Tim Hughes has a listen to the catchy, yet slightly unnerving, album debut from self-proclaimed introverted band Gengahr

There's something unsettling about the Gengahr.

Their soaring alternative pop is melodic and uplifting but also just a little bit... well, odd.

Frontman Felix Bushe is possessed of a remarkable falsetto, which conveys a sort of weird otherworldliness.

“We sort of just see it as alternative pop music I guess,” he tells me.

“I only started singing in falsetto in Gengahr so it’s still pretty new to me.”

And how does he preserve it? “I’ve been pretty lucky when we’ve been on tour so far. I always try my best to find time to warm up before shows and I think that really helps looking after your voice.”

Their startling musicianship coupled with that cultivated strangeness has earned plaudits aplenty for Felix and bandmates John Victor (guitar), Hugh Schulte (bass), and Danny Ward (drums). It has already seen them supporting the likes of Wolf Alice, The Maccabees, The Strokes, and Alt-J – to whom they bear some resemblance.

“We have been very lucky with the bands we have been fortunate enough to support,” says Felix. “I think it helps, in so many ways, and it especially helps feed your ambition as an artist.

“I think the most exciting was our first tour with Superfood, and Wolf Alice might have been the most fun. There were a lot of good times on that tour and we were so new to the whole touring thing that it was all a bit of an excited blur.”

It propelled them into the spotlight, and saw them, in no time, storming the live circuit under their own steam, gigging everywhere from the fields of Glastonbury to London’s Hyde Park and even Australia. Now, with their debut album, A Dream Outside, out, they are getting ready to take to the road again, with a 13-date tour taking in London Scala and then our own Bullingdon. “That will be the most boisterous Gengahr gig to date!” he laughs.

Perhaps, now’s a good time to nail the pronunciation of the band’s name?

“Yeah, a lot of people seem to struggle with it a little,” he says. “I’m not even sure myself to be fair. I say Gen-garr but you can pronounce it how you like.”

And what does it mean? “It means four friends making music together and having great fun doing so.”

That sense of fun pervades the band, who go way back as friends. “Myself, Dan and Hugh were at school together,” Felix explains. “We met John a few years back when he was playing in other bands. We started writing songs together and Gengahr was born.”

Their music swings from introverted to thrilling, delicate to crunchy and downright scuzzy. What does that say about the band? “It’s hard to say really,” says Felix. “It’s not something I have ever really thought about.

“I think most musicians and song-writers are probably introverts to a certain extent, just by the nature of what they spend their time doing. At the same time though, everyone needs to blow off some steam every now and again.”

And they don’t disappoint in that department. “Danny snapped his collarbone on the first night out on the Wolf Alice tour,” Felix recalls. “It wasn’t that funny then, but it certainly is now. He played the whole tour with one arm after that.”

The intricacy and gear-changes of their music has earned Gengahr comparisons to some illustrious names – not least Radiohead. “We are fans of Radiohead,” says Felix. “But it’s not a comparison that I would give myself because they are on a completely different level to us.

“I hope that one day, though, we could be compared to them, but we have a long way to go yet.

“We’ve got plans but mostly we just want to make albums that we can be proud of in the years to come.”

Evidence of the band’s quirkiness comes from their often dark, narrative videos – such as the spooky Powder, which depicts a séance – with a twist.

“There is a lot going on it that video and we had a great time putting it together,” says Felix.

“I wanted to make a video that had all the dark undertones of a Lynch movie but that also had the British sensibility of Monty Python. It’s an ambitious video and I’m not sure we entirely hit the nail on the head with this one but it was a good effort for our first proper release.”

Has he ever been involved in a séance or tried to contact the dead?

“Not recently,” he laughs. “It takes a while to persuade a ghost to leave and I haven’t had much time!”

GO ALONG
Gengahr play the Bullingdon, Cowley Road, Oxford, on Saturday, October 10.
Tickets from seetickets.com