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Hailing from Sydney, Fern is the product of three pals Lauren, Scott and Adrian deciding to take their jam sessions a bit more seriously. The band isn’t even a month old and has already gained some serious attention from the Aussie blogger sphere. Fern satisfy your hunger for progressive but colourfully unpredictable tunes.
Become hypnotised by Fern’s concoction of noise pop with upsurges of layered synths and guitar. It’s fuzzy and unstable but at the same time glittery and delicate.
Their tale begins with Lauren and Scott, who had been playing together for a while, and after a number of drunken jam sessions decided to try to make something of the music. “We asked our friend Adrian over to hit some drums and things flowed from there,” says Lauren. Their search for a fuller sound resulted in Fern becoming something a little more tangible.
None of the three knew what was to come out of the tentative project but had decided early on to do all the recording and production themselves to give off an unrestrained edge. The three piece told us that their debut track It Comes Slow developed from “a lot of time spent downstairs in our practice space figuring [out] how to use our gear.” The time spent tinkering and discovering lends itself to the track’s raw and experimental edge, clearly made possible through the complete creative freedom that the band enjoy.
But what about the name? “We’d been jamming for a while without a name when our drummer Adrian suggested ‘Fern’,” says Lauren.” A couple of weeks later we all still liked it, so it stuck. It’s a touch ironic because Scott is from NZ, which we hadn’t thought of until we heard some people refer to us as ‘the kiwi band’.”
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Nearly hitting the five-minute mark, It Comes Slow is indeed a bewitching slow burner of a debut. The track begins with a seductive build-up into swirling synths and eerie intimate vocals. “We have always liked the ideas of making music that brings two things together that seem like they wouldn’t fit,” says Lauren.
The infectious debut holds a tantalising balance between euphoric and fuzzed-out, unstable sounds. There are elements of shoegaze and space rock in there, ala Spiritualized or My Bloody Valentine, spurred on by Lauren’s ethereal husk. However, the track steers clear from a sleepy dream-pop lull by employing a relentlessness which only builds and builds until the myriad layers implode upon each other like a dying star, something that yearns to be experienced multiple times.
Fern are poking their heads up around venues in Sydney at the moment, so be sure to keep track. Exciting things to come for this budding three piece.
