Ferris & Sylvester have spent the best part of a decade building a life and a band together. They met at a London blues bar, went on to tour the world, topped the UK’s Official Jazz & Blues Albums Chart and picked up Album of the Year at the Americana UK Awards. Somewhere along the way, they got married and became parents too.

Their third album, It’s A Joy To Be Alive, comes from a period that changed everything. In 2022, what was supposed to be a four-day trip to Nashville took a frightening turn when Issy fell seriously ill at 32 weeks pregnant and their son was born seven weeks early. Nineteen days in neonatal intensive care followed, thousands of miles from home. Years later, those experiences have found their way into the music, but the record that emerged from them refuses to be defined by trauma. Ferris & Sylvester chose to write about hope instead.

That decision is perhaps clearest on “Tiny Little Love”. Written when Issy and their son’s futures were still uncertain, it began as something close to a lullaby. Now that it’s out in the world, the pair say it no longer feels entirely theirs, particularly after hearing from listeners who have found comfort in it.

Parenthood has changed the way they make music too. They agonise less. Trust each other more. And, by their own admission, they’ve stopped caring quite so much about looking cool. Instead, they’ve leaned into vulnerability, romance and sentimentality, drawing on the timeless songwriting of Burt Bacharach, The Carpenters, Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell while allowing blues, Americana, country and rock to collide around them. There is a lot of life behind these songs.

In this edition of 18 Questions, Ferris & Sylvester talk about the Nashville experience that changed them forever, becoming parents, finding strength in vulnerability, letting go of the need to please everyone and why, even after the darkest moments, there is always tomorrow, always hope and always music.

1. What’s the first thing you usually do when you wake up in the morning?

Ferris & Sylvester: Have tea in bed with our very small children. Normally an old Disney film is on. Something with music by The Sherman Brothers. A lot of limbs tangled up together in one bed… and it’s normally very early.

2. What’s one thing you can’t live without right now?

Archie: My fishing rod. I go out fishing for bass whenever I can. The bass beat me every time.

Issy: Very salty yellow butter from our local farm.

3. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Both: The best piece of advice was actually from Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad creator) on a podcast. He said humans have built-in ‘bullsh*t detectors’. They can sense when someone / something isn’t real. Never underestimate the audience.

Worst piece of advice (not that you asked) is to not be too sentimental in songwriting. We have realised it is essential to be truly and deeply sentimental, in order to fulfil the above advice.

Be romantic, be poetic, find the words others can’t.

4. If you could have dinner with any musician, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Archie: Jimi Hendrix. I could ask him how he did it.

Issy: Joni Mitchell. Same answer. Also I think we’d be good friends.

5. What’s a song you wish you had written yourself?

Both: It’s a toss up. “Still Crazy After All These Years” by Paul Simon or “You’ve Got A Friend” by Carole King. Both timeless and beautiful songs, both in musicality and poetry. Oh and “A Case Of You” Joni Mitchell. Can we have 3?

6. When you’re not making music, what’s your favourite way to completely switch off?

Archie: Fishing. I go down to the coast, normally where there’s no signal, and just spend the day immersed in rods, ripples, lures and tides. I don’t listen to music and I mostly go alone.

Issy: Cooking. Nothing particularly special or fancy. I have a massive green cast iron pot and I’m at my most calm when I’m bent over it, chucking things in and stirring it round.

7. What’s somewhere in the world that always inspires you creatively?

Ferris & Sylvester: On our first date (over 10 years ago), we booked flights to Iceland. We camped around the island and it’s where we first imagined our life together and started the band. We’ve been back a few times, and it holds such joy, hope and adventure for us. It’s hard not to be inspired by a place so beautiful and wonderfully weird.

8. If you could go back and give yourselves one piece of advice before Ferris & Sylvester officially began, what would it be?

Both: Don’t sweat it. There’s so much you can’t control. Make the best music you can with the best people you can. Some folks won’t get it and that’s completely fine, just keep doing it. Stop trying to please everyone, it’s not possible.

9. It’s A Joy To Be Alive is probably your most vulnerable record yet, but despite everything you’ve been through it never feels defined by trauma. Was it a conscious decision to write towards hope instead of darkness?

Issy: Absolutely. We wanted to write an album about joy and hope, and we knew we were writing it from a place of struggle. The more we got into the writing, the more we recognised the same had been done countless times by the greats: “Here Comes The Sun” by The Beatles is the perfect example. Acknowledging the struggle, and then welcoming in the light. Archie turned to me at the start of the writing process and goes, ‘I want to write romantic, joyful songs. The working title should be ‘I really f*cking love you’.

10. The story behind “Tiny Little Love” is extraordinary. Looking back now, does it still feel like a song, or has it become something much more personal for your family?

Both: It’s funny, now that it’s out in the world it no longer feels like it’s our song. We’ve been lucky enough to have some people reach out about it, telling us their own stories. We can’t explain what it means for it to be of comfort to people. We initially wrote it when we didn’t know what our futures would be: Issy’s future or the future of our son were unknown. It took us years to get enough distance and write it into this album, and we’re really glad we did.

11. Becoming parents changes every relationship, but it must also change a creative partnership. How has having your son influenced the way you write, perform and make decisions together as Ferris & Sylvester?

Issy: Frankly I think we’re better writers as a result. Having a child bursts your heart wide open and you suddenly feel both stronger and thinner-skinned all at once. Surrendering to it and leaning into that vulnerability has certainly inspired us creatively and we’re glad of it. I also think it’s made us less bothered about how we appear. We used to think about what it meant to be cool. Now we don’t give a sh*t about that. We just want to make the best music we can, and hopefully people can connect with it.

12. You’re husband and wife as well as songwriting partners. Has living through something as life-changing as your son’s premature birth strengthened the way you work together creatively, or has it challenged it in unexpected ways?

Archie: It’s been both, definitely. Everything was a challenge for a while. Finding our feet in every corner of our life was a slow and steady journey that was sometimes incredibly difficult. Both of us struggled in different ways. Issy couldn’t write for a long time. I had a lot of demons to face in the aftermath too. But it has strengthened our creative relationship. We trust each other and each other’s ideas. We used to agonise over each creative decision in the early days. Now it’s like, ‘that’s a great idea let’s get a demo done and see how it feels’.

Maybe the lesson is, be open to all of it. An idea might not work, a direction might come to a dead end. But just go there and see what happens. We trust that process a lot more.

13. Throughout this album there’s an honesty that feels almost uncomfortable at times. Was there ever a song where you questioned whether you were revealing too much of yourselves?

Issy: A lot of it feels exposing. The song “Stupid & Young” for instance talks about hanging up photos to ‘cover the cracks til they’re gone.’ That felt vulnerable to have in there, but I think it’s something a lot of people can relate to, brushing the bad under the carpet and hoping for the best. There’s also a track called “Strange Thing” on the record which describes the events leading to our son’s birth in the present tense. It felt important to write it. I think it’s our job as writers to use our own experiences. It’s all we’ve got. And in my experience, people sharing their stories is a brave and powerful thing that can lead to a great deal of good.

14. Sonically, the record moves effortlessly between blues, Americana, country and rock without feeling tied to any one genre. At this stage of your career, do you even think about genre anymore, or has storytelling become the only thing that matters?

Archie: Storytelling is the most important factor. The song is king. If there’s a certain direction that we think will serve the song or story best, then we’ll follow it. We did want to root this record in a sound reminiscent of 1970’s pop. We were inspired by the melodies and harmonies of Bacharach and The Carpenters, as well as the unapologetically romantic lyrics. We really wanted to lean into that.

I think it’s an exciting time to be writing music. As far as we can see, there aren’t the same rules as there once were, and what matters is making music that’s good. That’ll always be the goal.

15. You’ve described the kindness of the nurses in Nashville as something you’ll never forget. Did that experience change your outlook on people as much as it changed your outlook on life itself?

Issy: It really did, and for the better. We were in Nashville for 2 months and during that time, we saw people going out of their way to be incredibly kind to us. From the hospital chaplain who married us in the park, to doctors scribbling their numbers on napkins, to the nurses coming along to our wedding, to the wonderful couple we met in a bar on our first outing with our son, to the people to let us stay in their studio apartment for a discounted rate very last minute. The list goes on. We won’t ever forget it. And it’s such a huge lesson. One gesture of kindness can quite literally change a person’s life.

16. Having built your reputation through relentless touring and powerful live performances, has becoming parents changed what success actually looks like for you now?

Archie: In a way, yes. We still want to make the best music we can and tour it as much as we can too. That’s been less easy with super small children (we now have a daughter too), but we’re coming into a new chapter. I think what’s changed is we’re less interested in the appearance of success, spreading everything over social media so that everyone can see how ‘great’ we are. We of course still post online, but it’s much more focused on the music and the songs, and us as people.

17. You’ve become patrons of Tommy’s and turned one of the hardest experiences of your lives into something that can genuinely help other families. Was giving back always part of the healing process, or did that happen naturally over time?

Issy: We didn’t know Tommy’s existed for a long time, given that our start to parenthood was unexpectedly in a different country. When we started talking with them, we immediately wanted to work with them and help to raise money and awareness for them. Having a premature baby can feel really isolating. There are so many resources out there, thanks to Tommy’s. It is a very worthwhile charity, run by really great people. We hope this is just the start of our journey with them.

18. The album is called It’s A Joy To Be Alive, which carries even more weight once people know the story behind it. Years from now, when your son is old enough to understand these songs, what do you hope he hears when he listens to this record?

Both: We hope he can understand how much strength, growth and joy came from such a scary situation. That it made us who we are, and that if he ever goes through something that shakes him to the core, he too will be alright. Because there is always tomorrow, always hope. And in the meantime, there is always music.

It’s A Joy To Be Alive is out now, follow via @ferrisandsylvestermusic