Interviews (243)

• September 25, 2025
• Colleen Johnson
• 477
• 0

(photo credit: Olof Grind)

As we slow roll into “Rocktober,” as this millennial still calls it, a smooth transition into the seemingly craziest time of the year, a guy I recently chatted with, long-time artist Felly, will be bringing tracks off his latest record, Ambroxyde, as well as a full band performance to town this Saturday. The show will be going down at one of my personal favorite spots in the area, The Sinclair, in Cambridge. It’s been home to many iconic shows and core memories for me. From Yungblud to The Front Bottoms and so much more, it’s definitely where I would recommend you find yourself Saturday night if you’re looking for a show.

Felly has been consistently producing and releasing material for over a decade now ,since his days at USC and before. The show is sure to be a kaleidoscope of his catalogue and one you shouldn’t miss! I was able to have an in-depth conversation with Felly, which can be found below! Limited tickets are still available here, but I wouldn’t sleep on this one!

—

New England Sounds: You’re about to embark on this almost two-month tour, which is to preview the Cambridge date.  Maybe how are the feelings right now? In these final weeks of preparation before you go out on this run? 

Felly: I’m definitely excited, but slightly overwhelmed.  I’ve related it to having a flight the next day, like an early morning flight, and you’re trying to sleep, but there are a million things you’re thinking about. Like, did I pack this? And it feels like a month of that. So it’s kind of like this uneasy feeling, but once we get out there, we’ll be in a bit of a more flow state. But yeah, I’m excited. It’s definitely going to be a pretty big tour, length-wise. It’s almost fifty days on the road, so just trying to get mentally right.  Trying to get in good shape, and yeah, it’s going to be fun. 

NES: And you’ve been putting out music since 2011, I think the first big, big release was 2014, correct me if I’m wrong. 

Felly: Yeah, I think I put something out on Spotify in 2014, so I think I’m about a decade in. Yeah, I mean, I’ve been steadfast and keeping things going. At that time, I didn’t even know what this treatment was, and what it was going to be.  It was just sort of, “I’m making records and I’m going to put them out.” And luckily, it’s been a good thing to keep pouring into. As time goes on, it just sort of adds up, it stacks up, which is cool. Now, when you knock on the door of Felly, there’s a lot in that room, and there’s a lot of life there. 

NES: Maybe how do you, even, you’ve  put out so much material, your most recent release in June is obviously something so different. That’s life, a natural progression in life, but still some of your biggest, in streaming, are songs that you’ve had out for quite a while now. How are you even curating and planning these sets? You’ve obviously grown so much, but you still want to appease the older fans. How do you go about planning these sets? 

Felly: There’s a saying, “One for you, one for me.” And that’s music in general, when it comes to albums and releases. But for this tour, I think, because I’ve toured so many times, I’m kind of leaning more towards what I want to do and what I want to play.  And be a little more of an artist, a performer, than an entertainer. If I were just an entertainer, I would just play exactly what everyone, people wanted to hear.  But I think I owe it to some of the fans, some of these fans have been to four or five shows, and I want to keep pushing them and playing things that feel relevant and up to date. Sometimes it changes, so I think we just get in a room and we rehearse. We’re pretty in touch with ourselves in the now, and if something just feels like it’s a different time, then we have to figure out a way to re-create it in a way that feels now and exciting. For us in that room, if we’re definitely not gravitating towards it.  So, I think it’s a blend of taking some of our old stuff, reworking it, and seeing how we can make it exciting for the now.  And it’s also challenging ourselves with the newer stuff.  Which we’ve never played or we don’t know how it’s going to feel. 

NES: That must be interesting, because I know it is a full band tour. But from looking at a video you posted, you recorded and made this most recent album in Iceland.  Which is obviously a bit of a change for a recording atmosphere. How did that even come about? How did Iceland come about? Was it something where you had been reached out to by someone? 

Felly: I think it comes along with, you know, you want to go down every road you can as a musician and see what’s there. But I think I reached a point where I went down so many roads while living in Los Angeles. And doing sessions with producers throughout LA and then compiling an album, or producing my own stuff, or moving to Brooklyn for a year, and producing something there. 

And I kind of view projects as a journey.  And I think on this journey, I wanted to take myself out of the norm and out of anything that I’m comfortable with.  So it was the first record that I did with one producer, so after I linked with that producer, we just started to talk about things. And he got into a car accident when he was a bit younger, and he said what was going through his head was, “And I’ve never even been to Greece.” It was like one of his thoughts, so he devotes time every year to exploring and going to Europe. He makes sure that he’s living a life that excites him. Because we all got into music, into the arts, because we didn’t want to live lives maybe like what we saw growing up.   Where you’re going to go to college, get a job, work a 9-5, and that’s going to be your life. And I think if music can start to feel like that, you can kind of be like, “Well, I’m no different than a suit. I just do music, but you’re doing it in a suit-y way.” I think it was a bit of a rebellion, of monotony, and of doing the same things that you’ve done. 

So, we thought of the most far-out, obscure, middle-of-nowhere location. And there was just like this studio there that my manager had found, which excited us. So we were like, let’s just go there, and with no expectations, and just see who we are, see what we create, and that producer didn’t really know all too much about my past.  So, he wasn’t married to making things in a certain way, and I think I was just able to kind of be present and raw and vulnerable again. So, it’s just about finding different ways to reach that state of like kind of nervousness and unknown. 

NES: When did you kind of start writing the songs for the last record, Ambroxyde. The last one, I believe prior was 2022 for you? 

Felly: Yeah, in 2022. I think I did an EP in ‘23.  And I think around that time, I had some of the songs going. So I think it was a year, a year and a half long process. But in the studio (while on Zoom, Felly at this point showing me where he had been calling in from), here, I usually come in. I’m used to going into a session, making a song that day, leaving with something, and being like, “That’s the record, it’s done.” And with this one, I was like, I’m not going to record until I can sing and play the songs on guitar, and until I sharpen up my songwriting, then we can get to recording. So, it was definitely just a lot of nurturing these songs early on, instrumentally, and then producing them and seeing how we wanted to do them. 

NES: And I know, when you were at USC, you met your two big collaborators, I believe still friends to this day. But you’ve always kind of been a DIY artist.  Maybe how do you think that’s helped you? We’re in 2025, but during the shutdowns, artists had to be on their own and had to find different ways to release music.  Being a DIY artist, how do you think that’s helped you? You just showed me your studio that you have at home, right at your fingertips.  Forming your first record label while at USC, etc.? 

Felly: I think that’s a great question.  I think there’s so much community building, and I think that’s the main thing I got from USC. I went to music school there, but I was in the music industry school because I couldn’t sing.  I couldn’t play an instrument or do classical stuff, couldn’t read music. So, I was in the music world, but I sort of snuck my way in through a music industry way.  But then I started to just kind of use my mind and my ideas to kind of assemble a team.  Kids from the jazz program, kids from the pop music program.  Just sort of kept my eyes open and befriended people who I thought were special. I always knew I had like a plan, and a way. And I just needed to bring people along.  

And so, I think that was really pivotal in creating a circle of people. I’ve always wanted to have an amazing circle of people around me, and I think, eight, nine, ten years in, these are still people that I call on and know. I just have an amazing squad of people where anything that I would need that I couldn’t completely do, I could bring them in and weave them in.  And so, I think these are things that modern record labels and stuff, that if you’re a kid from middle America and nobody else makes music, but you have talent, you might go to a record label and they’ll still probably depend on you to do all the heavy lifting.  And people aren’t too hip to artist development anymore.  And I think I was artist developing without realizing I was, and kind of bringing in people and curating and building up my brand and entity with the help of friends and through the help of players. So those guys and those people have helped me on every single record in some way.  Whether it’s a song produced, whether they’re playing on it. But their thoughts, opinions, and tastes have curated me. And I don’t think it’s easiest to do everything alone and in a vacuum. 

NES: Yeah! And then we’ve already kind of talked about it, I’m sure you’re enjoying some well-deserved time before you go on this mammoth of a tour that you’re about to take on. It may be cheesy, but are there any hopes or goals for these next few months? 

Felly: Yeah, I think I’m focused this tour on, we put in so much time and energy as artists into marketing and branding and Instagram and pushing albums, and all these things. And that’s just to get people through the door and to get people aware of you. Because it’s really hard and difficult to do that. But, I think my main goal is, no matter who shows up, I want our show to be an amazing level performance-wise.  So I’m just working on my chops. I’ve been taking singing classes with this guy and just kind of strengthening myself up for it. Being like we’re technically professionals, and I feel like I have good taste in things that I would like to go and see and judge.  And I want to make sure I’m coming in at high levels.  So I think I really just want to kind of do away with some of the immaturities. I think I got in the door a little prematurely, and I had to learn things as I went.  And I had fans before I knew how to play guitar.  So I would walk out with a guitar and be like, “I don’t really know how to play this, but I’m going to assume.” So, it’s all been kind of building up to this point where it’s like this is the thing. We’re actually legitimate. We deserve to be here now ; kind of proving myself. 

NES: Then this show in Cambridge, I know you played in Nantucket, but is this your first Boston proper show in a while? 

Felly: I think we did one last year, or two years ago. But Boston always shows out and has a lot of love.  Boston was the first place that I ever played a show at. My first show ever, when I was sixteen years old, was at Middle East Downstairs. And I remember, they were looking for openers for Madlib, and I got in touch with the promoter. He sold me thirty tickets at $600, so if I sold those tickets to twenty fans at thirty dollars, I would break even or something. So I remember being like, “What is a young kid like me who knows nothing about Madlib’s world doing? About to go open for him,” and I was skeptical. My mom was like, “If you don’t do it now, when are you going to do it? Take the leap.” And so, yeah, we went up there and did that. That’s an example of just throwing myself in the water prematurely, but now I think it’s showing myself, proving we deserve to be there. Deserve to be recognized as a legitimate act. 

NES: That downstairs room is pretty iconic, I’m pretty sure Eminem played there on one of his first tours, besides his time on Warped. (Eminem was also the first rapper to complete a whole Warped Tour without dropping off.)

Felly: Yeah, it was an awesome time. I’ve since been back and played shows there. I love that room.

—

9/27: Felly w/John-Robert at The Sinclair in Cambridge, MA. 7 pm doors, tickets can found here!