Datapop duo Feral Five are Kat Five and Drew Five – musical twins who were raised by wolves on a diet of turbo-charged beats and electropunk brainfood.
Drawing on Cold War era electrics and motorik moodiness, their wonky brand of space goth wouldn’t sound out of place on recent C4 German thriller Deutschland 83.
They came together back in 2012, each falling for the other’s iconoclastic take on electro-clash.
Following the knotty synths on debut Skin to the refined sounds of last year’s Neurotrash, the pair have operated within a strict template of sullen synth-pop.
Their latest release, Rule 9, is a collaboration with fashion designer Francis Bitonti, and sees Feral Five distil their sound even further to its purest form. Be careful how you go though, it’s a real earworm!
We caught up with the pair to learn more about their sonic patterns…
We first started making music because…
We had to. There wasn’t really a choice not to make music. Until we started playing music together we had been living parallel music-obsessed lives and heard music in both nature and machine. Doing this seems as natural as breathing.
We have been making music since…
Fate threw us together in 2012 and we formed Feral Five within a matter of minutes of jamming together. Kat’s first guitar performance was aged 10. After playing around with keyboards and shortwave radios as a kid, Drew started playing bass when he was 13. We’re both pretty multi-instrumental.
Our music is…
Post-punk electro with attitude - we like to make people think as well as dance. From the future ethics of #3Dprintinghumans, to brain science and politics.
You'll like our music if you listen to...
If you’re into leftfield stuff you’ll definitely like what we do. If you’re into The Knife, Sigur Ros, LCD Soundsystem, The Kills, Losers, Björk, and anything post-punk then you’ll love what we do.
Our favourite venue is…
Funkhaus in Berlin. The Lexington in London.
Music is important because…
It can inspire, it can provoke, it can heal, it can get your feet moving, and it has the capacity to bring people together.
Our biggest inspiration is…
Delia Derbyshire.
Our dream collaboration would be…
We just had one dream collaboration with designer Francis Bitonti. But next up we’d love to do some studio work with Daniel Miller, get him to remix us and let us play with his collection of modular synths.
To try us out, listen to our song…
Neurotrash.
If we weren’t making music we’d be…
Artists, space scientists, engineers, or architects, but doing a high tech freaky combination of Renzo Piano meets Hundertwasser.
In 10 years’ time we want to be…
Soundtracking the new Ex Machina, and recording on Mars in 7D.
Top image: Garry Hensey
Feral Five play Test Dept:Redux at The Amersham Arms, London, on 10 September.
Drawing on Cold War era electrics and motorik moodiness, their wonky brand of space goth wouldn’t sound out of place on recent C4 German thriller Deutschland 83.
They came together back in 2012, each falling for the other’s iconoclastic take on electro-clash.
Following the knotty synths on debut Skin to the refined sounds of last year’s Neurotrash, the pair have operated within a strict template of sullen synth-pop.
Their latest release, Rule 9, is a collaboration with fashion designer Francis Bitonti, and sees Feral Five distil their sound even further to its purest form. Be careful how you go though, it’s a real earworm!
We caught up with the pair to learn more about their sonic patterns…
We first started making music because…
We had to. There wasn’t really a choice not to make music. Until we started playing music together we had been living parallel music-obsessed lives and heard music in both nature and machine. Doing this seems as natural as breathing.
We have been making music since…
Fate threw us together in 2012 and we formed Feral Five within a matter of minutes of jamming together. Kat’s first guitar performance was aged 10. After playing around with keyboards and shortwave radios as a kid, Drew started playing bass when he was 13. We’re both pretty multi-instrumental.
Our music is…
Post-punk electro with attitude - we like to make people think as well as dance. From the future ethics of #3Dprintinghumans, to brain science and politics.
You'll like our music if you listen to...
If you’re into leftfield stuff you’ll definitely like what we do. If you’re into The Knife, Sigur Ros, LCD Soundsystem, The Kills, Losers, Björk, and anything post-punk then you’ll love what we do.
Our favourite venue is…
Funkhaus in Berlin. The Lexington in London.
Music is important because…
It can inspire, it can provoke, it can heal, it can get your feet moving, and it has the capacity to bring people together.
Our biggest inspiration is…
Delia Derbyshire.
Our dream collaboration would be…
We just had one dream collaboration with designer Francis Bitonti. But next up we’d love to do some studio work with Daniel Miller, get him to remix us and let us play with his collection of modular synths.
To try us out, listen to our song…
Neurotrash.
If we weren’t making music we’d be…
Artists, space scientists, engineers, or architects, but doing a high tech freaky combination of Renzo Piano meets Hundertwasser.
In 10 years’ time we want to be…
Soundtracking the new Ex Machina, and recording on Mars in 7D.
Top image: Garry Hensey
Feral Five play Test Dept:Redux at The Amersham Arms, London, on 10 September.
