Words by Hannah Lanfear
Photos by Dan Wilton

A sleepy provincial part of England, named Kings Cliffe, has somehow begat awesome sounds in the form of Fenech-Soler. Their filthy synth pop is gaspingly good. Stick it in our ears and please don’t stop we say, and with their upcoming single release on Vulture, we’re sure to soon witness their glorious ascent to certain stardom.

We nabbed brothers Ben and Ross who stopped by our photographer’s studio in Bethnal Green, London for some pictures and a chat. There is tea making and biscuits. They are charming, eloquent and rather handsome. We asked them stuff and this is what they said:

Tell us how you formed and how long you’ve been kicking about. The story of your musical life if you please.
Ben: Ross and I have always been making music together at home, from the beginning recording music in a very DIY style. Dan’s a friend of the family who just got involved really. About a year and a half ago we realised we had the ability to get it together, stuck a name on it and tried to brand out music basically, and then get it to the stage.

Have dirty electro synths always been the things that make your music tick?
Ben: When we first started recording we were making indie music, but, you know, got a bit bored of guitar music just as the electronic scene was starting to take off. I guess, like plenty of bands we were influenced by what was happening in clubs and our music began to evolve, incorporating synths and a new style.

Ross: Everything we’ve ever done as Fenech-Soler has certainly had a synth basis, yet it’s always been important to us to keep the rock element to the tunes, which live I think works.

Stock issue question I’m afraid, but it must be asked; how did the name come about?
Ben: Well, there isn’t really a specific reason for the name, it’s more the sound of the words that we liked. It’s actually part of Dan’s name (Dan’s the bassplayer). His family are Polish [Ross pipes up with, “It’s Maltese isn’t it? Fenech-Soler?] in origin. I dunno, it’s hard to find a name that’s cool and individual.

Rather than the Black Keys, Black Kids, Black Mountain, Dead Kids, massive yawn…
Ben: Yeah, exactly. We wanted originality, and well, it’s easy to Google! It is a talking point, which is a plus – people never being able to pronounce it possibly a negative though. I suppose we’ll always have to answer this question. Dan loves it. People assume it’s Dan Fenech-Soler plus band!

You’re not from London. Tell us about your local music scene.
Ben: A little place near Peterborough actually, Kings Cliffe, right out in the sticks. There isn’t a music scene at all, it’s absolutely non-existent.

I suppose it helps you to be more original…
Ben: From the recording aspect it’s nice to have that seclusion of being apart, but we have been focusing our efforts on London. It’s good to be able to enjoy town for what it is, all the good bits of the music scene. I would say in the last six months there’s been us and maybe a couple of other bands starting to emerge from our area, I think maybe we can be part of something interesting.

Are you well supported by the locals of the ‘borough, have they championed you as one of their own?
Ben: Yeah, we’ve played a few local gigs and the turn out has been progressively better.

Ross: We sold one out before Christmas I think.

Ben: There’s a place called the Met Lounge in Peterborough we’ve played at a bit. We did turn our back on Peterborough a little, which hasn’t hindered our progress, but it’ll always be nice to play at home. We do intend to keep playing at home every now and again.

Music equipment is ball-achingly expensive and you’re only nippers. Has it been a long hard squirrel?
Ben: It has. We’ve always had our part-time jobs that have gotten us a piece bit by bit. We’re still working. Dan just bought an awesome Fender Jaguar bass.

The one with the switches!
Ben: Yeah! He’s also paying off some scary credit card bills for some analogue synths we’ve bought on e-bay… which we’re… not too sure how they work yet.

Oh. No manuals. Ha!
Ben: No manuals… Everything we’ve been doing is very DIY and recorded at home, we’ve just accumulated equipment from playing together bit by bit really.

Ross: Sitting there writing music you can go a bit nuts. Going to work and having the space away from it to clear your head and coming back to it can help too.

What is your recording set up at home?
Ben: Apple Mac G5. You can pretty much do anything you want on a midi, but we do try and do as much as we can without it being sequenced on a midi. You don’t have to have vintage synths, but we do prefer the sound, then the bass, guitar and drums as well.

How do the songs evolved from a writing point of view? Do you start with a lyrical concept or is it more messing about on keyboards?
Ben: We find a chord structure usually and take it from there. We’re massive fans of classic song writing. We really enjoy the game of coming up with a catchy chorus, and yeah, we do embrace a catchy hook, but then try and walk a line of making it compelling enough without being cheesy. I mean, that’s the music that we love to listen to. We’ve been listening to loads of old stuff, like The Whispers, and that’s the style of song writing that we love. When you get that hook and you’ve found it, that’s what excites us about the music.

I’ve been paying attention to your MySpace and for a young band, you seem to have a new track up every month or so, and it’s always a miraculously super tune. How much material have you got?
Ben: That’s what we’ve been focusing on for the last three months really. We’ve got hundreds of demos, lots of material, but we have quite a critical process where lots of stuff gets put to one side. Recently we’ve really had our heads down doing recording, perhaps doing gigs where we can, but it’s been important to make sure the songs collectively, I mean, maybe 10 or 12 songs, all work together. We had offers to do singles early on, and get out there on the radar, but we just wanted to get a collection of songs that we feel are together before we put anything out.

Ross: We’ve got about 10 to 12 tracks that we’re really happy with.

Ben: Yeah, ones that are A-team, and then several more that we really like.

So you’ve got an album ready to go then?
Ben: Yeah, I mean, they’re all demos but we’d like to think they’re of good quality. they’re ready, yes.

The ones I’ve heard sound really ready. How did Alan Braxe respond to Cult of the Romance? did they have a jiggle with it or take it just as is?
Ben: Well, no, we’d had it mastered so it was good enough quality-wise to be played in clubs.

That must be quite alluring for a label to be able to put it out without having to spend any additional money.
Ben: Yeah, I mean, we’d asked him if he wanted to put any production on it or have anything changed, but he didn’t. Everything was fairly raw and done at home, but we’d found that if you tamper with songs too much something in them seems to go, something gets lost when it’s over polished.

Ross: I think we were really happy with that song as our first release. Out of all the songs we’ve done it’s the one that mixes the hook and release with the heavy synth. A lot of our songs seem to lean one way or the other in terms of heavy electro, or catchy hook, but I think this is the one that takes the perfect line. We’re not adverse to change. It would be great to stick some of our stuff into a proper studio and put it on a desk and get it mixed, but I don’t know how we’d feel about it after doing everything ourselves!

I don’t think we’ve covered this so far, so tell us how it came about getting involved with Alan Braxe and Vulture.
Ben: Just random actually. We’d got enough demos together to go around London and get into the offices of certain labels, there’d started to be a bit of a stir among managers, and one who co-manages Alan Braxe in particular, who I think played it to him. Alan got in touch with us direct and it went from there. He’s doing a remix of the song, which’ll be finished by next week. He hasn’t done one in a long time, so for us, growing up with Stardust, just putting his name to a remix of our song is exciting.

Is he very French?
Ben: Oh yes, quite hard to understand too. There’s a lot of nodding and big vacant smiles on our part.

So, you’re everyone’s favourite. There’s been some favourable press.
Ben: We haven’t had a massive amount of press, but what we have had has been incredibly strong.

Indeed, Times Band of the Day and Guardian track of the day, massive kudos.
Ben: Yeah, it’s great it’s great as Alan’s links with the French music scene we’re being pushed in Paris too.

You’re only young, so tell me, what year were you both born and the first song you remember hearing?
Ben: 1984. It would be a bluegrass or country song I guess. Our Dad was a bluegrass and country musician, and we spent a few years over in America around Dallas. So yeah, probably Tammy Wynette or something. I wish I could say something cool like Bowie but sadly not.

Ross: 1988. [incredulous cooing sound from aging interviewer]I would think the Bad album is the first thing I can really remember.

Really? You guys are quite firm about the Micky J being a big influence, so I was going to ask you, Thriller or Bad.
Ben: Hmm, not sure. I wonder [thoughtful pause]. I think the one with the best cover would call it.

So that’s got to be Thriller then, I mean, a white tiger cub surely trumps the Bad cover. A fucking white tiger cub, that’s amazing. You just mentioned that your Dad is a country and bluegrass musician, how does he feel about the fearful electro disco.
Ross: Ah, he loves it

Ben: I think he just appreciates classic song writing so there’s plenty for him to understand. The sort of stuff we’ve been getting into, soul stuff, like The Whispers, is all just classic stuff, which he loves too, and our song writing definitely has that style. There are a couple of songs where he’s like, “What’s all the noise?!” but, on the whole…

So, tell us about the video for Cult of the Romance?
We’re just looking at it now, there are a few ideas. We only know that we want to keep it visual to make areas of the track come alive rather than just performance based.

How have you found keeping your creative control in the face of now working with a record company?
Yeah, good, we’ve done well and completely kept it together. We’ve used the help of friends for art direction and certainly have a vision on what we want to create, and aside from the occasional difference, we’ve done fine.

What’s on now?
Ross: Finishing the recording really. We’re on a roll for new stuff so we’re going to finish it up.

Erm, having heard your music, I’m concerned that your album will have fifteen massive tunes of
single quality. Have you got a slow song?
Ben: Well… not really. Maybe.

Good. Hurrah for massive tunes.