Ferla released their stunning debut record, It’s Personal, last year.
Episode two of Turning Heads features Melbourne musician Giuliano Ferla who fronts the band Ferla. Giuliano launched the Ferla project in 2015, self-releasing his debut EP, Guilt Pop. He was still co-fronting the doom country outfit Twin Beasts (aka Toot Toot Toots) at the time, but Toots weren’t long for this world and Ferla evolved into a band in 2016.
Ferla’s second EP Stay Posi came out in 2017 as part of the twin EP package, Guilt Pop/Stay Posi. It’s Personal, Ferla’s debut album, came out in 2019. It was named Beat’s Best New Album in a 9/10 review, saying “It’s Personal mightn’t arrive at a satisfying resolution, but when a quaking heart produces such high-class songwriting, there’s really nothing to complain about”.
Ferla’s latest single, ‘Desire Machine’, came out in November 2019, and the band’s currently working on album number two.
Giuliano likes to describe his music as pop music, but while his songs contain memorable melodies and the sorts of crests and troughs you’d associate with the pop song format, it’s definitely a bit off-centre. The songwriting and aesthetic are somewhat reminiscent of 1980s indie-pop acts like Prefab Sprout or even Rowland S Howard’s solo work.
In the podcast, Giuliano and I spoke about his philosophies on creativity. He explained how he stays on task by equating the creative process to mining. “Every day I go into the mine and some days I’m just pushing dirt around and there’s nothing down there,” he says. “And then some days I go down and I find some gold. But you don’t know if you’re going to find gold or not until you go down.”
He also offered some controversial views on a classic Bob Dylan song and reflected on poor teen fashion choices. “I used to wear this Burberry-pattern cheesecutter cap. I looked like a newspaper boy from the 1920s. I look at it now and I feel sick just looking at it.”
Check out the podcast episode below:
I will be back with a new episode of Turning Heads next week. You can find the podcast on Spotify, Podbean and through Apple.
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