A few weeks ago, Us For Once happened to cross paths with a young artist from the UK. Oliver Green, better known as Fever Days (the name of his solo project) absolutely stunned us with his trendy rock sound and multiple musical talents. We had the incredible opportunity to chat with him for an exclusive Us For Once interview, and now we’re here to tell you everything you need to know about this rising artist!
Brought up in a family he describes as “not musical at all”, Green is unsure where exactly his love for music came from. But he does recall that Green Day is the first rock band he ever listened to, and in general they are a big influence on him. However, Fever Days is a far cry from any band that’s currently on the music scene.
Besides the original sound (which includes energetic guitar riffs and quick clever-tongued vocals), Fever Days is unique because it is entirely a one-man operation. Green composes, plays all instruments, sings, mixes and produces all of his own music! When we asked how he uncovered all these diverse talents, he answered, “The first I learned to do was play the instruments – I started learning guitar when I was 10 years old, and piano when I was about 6. I also started singing at a relatively young age too. The songwriting and production came a lot later. In fact, I only started teaching myself how to produce very recently, when I started up this project, so I am still looking to improve in this field with every release I put out!”. It’s clear to us that ambition, hard work, and practice has gotten Green to where he is today, and his desire to never stop improving is showcased when listening to every new track. Acoustically minded, his artistic process is almost always “music first, lyrics later”, as he writes lyrics based on melody and rhythm first.
He explained how he got his creative start, and how he came up with the idea of a solo project, telling us, “I first got into writing music back when I was around 15 [he is now 18], I think the reason behind it is just because I got a bit fed up of playing covers, so I decided to give writing my own songs a go, and I loved it! Before starting this project, I had no intention of doing it all myself – in fact I really wanted to start a band at uni. However, I really struggled to find like minded people, and seeing as I’d already started recording these songs, I just thought I’d try doing it all myself and its paid off!”.
Speaking of new material, Fever Days has just released its second single, “Hey”. The guitar/synth combo make this song’s intro a win. The whole track has an engaging and lively sound, and showcases Green’s vocals and mixing at their best. Fast talking melodies and background voices spitting out sharp indignant lines like, “I’m like the ice before an avalanche/I’m just about to crack/I’m like the sun/but when I disappear/I’m never coming back” make “Hey” a fantastic tune that’s bound to sit well with indie rock lovers or anyone who likes a modern sound similar to Two Door Cinema Club or Jamie T. Green also shared the inspiration behind the track, stating, “It’s about often being overlooked when I was back in the school. I was never the most popular kid, and wasn’t really noticed much, so ‘Hey’ is me sort of shouting out against that I suppose,” and “It also means a lot to me because this is the first song I wrote/recorded where I realized that my production skills had stepped up and that I actually could maybe make something of my music!”.
Lastly, Green shared some quick fun facts with us, including his dream venues (“My dream is to tour the USA, but within the UK I’d love to perform at Reading and Leeds festival!”) and upcoming plans for Fever Days, “I’m not afraid of the criticisms and rejections I may face. I’m still having to deal with a lot of this from blogs and labels, but I believe in my music, so I’m not planning on giving up! I definitely have plans to release more music in 2018, but nothing set in stone just yet. I have a couple more songs recorded so you’ll definitely be hearing those at some point! I think my main aim at the moment is to get the live show sounding and looking proper and to get some gigs booked, now that I have a band together to play live with!”.
Fever Days is a refreshing and exciting project breaking into the music scene, (Record labels: act fast! Fever Days is still unsigned… although we predict it won’t be for long!) and we can’t wait to see what else they have in store for us this year!
Fever Days is on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud and has released two singles this year so far, “Bored” and “Hey”. They’re available now on all major streaming platforms and they’re also both featured on Us For Once's Song Of The Week playlist on Spotify, which you can listen to here.