Fenech Soler
Fenech-Soler are a band who have overcome everything to be here, and have done so in
their own way. They have honed and shined their sparkling songs, entirely by themselves, in
their tiny bedrooms. They have taken their dreams to the disco and the Radio 1 playlist on their
own terms. They even captivated legendary bands and DJs long before the record companies
came knocking. Now signed to B-Unique, their debut album is here to lift and inspire us in the
final days of summer, to spin its golden web of sound, to hold us in its glittering threads.
Pop began for Fenech-Soler in Kings Cliffe, a village of a thousand people in the hinterlands of
Northamptonshire. It began with two brothers, Ben and Ross Duffy, who made music as
teenagers with their friend Daniel Soler, whose surname would later play a bigger part in their
lives. Their burgeoning love affairs with dance and club music – with The Chemical Brothers,
Daft Punk, Soulwax, and SMD – suddenly gained sharper edges and became fully-formed. They
wrote electronic tracks together on their laptops and synthesisers, infusing them with the spirits
of these artists they loved, but also other diverse artists like George Benson, N.E.R.D, R&B vocal
group The Whispers, Michael Jackson and Queens of the Stone Age. They aimed to write songs
that would be club and festival anthems – songs that would have a crowd rising as one, singing
their words back to them – with enough experimental edges to push them in new, bold
directions.
From here, the boys brought in another friend, Andrew Lindsay, adding live drums and synths to
the mix, and turning their music into living, breathing sound. As the sun broke through the
clouds in the summer of 2008, Fenech-Soler were christened, were anointed, were born. Taking
Daniel’s longer family surname as inspiration – also the name of a Maltese patriot who ruled the
Catalans in the 18th century – they knew it could mean anything and everything. In its four
shining syllables, a spirit of fantasy that the band all believed in, and the music they made
could now shape the meaning of their name. Fenech-Soler summed up the essence of these
four dear friends, working together at home, but reaching out into the world.
And then, as the music industry started to shatter around them, they put the pieces together in
a new way. They played tiny clubs and sets to build up their live reputations, sending tracks to
radio stations, certain that their music would hit a nerve. Word spread like wildfire. Legendary
French DJ and remixer Alan Braxe, who scored an international hit with Stardust’s Music Sounds
Better With You, fell in love with them, and asked to release one of their songs. The Cult Of
Romance would be their first single and Radio 1’s Annie Mac, would feature the track on her
2009 compilation. Groove Armada saw the band at a Warehouse party, adored what they
were doing and took them on tour. They even featured Ben as a lead vocalist on the single
Paper Romance, placing him alongside stars like Bryan Ferry and Will Young on the new album
Black Light.
Then came the glowing press and the clamour for the band to do remixes, with Marina and The
Diamonds, Everything Everything, Example and Sunday Girl all wanting a shard of their brilliant
light. In the spring of 2010 a new single Stop And Stare released on independent label Moda
Music – and featured on Kitsune Vol.9 - would go all the way to the Radio 1 playlist, and the Top
Ten of both the Dance and Indie singles charts.
But this didn’t swell the heads of these four young men. It merely proved to them that they
could make a whole album in their own way, in their own mould. Now they knew that
something recorded in a bedroom – full of spirit, excitement and emotional simplicity – was
good enough for radio play, festival crowds and the dance music glitterati. It was good
enough to turn heads, move feet, and pump hearts. The rules were theirs. They were new.
Nothing would change. Pop was this.
Fenech-Soler’s album grew from this spirit, taking the band’s radio-friendly nous to unexpected
places. Battlefields begins the album with a blast, launching with a heavenly chorus of voices,
before shooting into stratospheres of glistening synths and dirty brass. Lies rises slowly from the
deep, a tale of lust and paranoia that becomes a glittery explosion of foot-stomping
melancholy. Golden Sun plays with rhythms that summon up the sultriness of desert heat; The
Great Unknown takes a distant echo of French house in new, dizzying directions. And Stop And
Stare is their club and festival anthem ready and waiting, full of twitchy, urgent riffs, and hands-
to-the-air vitality. It is the sound of a band at the starting gate, ready to fire their gun.
Fenech-Soler kicked-off the summer with a triumphant return to the stage at a completely
packed out East Dance Tent at Glastonbury, and have since maintained a hectic summer
festival that has also encompassed V, T in The Park, Bestival, Lovebox and Hop Farm.
Also seen supporting artists such as Mark Ronson, White Lies, and Kelis, Fenech-Soler have now
been confirmed to support Example on his upcoming UK tour throughout November and
December that includes a major London show at the Brixton O2 Academy. The band are
currently upon their own UK headline tour which includes a sold-out show at London’s Koko.
Fenech-Soler have made huge strides forward since last September’s release of their
acclaimed self-titled debut album, which earned support from Radio 1 as well as Q and XFM
award nominations for The Next Big Thing and Best British Debut Album of the Year respectively.
Fenech-Soler are ready to take over your mind, turn the dial up on your radio, and beam the
light of the sun to the dancefloor. Pop is this.