A Conversation with Ferraby Lionheart  (continued)

PM: So have you been touring hard or steadily since the EP, or more like since this Nettwerk release?

FH: Yeah, more like just the past five or six months when I hooked up with Nettwerk.

PM: And how is that part of the story going?

FH: It's going well. I guess it's just life on the road; I'm learning how it works. We get nice support. The bands that I've been opening up for, their crowds have been really nice and very supportive. And each time we revisit a city usually there's a few people who come out and say, "Hey, we caught you last time." I'm really enjoying it. So far, so good.

PM: So you're in Emo's tonight, in Austin, right?

FH: Yeah, Austin.

PM: Who are you playing with tonight?

FH: We are on tour right now with a band from New Zealand called The Brunettes. I'm touring with them all around the US right now. It's about a five-week tour.

PM: Is that a good bill, a sympathetic bill?

FH: Yeah, we love those guys. They're really cool. Their music is really interesting, and they're great people, and we're having a really excellent time with them. This is their first headlining tour, so the shows have been pretty mellow. The last tour I went out with was with Mason Jennings.

PM: Right. And he's got a big core following, doesn't he?

FH: Yeah. He's very underground, but he's been putting records out for a while, so he's got a really nice crowd. So we were playing to sold-out shows with him.

PM: Yeah, my girlfriend saw you open for him in San Francisco, and she said both acts were really good.

FH: Yeah.

PM: That's how I got onto you, really, her seeing you in front of Mason Jennings and I said, okay, wow, what a name. I've got to look into this cat. And then I saw you were a Nettwerk artist.

FH: It's been really exciting the way things sort have been spreading through the shows, or through the radio support that we've been starting to get. But yeah, up until the Brass Ring it was mainly L.A. When I was just working myself and the EP, it was just Los Angeles and a little bit of New York stuff. It's been exciting to see how things spread with the album and tours and the label behind it, getting radio play. I'm just waiting to see what happens.

PM: You mentioned growing up in the Baha'i faith. Are you still what you'd call a spiritual guy?

FH: Yeah, I definitely try to keep the Baha'i faith a prominent part of my life.

PM: So many people, even if they remain spiritual, go away from the religion that they were reared in.

FH: Yeah, well, it's a difficult thing to keep constant--it might sound strange, but as a professional artist, where you're on the road a lot, and you're spending a whole lot of time focusing on yourself, and your creative projects, it's easy to neglect your relationship with God. I don't know, I'm sure that's not everybody's experience.

PM: Well, sure, it's very easy to get self-obsessive. I think a lot of artists get unfortunately self-obsessive, and that's really different than God-oriented.

FH: I think that's the thing. It's like your relationship with God is not about yourself. And your relationship with your art is 100 percent absent yourself. That's my personal experience. I think that a really pure idealistic way is that you and God work together in your artistic endeavors. For me it's sort of a struggle between art and God. But I try to balance the two, because I know that I really feel a lot more harmonized when I feel spiritually fulfilled.

PM: Absolutely. So the crazy life on the road, do you find time or make time for reading? Is that something that helps balance you out, or is there no time for that?

FH: It's really hard for me. I get so jealous of the guys that I travel with who can read in the car. But I suffer from extreme severe motion sickness.

PM: Oh, really?

FH: And if I look down for more than 10 seconds I get motion sickness.

PM: That's a drag.

FH: So on the days that we have shorter drives there's time, but unfortunately with the long drives there's very little time for that sort of thing.

PM: So what's on the horizon, Ferraby? Is there a deal to do several albums with Nettwerk?

FH: No, actually I was able to get into a one-off with them. Basically I licensed the EP to them, and then a one-album deal. So I'm just going to see how it goes. On the other hand, I'm just sort of starting to think about what I'm going to record next, getting very excited about the next record.

PM: Because that's another thing that's hard to do on the road is any kind of writing, right?

FH: Yeah. But driving through the different parts of the country it's a really great time to sort of soak up new ideas and jot them down. And yeah, just getting used to the idea of making a new life, because this is a new lifestyle for me.

PM: Yeah, well, I think the way that things are going and the music that you're putting down, I think there's a really bright career out there for you, and I think great things are going to happen for you.

FH: Thanks a lot, Frank, that's good to hear.

PM: I think you're really doing something special, and we're really happy to talk to you today, and to put you on the cover. I'll let you know when it comes out, and you can check it out.

FH: Cool. I really appreciate the support.