Fovvs

"Peace and love, see you on the flip side!"

- Fovvs' standard outro

Fovvs is an English singer, songwriter, and musician from Manchester, England. His stage name derives from his surname, with the 'w' looking like two v's. He plans to release "Jekyll and Hyde" as his debut single in mid-2022.

History
Fovvs did local gigs for a while as an acoustic act, and posted covers to YouTube. From December 2012 to September 2013, he was in the quartet group called Monroe. Near the end of the year, he was taken in by artist manager Blair Dreelan, and became a guitarist for Harvey Cantwell.

On 5 April 2014, Fovvs was introduced as the fifth member of the boy band Overload, the lineup consisting of Joey Devries, Ryan Robertson, Oliver Garland, and Jordi Whitworth. They primarily did covers uploaded to YouTube, and performed at various venues. The group competed on the 11th series of The X Factor, having to change their name to Overload Generation because of legal reasons. They moved on to perform their original song "No No No" for their Arena audition, sending them to bootcamp, and were brought back by Mel B as the groups' Wild Card. They were eliminated after landing in the sing-off with Stephanie Nala, and finished fifteenth place. In an exclusive interview, they reported, "The results show was tough though. We didn't say a word afterwards, just went home in silence. But we don't think there was anything wrong with our performances, we've watched back both. There's always room for improvement but there was nothing wrong that we could see. Simon has his opinion, but it's just an opinion".

In January 2015, Devries was the first to leave the group, followed by the departure of Whitworth, who also wanted to pursue a solo career. Resulting in only three members left, they announced their split over social media. It was cited as a struggle with mental health since The X Factor, and financial issues, where the manager alleged of losing money on the group. Fovvs named it being one of the moments that has shaped him, where it was hard to come back after facing rejection. He later joked that they were the first act to be voted out three times in one year on the show. During this period, Fovvs composed several songs in his spare time, including "Rescue", "Lay My Hat", and "Maps", the latter two uploaded to his Facebook. He later explained how the lyrics in "Maps" are written as a love song but drawn from his personal experience with taking therapy, and the highs and lows after The X Factor. He headlined as a solo act for ViewMyGig in early 2015, where he met his two future bandmates, Rye Beaumont and Mikey Cobban, both of whom were in another band at the time.

In March 2015, Fovvs was revealed as the first member of a new music project, assembled as a five-piece group in November 2016 with Beaumont, Brooklyn Wyatt, Cobban, and Jack Duff. Together they released two demo EPs in 2017 and went on multiple headline and support tours around the UK and Ireland. In August 2018, they released their debut single, "Take This Home", accompanied by its music video in December. Fovvs also travelled to Mexico for HRVY's promotional tour in November, as Cantwell's regular guitarist could not attend the shows. The song "Wait" was composed at this time, along with a demo version recorded. In the last week of April 2019, Cobban departed from RoadTrip, and Robertson came in on trial to join the band. Their third EP Dynamite was dropped in June, followed by the release of an acoustic version in September. In December, Duff publicly announced his decision to leave the band to go solo, replaced by Harper Dark in January 2020.

On 23 February 2020, the new lineup announced their upcoming fifth EP, along with the release of a music video for one of its tracks, "Me and You". It was intended to serve as new material for their upcoming show, One Night Only, where they headlined their final performance. During the Coronavirus pandemic, lockdown began in mid-March for the United Kingdom, resulting in Fovvs going back to his hometown, being at high-risk. A documentary was also released to the band's YouTube channel in April, that detailed the group's history. In May, Robertson and Beaumont announced the band's split largely due to mental health and financial issues.

Fovvs took a hiatus from his music career, attributed mostly to the unpredictability with COVID-19, and expected not to release any music until it was over; however, he suggested that he would try to put out content in 2021, still taking the necessary precautions. In June, he went to a music studio to have three songwriting sessions that turned into five. He had several concept pieces that were potentially made to be released, though these were scrapped and in favour of new originals no one has heard of before. He wrote three songs and recorded vocals for the last two days, with "Jekyll and Hyde" chosen to be his debut single as a soloist. He mentioned, "I don't just wanna write singer-songwriter songs [...] I wanna work on something that pushes me creatively, and I think I've done that".

Artistry
Fovvs' music style can be categorised under folk-pop in the early stages of his career. Despite the previous direction his original songs went, he wants to explore different genres. In RoadTrip, music was directed towards pop, and what he labelled as guitar-driven. Due to his distinct dialect, Fovvs found this to shape his pronunciation and style in singing, and used a head voice in early RoadTrip covers to obtain a higher register. He confessed that he was not comfortable singing in a low octave, though "Flashing Lights" demonstrated his ability. He has been noted to sing with "grit", as those were influences he grew up with.

For Fovvs' songwriting, lyrics are usually concepts, though they can also be a mix of personal experience. He appreciates multiple meanings in words (shown in his song, "No Sleep"), and where songs can link to one another. Early on, his lyrical content was focussed around relationships and suppression of negative emotions. His songs appear to be introspective, mostly containing the theme of love. He admitted that some of his "genetic love songs" are deeper than they appear, as writing became a creative and emotional outlet. His planned-to-be released singles centre around the subject of mental health. He once mentioned that he does not like swearing in songs.

He grew up listening to musicians Charlie Simpson and Newton Faulkner, the rock band Fall Out Boy, and learned songs by guitarists Masaaki Kishibe and Andy McKee. Musicians that inspired him before entering the pop world included artists Faulkner, Max Milner, and JP Cooper, all of whom he referred to as "a guy and a guitar, who wrote their music". He has incorporated the percussive style of guitar playing in his performances and once said that Casey Abrams was someone he aspired to be like as a songwriter. He has cited Brendon Urie as an influence both performance-wise and vocally while in RoadTrip. Other artist influences for him include Freddie Mercury and Jon Bellion.