Phantastic Ferniture, the project of Julia Jacklin, Elizabeth Hughes, Ryan K Brennan and Tom Stephens, release a debut self-titled album on Transgressive. The mission is obvious: Don’t overthink it. These artists' shared want to shake the shackles of their meticulously crafted solo work to experience a second, giddy adolescence is evident in the garage-pop perfection introduced today. “I’d gone straight into folk music,” says Jacklin, “so every experience I’d had on stage was playing sad music with a guitar in my hand. I thought, I would love to know what it’s like to make people feel good and dance.” Phantastic Ferniture’s spiritual home may be the garage but they were born in a bar, specifically the hallowed basement of Frankie’s Pizza in Sydney. One late night in 2014, on Jacklin’s birthday, a group hug manifested amid the pinball machines, with all ten participants vowing to form a band. “Only four of us remembered the next day,” notes Hughes. United by fern puns and a love of leisurewear, the band met up whenever schedules would allow, writing songs and playing smatterings of dates to an increasingly devoted audience. Eventually it was decreed that this was no side project and an LP should follow. The result is one of the most enjoyable albums of 2018. “It feels really good,” Jacklin says with satisfaction. “It’s like having an alter ego.”
