Perhaps not since Shania Twain, has there been a female country music act from Canada, as exciting as the duo known as Fera and which consists of identical twin sisters Stephanie and Courtney Fera. Sure there have been some pretty significant cowgirls, such as Michelle Wright, Terri Clark and Lisa Brokop (with whom they have shared the stage), but with the exception of Twain, none of them packs or has packed, the energy that Fera brings to the stage, nor have they had the same crossover appeal as this dynamic singing / songwriting twosome.

 

“Yes our music definitely has a crossover feel and appeal to it. We are not straight line country, we are alternative country and even sometimes we are pop. It depends on the Fera song that you hear. It is something that we embrace, and I think that it will help us and it won’t hurt us,” says Stephanie, although as they seek to become more established artists, their style seemingly comes with a few challenges,  “It’s not completely easy to get into the country genre when you are alternative country, it is quite hard.”

 

 

 

 

To which her sister Courtney adds, “Especially with radio play.  Our hearts aren’t completely alt country, because we have rock, pop and other elements in us. That is fine, but it just makes the road a bit harder.”

 

Stephanie says that the problem appears to be, “Nobody knows how to market us.”

 

“We run into that quite a bit, because we are genreless. There are elements of country in certain songs, but then almost every song is a different genre (or sub genre). We don’t fit anywhere,” says Courtney.

 

That might be true for the tightly formatted commercial radio market, but it has not stopped a growing legion of fans from flocking to Fera’s music which has been influenced by the likes of country pop crossover singer / songwriter Patty Griffin, American pop rock band Hanson and country music artist Vince Gill.

 

Recently Riveting Riffs Magazine ran into west coast concert promoter Keith Sedar, who has twice booked Fera for the annual Golden Spike Days Music Festival, which has been held for thirty plus years, and he spoke enthusiastically about what the twins bring to their performances in terms of energy and the quality of their music.

 

They also have highly respected country music producer, songwriter and musician Tom McKillip (Aaron Pritchett) championing their cause and he is the producer of record, for their current album Familiar Feeling.

 

Although Fera has many influences in their music and they claim to be without genre, the underlying groove in all of their music is country. Stephanie recalls when those seeds were first sown, “When we were of the legal age (nineteen in Canada) to go and have some beers, we went to a place called Roosters in Pitt Meadows (British Columbia, Canada) and that is where we really got into country music. We listened to country music when we were in grade ten and grade eleven on Country Music Television (Canada’s version of The Nashville Network), but it was really when we saw the Aaron Pritchett band, back in the day when he was the house band, that our eyes opened up to country music. We were songwriting at that point in our careers and those (country) influences got into us.”

 

Courtney picks up the story, “We also met Tom McKillip and he really put us on the country track. We met Tom through Dale Wallace who at the time was playing keyboards in Aarron Pritchett’s band, but now plays in Emerson Drive.  Dale introduced us to Tom one night. It took a while to get his attention and to convince him to meet up with us in a Starbucks one night, he listened to our demo CD and he loved it. He took us on and he produced our full length album.”

 

Keeping up with Stephanie and Courtney is a challenge as they are high energy even when they talk, often switching off in mid sentence as one sister finishes the sentence of the other.

 

Enthusiastically Courtney continues, “The experience with Tom was the first time that we had recorded a full length CD with a band.”

 

Stephanie cuts in, “He got us.”

 

“We are still on the track of trying to get people to understand us and to get it. Tom got it right from the beginning. He didn’t try to rearrange a lot of stuff. He took songs that we only ever played acoustically and he brought them to life with a full band. It showed us what we could do with our music. He is also very comfortable to work with, and when you are comfortable, you sing better, you play better, and you are more open to sharing ideas,” says Courtney.