September 2019

Ahead of her UK and Europe tour – including a slot at Long Road Festival – Maverick sat down with Lauren Jenkins, who is very excited about her upcoming dates How are you feeling about your upcoming European tour? Are you kidding?! I’m so excited!! You’re performing at The Long Road, but for people who haven’t seen you before, what might they expect from your set? Something very, very honest. It all depends on how they are feeling as to what songs I play – if they are up for a very introspective song, then that’s what they will get and they might cry. Or if they just want to have a good time, then that’s what it will be. It’s been a busy festival year for you in the UK, with C2C as well – do you feel you’ve left a lasting impression over this side? I think so. I had some fans from the UK and Europe who came to my shows in England who were at CMA Fest and I was shocked that they were there. They came over at CMA Fest, came to my shows and they are going to be there again when I’m there in September, so I know there will be a lot of familiar faces that were on my journey. At C2C, they gave me a shout that they are going to be the shows in September, so I think that’s a really positive sign. A couple of the headline shows are sold out or are close to selling out, so that’s also crazy. I think something worked when I was there in March. From your experiences, how would you say European audiences are different to American ones? I love playing anywhere, but there is something about the European audience that just feels like they genuinely really respect music and also do their research. I’m a huge lover of music, so if I go to a show, I will look up the opener and listen to their back catalogue so that I’m familiar with the music and I thought that was something that only I do, but when I got over there, people were singing songs that were deep cuts and songs that America has had access to for a long time, but nobody really knows. They knew them and they knew all the lyrics and I was blown away. I just think there’s a different level of appreciation – and maybe for art at all levels, I feel with the European audience – and that’s a really big thing. Most of the time over here in America, you have to work really hard to earn a crowd’s attention and over there, I felt like everybody was in a party with me from the moment that I walked on stage, which is an overwhelming feeling. It’s only a brief European tour, can we expect to see you back anytime soon? Absolutely, 100%! Like literally, maybe two months later…I mean probably not, but fingers crossed! You can buy tickets for Lauren Jenkins’ tour here and you can read a full feature with Lauren in the upcoming September/October issue of Maverick, which is available very soon

Ferris & Sylvester have shared a new single in the form of I Dare You, which has been released just before the duo embark on a headline UK tour. You can listen to the track here. Speaking about the single in a statement, the duo stated that it shows a somewhat darker side of them than perhaps shown before and that they are very excited to play it on the live circuit. “We’ve gone over to our dark side with I Dare You,” the band said. “It felt important to get this song out there. We made bold choices with it and it’s very unapologetic. We think this song shows another side to us, it blends dark folk with explosive rage and is grounded by our live performance, as all our songs are. We can’t wait to play it on the road.” The band’s headline tour is certainly a big one and it also includes dates at AmericanaFest in Nashville (September 10-15) and Rivfest in Warrington (September 28), while they had to add another London date after the first one at OMEARA sold out. Ferris & Sylvester will be playing: September 3 – Boiler Room, Guildford, England September 4 – The Horn, St Albans, England September 5 – OMEARA, London, England* September 6 – OMEARA, London, England September 16 – Hare & Hounds, Birmingham, England September 17 – The Bullingdon, Oxford, England September 18 – Metronome, Nottingham, England September 19 – Green Door Store, Brighton, England September 20 – Think Tank?, Newcastle, England September 22 – Stereo, Glasgow, Scotland September 23 – Mash House, Edinburgh, Scotland September 25 – Lost Lane, Dublin, Republic of Ireland September 27 – Phase One, Liverpool, England September 29 – The Wardrobe, Leeds, England September 30 – The Portland Arms, Cambridge, England October 1 – Deaf Institute, Manchester, England October 3 – Forum, Tunbridge Wells, England October 4 – Frog & Fiddle, Cheltenham, England October 6 – Sin City (Fringe Fest), Swansea, Wales October 8 – Old Bakery, Truro, England October 9 – Phoenix, Exeter, England *denotes sold out date Tickets for all Ferris & Sylvester gigs are available here.