Words > Will Furdas
Photo > Koury Angelo

I’ve never known how to pronounce the term Riot Grrrl. Do you roll the ‘R’s? Maybe give it a bit of a Spanish accent? Probably the best place to start is actually asking a musician that plays it, but I got too distracted talking about raptors with one of the most highly anticipated acts of the 2012 Great Escape, and the moment seemed to have passed.

Smacking music in the face with its bratty indie RIO punk barbwire baseball bat, comes Norwich based shouty trio Fever Fever. In their four years of existence, FF have notched up a rather impressive résumé of playing the likes of Glastonbury and SXSW.

Following their triumphant performance in front of a full capacity crowd at the The Hope, I caught up with the band Ellie, Rosie and Smit, who, nursing sore heads after a night of celebrating, were still buzzing about their performance. “People were queuing! (to get in)” says guitarist and part mouth piece, Rosie, “It blew our minds!”. This didn’t stop one crowd member getting a little more than they bargained for – “I sat on someone’s feet” smirks Rosie “I didn’t purposely do it, but I quite enjoyed it so I stayed, I think they felt quite awkward”. “They shouldn’t come to our show then” laughs Ellie: Fever Fever’s other shouting vocal contributor and musical guitaring Batman sounds of KA – to Rosie’s POW  “That’s what we like to do with our audiences, make them feel as awkward as possible.” Along with the pointing? “And staring” Ellie adds, laughing. “No, it’s brilliant“ she reassures me, “was really good fun”.

Fever Fever’s take on music is incredibly different to their peers’ as they shy away from singing about nice things, which I am quick to address while making the school boy error of implying all their songs follow this formula; “Sweeping statements” Rosie says in the style of Rumpole of the Bailey. I quickly backtrack and ask them why are a good majority of their songs are about knobbing and fighting, and whether is this is just a reflection of their home town of Norwich? Smit, the band’s thriving backing beat, is quick to agree that it is. Rosie adds that “writing about love and stuff is boring” before adding that the “music itself lends itself to the visceral lyrics”. The band then seem to try and outdo each other; “we also don’t know how to love”, jokes Ellie, “Hate, we’re full of it… Full of poison and erm –” “ – bile” adds Smit. It seems like if there’s one thing the band can agree on it’s that there’s bile in there somewhere, but this could just be a reflection of the hangover.

As the band talks about their musical influences, it’s clear to hear them throughout their sound: Smit is a powerhouse behind the drums, taking nods from the likes of John Bonham and Dave Grohl. Rosie and Ellie, on the other hand, list out a who’s who of loud alternative with the likes of Sleater-Kinney, Be Your Own Pet, Distillers, Sonic Youth and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Even though their new single “Chair” limited edition cassette version sold out before its actual release, FF still find themselves between labels. This doesn’t seem to faze the band much “We will get one for the album hopefully (due to emerge kicking and screaming into the world at some point in 2013), but we’re not tied down” before Ellie adds that “different audience comes with different labels, so that’s not a bad thing”.

Despite the hangover from partying above and beyond the previous night, the band are still not beyond answering the difficult question of If you were an astronaut, or Buzz Aldrin, what myth would you make up about outer space? “It’s made of black Play Doh” shouts Elley, “ There’s a McDonalds’ on the moon” says Rosie, “That the moon is really tiny” adds Ellie, “Size of the football” Rosie clarifies. At this point, Ellie has sunk her teeth into her answer and is drawing it out point by point: “It’s really close to the earth, but the McDonalds is tiny, so you have to order 15 thousand cheese burgers to make up one usual cheese burger and they have to take it out one at a time, but you can order online”.

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