Hi Feralman, tell us a little about yourself?

I’m a Welsh/Australian alternate folk artist. My mum was an Aussie and my dad is Welsh. I live in South Wales and when not working on my music, I spend my time painting, writing children’s books and looking after our family of 5! I also love to read – I am working my way through “The Wheel of Time” series in a race to finish before the TV she comes out. I surf, try and do some yoga every couple of days and love eating out (when allowed). Oh, and I’m partial to a glass of red wine!

Before we talk music I hear you’re somewhat of an artist, is that correct?

Yes I’ve painted all my life. My mum was an artist and her sister, my auntie, was also. In fact, she was a pretty big deal over in Oz (Kerry Stokes)

How does your art overlap into your music?

I did all the artwork for the first album (each of the singles feature their own painting and the album cover has a separate painting) and also designed the logo which is featured on the new single “Let It Heal You”. I am a fairly visual thinker so when I write music, my minds eye creates a visual image for the song, and sometimes the other way around, where I try and create a song based on the visual image I have painted. They are intrinsically linked.

I’ve also read that in 2020 you welcomed the birth of your daughter (congratulations!), how has she influenced your music in the last year or so?

Thank you. Yes our youngest was born in January 2020. She’s been a big influence actually because I started to play gentle lullabies to her from the moment she arrived and many of those turned into fully fledged songs that I included on the first album. Her birth triggered a whole series of self reflective thoughts that ultimately inspired the others album tracks.

I see you’re based in South Wales (UK) currently, how is the music scene there?

It’s starting to really thrive. Historically, and as a fan when growing up, I often felt that we were a little isolated and sometimes missed some of the tour routes, I wonder if that impacted our own scene a little in the past. It has always had its own strength but now it is booming, there are lots of really talented artists making some great music and getting a lot of attention. There are some really cool venues and lots of music focussed festivals and events. It’s good fun at the moment and I expect this will become even more so as we continue to ease out of pandemic world

Congratulations on your new single, it’s sounding as great as when I last heard it! How has it been from a creative perspective allowing someone to mix and master your track remotely?

If you’d have asked me this question before I started, I think I would’ve said something about wanting to be in control of the whole process. What’s actually happened is I’ve learnt so much from the process of writing, recording and releasing the first album (shout out to Rafa Rico, Ricardo Martinez and Gabriel Alvarez for their significant help with that) that I absolutely embrace the help of people who do parts of the process so much better than me. The pandemic world may actually have been an advantage for me because we have all been forced into more remote ways of working. As such I am partnering now with people that I may otherwise never have done so, like yourself. I am genuinely thrilled to have you working on my songs, with me.

How did the creative process start for Let It Heal You?

I remember clearly. I use to get up at about 4am with our baby daughter and go for an early morning walk, always her choice rather than mine! And I often chatted and hummed or sang to her. It was during those walks that the melody of the chorus came to me, without lyrics at that stage. I liked it, so developed it bit by bit from there.

Let It Heal You also has a great music video, where was this filmed and who with?

Thank you, I love it too. It was filmed in South Wales. I’ve got to give massive credit to Tapan at Wolfget Media for this. He has worked with me on all the videos right from the start and plays a significant part in the concept for each one. Claude at Antelope Media does all the Behind The Scenes and photography from each shoot and of course this video features someone other than me, in the amazing Faith Newport. She choreographed and performed an awesome dance routine for the video.

What’s in store for Feralman for the rest of 2021?

It’s so exciting, there are lots more songs on the way. The second single will be released in a coupe of months and I am going to keep these coming fairly quickly. We’ll continue to do a video for each one too.I am working on translating all of the songs into live format now too and have got a great live band behind me. The intention is to do a couple of big gigs later in the year.

You can follow Ferlaman on his instagram and listen to his music on Youtube, Spotify and Apple Music