence: “We spent a lot of time making it, so I think that was the biggest influence - we had a lot of ideas to choose from rather than it being very focused.”
Watch the video for 'Last Forever' below
There are some massive, unashamedly pop songs on the record, however Lindsay says they could have gone further: “I think we did slightly rein that in on some of the album.”
Duffy adds: “It's something we haven't been afraid of, and with this album we weren't going to shy away from that.”
Despite the quartet - completed by Ben's brother Ross Duffy, and Daniel Fenech Soler (the band's namesake) - describing their sound as ‘Glam/Psychedelic/Zouk’ on their Facebook page, Fenech Soler are definitively an intriguing indie-electro-rock hybrid. Duffy says that’s not going to change when asked if the band would consider going in a slightly rockier direction.
“I think the core of what this band has always been is very much rooted in the dance world and I think that still really excites us," he says. "There was a period whilst writing this album that we weren't feeling a connection to what was going on in the electronic world, and I think that certainly swayed the writing of the album.”
The band have been hitting the festival circuit hard this summer, including appearances at Reading & Leeds and Wireless. They also supported rockers Paramore on the European leg of their stadium tour, which Lindsay cites it as a career highlight.
“The Paramore tour was the most fun that we've done really," he admits. "The crowd were quite malleable and would respond to what you do and say, and obviously it was an arena level tour where everything's taken care of, so it's an easy one to go on to and have a good time.”
With their first ever headline tour kicking off in November, what can we expect from Fenech Soler’s live set? “You can expect to hear some songs we've never actually played before and we've never learnt before,” Lindsay jokes. Duffy says more confidently: “It'll definitely be the biggest tour we've done in a musical sense. For the first time we have two albums to pick from.”
Despite Fenech Soler’s highest charting hit reaching No.16, the band still command large crowds at festivals and gigs. Is commercial success something they are concerned with? Is it even relevant anymore?
We're very focused on the top 40 in this country and when you travel around it's not the case in some other countries which is quite refreshing," admits Duffy, stressing that the band are truly in it for the love of the music. “We're all striving to be as big as we can but I think at the same time when it stops being enjoyable and you stop having a passion to do it then that's when you should stop doing it and we don't feel that at all. It's just good fun.”
Rituals by Fenech Soler is out now
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