FENDAHLENE: No More Near Misses.
AFTER a ‘Decade of Near Misses’ Fendahlene’s expat Aussies Paul Whiteley (guitars and vocals) and Ashley Hurst (bass) went their separate ways.
With their wanderlust behind them, a reunion in London and a meeting with former Rolling Stones producer Chris Kimsey reignited their passion for writing with the result being the release of their album, ‘High and Low and Back Again.’
But their story began over thirty years earlier.
“Paul and I were in bands at school in the late 1980’s,” explains Ashley. “We even won a ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition, but it fell by the wayside for few years until we got the itch again, which is when we formed Fendahlene as a three-piece with drummer Ben Felton. We were regulars on the Sydney circuit for ten years, playing pubs, clubs, universities and so-on.
“In that time, we released an LP called Anyone Who’s Anyone, two EPs (Blue Fortress and Touchdown) and a double LP called A Decade of Near Misses, which was fairly apt we believe. To give an example of why we chose that title, we had a song called Glebe Point Road that got a lot of national commercial radio airplay over the winter of 2002, only for that to stop pretty much as we signed a long-delayed distribution deal.”
With a well-honed, multifaceted sound effortlessly switching between indie rock, punk pop, and even at times alt-country, Fendahlene are a genuine hard-working rock and roll band who having paid their dues now fully deserve their place at the industry’s top table.
And ‘High And Low And Back Again’ could just get them there.
“Recording ‘High and Low and Back Again’ was such a long process,” added Ashley. “For one,
we had so much unrecorded material, from full songs to interesting riffs and we were without a drummer, so had to really consider our approach. We also wanted to release on vinyl, something we’ve been keen to do for years. Finally, we ended up recording in chunks over 14 months at Urchin Studios in London, with Matt Ingram on drums and Dan Cox behind the desk. Great studio, terrific room, and the guys were brilliant. Recording and mixing was completed in November 2019, with the album released in July 2020 on digital platforms and on vinyl a month later.”
Having seen their planned live launch for ‘High and Low and Back Again fall victim to the pandemic, Fendahlene finally return to the stage on November 17th at the Amersham Arms in New Cross ( The Amersham Arms ) as part of the ‘Trust The Doc Live’ show.
“We really just want people to enjoy our music and connect with it. Ideally enough people do this so we can continue to make music, hopefully more. We love any connection we make when playing live. If we’re playing to a nearly empty room with everyone watching the football on the television in the corner and just one person turns to watch us and starts tapping their feet, well that is just perfection. Connecting with audiences – or listeners – in any way never gets old.”
Don’t forget to put November 17th in your diary. After a decade of near misses, you’ll be mad to ignore it.
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For downloads, vinyl, CDs and merch:
https://fendahlene.bandcamp.com
For streaming: https://open.spotify.com/artist/387MjETdW7ae1HP1IYwYHa?si=5khkyfN3RYKMjq93quJAew&dl_branch=1
