Music

Foxing: ‘the songs have already been evolving in the live setting’

St Louis indie rockers Foxing returned to the UK this week for a tour in support of their stunning 2015 release, Dealer.

We checked in with the band ahead of the shows to talk about the recent record, how the songs have evolved in a live setting and what life is like on the road for Foxing.

Scroll down for the full Q&A here…

You wrote the treatment for Night Channels while on tour in Europe and then edited the video on the road, does it come naturally to be that productive while you’re on tour?

“Nothing comes naturally on tour. The editing process for Night Channels was somewhat of a nightmare, but at the same time I really wanted to edit the video, if for no other reason than to see if through from start to finish. It’s strange because there’s a great deal of downtime on tour, but when it comes to focusing on the construction of a piece of work deep into the middle of the night, while barreling down the highway, and after playing a show no less, it doesn’t come naturally at all–mentally at least. Perhaps that isn’t actually strange.”

Foxing - "Night Channels" (Official Video)

It’s a stunning piece of work, is it a good example of how you work best as a band?

“Well, first of all, thank you for saying that, when all was said and done, from start to finish it took about seven months of my life, so I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’d like to think that the video, coupled with our most recent album serve as decent examples of how we operate when all of our members are invested in a project and are working together with a common and unified goal in mind. It really wasn’t until the writing of Dealer that we started opening up and really working together.”

These will be the first UK shows since the release of Dealer, how do you expect/hope the UK fans will react to the new songs live?

“Hopefully they will embrace the new songs with arms wide open and they feel as if we’re taking them higher, in a manner of speaking.”

Do you think the album will be one that really evolves as it’s played live?

“The songs have already been evolving in the live setting; it’s a really nice element of our band, being able to open up and expand on our work in different environments. It’s not something that we’ve ever really conceptualised or sat down and discussed, but I feel as if we have this unspoken idea that songs don’t stop growing at the point in which they are recorded. There is always room to elaborate on the work; it keeps the music exciting for us, while at the same time it creates an entirely different experience for a concertgoer.”

Foxing - "The Magdalene" (Cabin Demo Session #1: 03/15/2015)

You toured the UK with Tigers Jaw, was it a music scene that you quickly connected to?

“People in the UK are very friendly, the crowds are somewhat similar to crowds in the U.S.; perhaps a bit more polite. We feel very comfortable and welcomed in the UK.”

You locked yourselves away to work on the album, has that seclusion changed your approach to touring at all?

“We’ve always been fairly reclusive. Maybe ‘reclusive’ isn’t the right word, but the proper adjective is escaping me right now. Introverted? That isn’t to say that we don’t like meeting or hanging out with new people, but I do think that on the road we tend to retreat into ourselves a bit. At parties we post up in an area and hang out with each other all night. I think that everything we have done as a band, all the bands we’ve shared the road with, and all the people we’ve interacted with as a band have in someway informed the way we work. I feel as if we started the band as friends, spent a long time as colleagues, and only recently have become family.”

For those who are discovering Foxing for the first time, what do they need to know about your sound and influences?

“I’m not sure. None of us really listen to the same music and I feel like it could be said that we draw just as much influence from groups like Stars of the Lid or Grouper, as we do from bands that are more often cited as our contemporaries. If I had to describe our sound–especially in the live setting–I would say it is indie-rock based around building ambience. I don’t know, genres are really hard to peg, even more so when they involve your own band; can I just say ‘rock ‘n roll’? I’ve seen reviews for Dealer where the writers compared us to bands like The Antlers and Sufjan Stevens, but I’ve also seen write-ups relating us to Brand New and mewithoutYou.. So who’s to say? I guess you be the judge.”