Video Premiere: Febueder “Owing”

If this is your first time hearing of Febueder—19-year-olds Kieran Godfrey, Harry Summersgill, and Samuel Keysell's indie band—let us sort out a few things. For starters, don't even try to phonetically pronounce their name: it was picked from a group of random letters the guys thought looked good together. Secondly, write the band off because they're junior; there's nothing elementary about their sound. If anything, with their intricate samples of skateboard and wine glass sounds, robust harmonies, and bass backbone, their sound is far more mature and inventive than most 20-something or 30-something bands.

With that out of the way, check out our interview with the Febueder below. Then watch our exclusive premiere of the band's new music video, filled with lush abandoned industrial images. 

Tell us a little bit about how you guys started the band. When did you decide to start making music together?

The band initially formed from a friendship between myself and Kieran. We've been friends since we were 8 years old. It's the classic tale of the formation of band. Kieran started to play guitar at 14. Then he got progressively better, I would listen to him play and we got the idea of playing together if I got a drum kit and we could start playing as a band. We both knew Harry and Kieran would play guitar with him sometimes. We thought Harry could play bass and then we would see how it went, if anything could come of it. I mean, we were just doing it for fun, like a past-time hobby. And we kept playing and creating and now we find ourselves here, in this moment. 

So I hear that your name, Febueder, is just a series of random letters that you thought looked good together. So…how exactly do you pronounce it?

Its like Bermuda but with an F... Febueder.

You're all big on skateboarding. When one thinks of skateboarding and music, the whole era of '70s California surf/skate rock comes to mind. Do you see some of those qualities or techniques in your own music?

No, not really. I mean, we all love the film

Lords of Dogtown

, which is set in the pool shredding era of California. But, we couldn't say it's been any direct influence on the creation of our music. Maybe it's in there somewhere. In the deepest darkest corners of the songs. Maybe?

How exactly would you describe your sound?

We could try and use all our obscure creative wording to try and explain our sound in all it's intricate little details. But we really don't know how to answer such a question in complete honesty. So we shall keep it broad and open to adaptation. Indie Rock.

After you released your EP, Soap Carv, you were placed under a sort of musical "curfew" and decided start practicing in an abandoned tunnel. How did that industrialized aesthetic play into your music?

It was really cold. It was in the middle of winter when we were playing there. We would go there quite late at night because at around 6 o'clock we can't practice in our luxurious conservatory anymore. But we had a real aspiration to carry on playing, so we would go there, into the cold. The tunnel has this really nice natural reverb inside of it so that's what makes it a pleasing place to play. It's got this nice grand echo to it. In terms of the tunnels aesthetic... it's yellow. Not that it's painted yellow, but the lighting makes it that way. There's nothing really about the look of the tunnel that has any affect on the music, it's just the sound it creates. You could almost call it quite heavenly. 

There seems to be a lot of focus on the fact that you're all only 19. This may seem like a trite question, but what do you guys feel the future holds for you?

Playing as many shows as we can. Creating more music. We are looking to put out a short 2-track EP for the beginning of next year, so we are working on that. Looking to keep fuelling our creative desires. And then hopefully be in the position to be putting out our debut album in the next 2 years. We desperately want to creating an album. We're tired of this small E.P stuff. We want to be in the big leagues. Hitting home runs. That's what we're working towards.

Make sure to pre-order Febueder's EP here. And if you're lucky enough to be in London for the band's first headlining gig on October 13, grab your (free) tickets here.