Enjoy fun, psychedelic pop with Floral Image

Floral Image describe their sound as “melodious, sultry, luminescent psychedelia sewn in the soils of Norwich” – though one of the band’s members, their most recent recruit in fact, guitarist Phil Whitton, was born and raised in Melbourn.

The band’s melodic sound does indeed have a definite psychedelic edge to it, their videos are entertaining and, most importantly, it seems like they’re having fun.

“I think we always make a point to be a bit light-hearted, because there’s a lot of bands that are around now that are trying their hardest to be ultra serious and taken seriously, but I don’t really feel like it comes naturally to any of us,” says Phil, speaking to the Cambridge Independent from his Norwich flat (interestingly, all of the band’s five members live in the same postcode, “within a stone’s throw of each other”).

Phil was friends with Mitch, the drummer, at university. “We ended up living together for about a year and a half, in Norwich,” he notes.

“And I left for a bit, I think I was gone for about four years. I lived in London for a while and was travelling around.

“We were playing in another band in London, well half in London, half in Norwich, and that was going on for a while…”

Meanwhile, in 2019, four musicians – singer/guitarist Fergus Nolan, singer/keyboard player Jack Warner, bass player Matthew ‘Tex’ Kennedy, and drummer Mitch Forsyth – came together as Floral Image, going on to sell out shows in Norwich, Cambridge, Ipswich and London.

“Eventually, I decided to leave London,” recalls Phil, who also does animation – he and Mitch worked on the video for the band’s single, Gallipoli.

“Mitch called and I was chatting with him and he was like ‘What are you going to do now?’ and I was like ‘I’m not sure’.

“He was like ‘Do you fancy coming back to Norwich to join the band?’.

“I had already hung out with the guys a bit because we’d done a festival together and I had roadied for them, in exchange for a free ticket.”

Around the time of the group’s first tour, in 2023, it was decided that they needed a “bit of extra sonic firepower” – and so Phil suddenly found himself part of the line-up.

“I learned all the songs and we started going around and doing those shows,” he remembers, “and it felt like it worked really nicely, so they offered me the full-time position and I’ve stuck around ever since. I’ve been with these guys for two years now.”

Floral Image put out their latest single, Burning 305, on Monday, 27 January.

Another single is set to follow at the end of February, before the quintet release their debut album in late April.

“We went out into the countryside in Norfolk and put our heads together for a couple of weeks,” says Phil of the album’s creative process, “and made a little DIY studio in Ferg’s parents’ house and turned up with this body of work.”

He continues: “It [the album] is a bit of a journey, it goes through a lot of places. It draws from quite a lot of different pools of inspiration.

“It feels quite eclectic, it feels like everybody brought something of themselves and their musical taste…

“It’s been in-the-works for a long time, and we had a load of demos that we were sitting on.

“We had almost like a major overhaul and just ended up working on it for a little bit longer.

“And then when it was actually time to record, it felt like the whole thing had been distilled into something that we’re really proud of and wanted to put out.

“I feel really good about the album, I’m very excited to share it with everyone.”

Floral Image’s debut album, Gone Down Meadowland, will be available from 25 April. It follows the release of their 2023 EP, So Synthesised.

For more on the band, visit facebook.com/floralimageband/?locale=en_GB. Follow them on Instagram at @floralimageband.