If you were to have read any of the numerous reviews or interviews with St. Louis’ Foxing since the November 2013 release of their debut LP The Albatross, somewhere throughout just about everyone of them you would have undoubtedly read a bio quote from the band, which eloquently describes the meaning of their namesake as well as the philosophy behind their music:
“If you’ve ever looked at an old document and noticed brown spots on it, what you are seeing are signs of aging. It’s not exactly clear what specifically causes them, but one day, the page will completely brown over and be no more. This is called foxing.”
If however, you are just now finding yourself privy to this factoid and to the pure genius that is this quintets’s insanely heartfelt music, I warn you now… Prepare yourself, I know what you will be listening to for the next week, month, or longer. You are now in on the ever-growing secret. Foxing, who’s sound is an amalgamation of post pock This Will Destroy You, super-mathy emo Send Away Stranger, the mellow side of the incredible Bear Vs. Shark, and the intense honesty and vulnerability of early Cursive/ circa Domestica. While I may try and draw comparisons, the truth is Foxing have actually created something quite unique and carved a sound all their own and it is glorious. The Albatross is a perfect album. It is a timeless record that I honestly fall more in love with each and every listen. The Albatross, originally released on Count Your Lucky Stars Records, has gained a rapid following, prompting to the band to sign with Triple Crown Records who are releasing the re-mixed / re-mastered version of The Albatross on May 27th, 2014.
I was very fortunate to get in touch with the entire band and talk with them about the re-release of the The Albatross, social media, and to find out what music the band has been listening to lately.
So your debut LP The Albatross was released in November of 2013. You guys have been playing together for a little while before obviously, but it really seems as though things are gaining some serious steam. Looking back, a year ago did you think that this would be the case?
Ricky Sampson: I’m still humbled by the fact that anyone can appreciate what we do.
Josh Coll: Totally. I feel like I am overwhelmed daily by the simple fact that anyone cares about our band. It was almost a year ago to the day that we finished tracking The Albatross. At the time I was really proud of the record, in that I felt like we accomplished exactly what we set out to do. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t want people to hear it, but honestly—aside from friends–I think we all kind of assumed that the record would go fairly unnoticed.
Eric Hudson: Yeah, I always thought playing in bands was something I would do that would go unappreciated by others, but mean something to me personally. Just the opportunity to travel the country and, at some point, the world is in itself crazy to me and a year ago I dreamt of being able to do so.
We featured The Albatross on our Editor’s Best Of List for 2013, I actually discovered it as I was compiling my choices and was so enamored by the record that it immediately edged out another album. You guys have made a few other year-end lists in 2013, was that surprising?
Jon Hellwig: It was a bit of a surprise, but at the same time it was really flattering to see The Albatross on those lists.
Ricky: Definitely. It felt like a sort of validation, like people are saying, “At least you didn’t fuck this one up.”
Josh: I don’t look at it as a comment on us fucking up or not, but rather people being surprised by the record. A lot of times when a record comes out late in the year, it has to take people by surprise in order for them to revise their lists. The album came out close to the end of the year; I would venture to guess most people had their “Best of” lists in order when it was released. I guess it’s flattering to think that people were so taken by The Albatross that they changed their lists in order to add us.
Conor Murphy: The Albatross is obviously not the greatest album ever made, however I feel like it’s the most important thing I’ve ever had a hand in making. To see people react the way they did made me feel really proud.
Eric: Yeah, I knew the record had been getting a lot of attention from a certain demographic, but it is just now really sinking in that it has been heard by a great deal of people–even more so that it seems to have been well received. It was definitely an honor to see something that we did be appreciated.
Foxing just signed with Triple Crown Records, how did that partnership come to fruition?
Conor: Signing with Triple Crown was a textbook case of great friends with a lot more experience than we have, helping us find the best label. More than anything else, what ultimately gave us the push to confidently sign with Triple Crown was the blessing of Keith Latinen from Count Your Lucky Stars. His approval was and continues to be extremely important to us considering how much he’s done for our band.
Triple Crown is set to reissue a remixed / remastered version of The Albatross on May 27th. Have you listened to the re-mastered tunes yet?
Conor: Oh geez, we’ve listened to those tunes more times than I’d prefer. We’re extremely particular about what we release and we went through a lot of revisions to what we were sent during the process. To me, the best part of the remaster is how much stayed the same from the original. It’s still the same album, but with more attention to the sonic qualities of the record that we didn’t have the patience to focus on during the original process.
Josh: I think “remastered” can be a dirty word to some people, but to elaborate on what Conor just said, it was so tastefully done. I would venture to guess that if we didn’t say it was remixed and remastered that a lot of people wouldn’t notice. It was a delicate process of simply cleaning up and bringing out certain qualities in the record that were already there. I think it sounds wonderful.
The Albatross is a very emotionally driven record; describe the process for writing the lyrics for the album.
Jon: That’s all Josh and Conor. Those two write lyrics on their own, and then sort of meet up and melt them together. I don’t know what I’m talking about; they are magicians.
Conor: The process usually consists of either Josh or I writing a first draft then the other one coming in and editing. It’s always a strange thing for me to describe the emotional aspect of the writing because I feel like I’m never consciously writing lyrics. I frequently write on scraps of paper and in my phone when I feel inspired to express myself in any way.
Is there an overall concept to the album?
Conor: We’ve always found the album to be more thematic than conceptual. We don’t have a linear story or concept surrounding The Albatross.
Josh: It’s more like fragments of situations or a timespan held under a microscope, rather than a complete concept.
I read that up to this point you have been selling more copies of the record than expected and had to order some emergency pressings. Is that something you are able to get a quick turnaround time on while on tour?
Jon: The turnaround was relatively quick, but it was certainly stressful to run out of records on the road. Every record you sell at a show gets you closer to the next show, so not having any for sale was a bit trying at times.
Eric: The problem wasn’t getting more shipped, it was that we eventually ran out of them all together–which is a great problem to have.
Ricky: Yeah, it’s the best problem we’ve ever had.
Conor: As of right now, having a copy of The Albatross is sort of rare. Not to say it’s a prized item or anything—it’s just hard to get a hold of at the moment. The repress will be a big sigh of relief.
I have seen some footage of some pretty intimate shows of yours where you are just immersed right in the middle of the crowd. Especially during “Inuit”. Has there ever been a time during one of these shows when even you were absolutely blown away by the moment? If so, could you tell us about it?
Conor: I feel like almost every show we’ve played since the release of the record has been a series of surreal and intimate moments. One to mention would be our show this past February at Township in Chicago. There’s this element of connection that we are lucky enough to receive at a lot of cities, but Chicago consistently gives us a really great response during our whole set. During our song, “Rory,” the crowd absolutely erupted during the end of the song. I don’t think I’ve ever heard our song sung by so many people at once.
Jon: Yeah, I was going to mention our show in Chicago as well. I couldn’t even hear Conor singing; the crowd had him completely outnumbered. Frankly that chokes me up a bit every time it happens.
What’s your favorite song to play live?
Jon: There is an unreleased song that we’ve been playing recently and it’s a blast to play. Conor is playing a tom-tom part that compliments my drumming; we just lock into each other.
Conor: My favorite song to play is “The Medic.” I used to be afraid of playing that one live because I don’t have a trumpet part meaning I have nothing to hold for the majority of the song. Until about a year ago I’d never felt comfortable singing live about shame and desperation but Josh and I still couldn’t write anything more optimistic. Now, playing that song live is a collective effort by us and the crowd. It feels kind of like we’re all basking in the same shame and feeling pretty okay about it.
Ricky: I like “The Medic” as well. It’s just an extremely fun song to play, mixing simple tapping and a quick hook.
Eric: “Bit By A Dead Bee pt. II.” During my formative years as a musician, I listened to a lot of post-rock and that song in particular feels the most comfortable for me.
Josh: “Bit By A Dead Bee pt. II,” but for reasons that are different from Eric’s.
Who have you seen live that’s managed to just stick in your brain forever?
Jon: A long time ago I saw this Italian punk band called La Piovra; they floored me. There were maybe thirty people in attendance, but they were playing like it was their last show at Madison Square Garden. I admire that.
Conor: I saw Do Make Say Think in 2007. It was the most inspiring show I’ve ever seen; it was the only time I’ve ever been brought to tears seeing a band live. Also, Charles Spearin came out and encored with “Mrs. Morris.” About a year after that, he released a completely different version of the track on my favorite experimental records ever recorded, The Happiness Project.
Josh: Seeing Sigur Rós live completely shut me down. This Will Destroy You, Portishead, and Mogwai all left lasting impressions on my idea of what a good live show is.
Eric: Do Make Say Think, Explosions in the Sky, and Why? are all bands that I saw where I walked away feeling like their sets actually changed the way I viewed playing music and what it can mean.
It’s awesome that you guys use your Tumblr as a means to stay connected with fans. What is the weirdest thing someone has asked you via your Tumblr dashboard?
Josh: Sorry to disappoint, but no one really asks us strange things; they are welcome to though. We get a lot of people just asking us to play their city, but that’s about as weird as it gets.
You guys also use Tumblr as a way to regularly throw out song recommendations… What have you been listening to recently?
Jon: It’s been a lot of Mastodon and Frank Zappa for me recently. Zappa was a wizard.
Conor: Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of that Cloud Mouth record, The Ghost is Always With Me. Also, Laika hasn’t released their new jams yet, but we’ve heard the recordings and they are the new god. That will be my constant repeat when it finally drops.
Ricky: Jessica Lea Mayfield, she just put out a great album, it gets pretty heavy and garagey, which I love. She used to do more pop-folk stuff, which is also really great; it’s just all about her voice. I’d also have to recommend Sisyphus, their self titled album is the “ceiling” for me.
Josh: That new Wye Oak, that new Frameworks, the new Kite Party, still on that Daughter record, Bohren & der Club of Gore, The Dead Texan, all of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works, “Ride” by Lana Del Rey, Angel Olsen, Tim Hecker, that new Sun Kil Moon, mewithoutYou, Parisian, Cloakroom, and The National.
Eric: Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska is a newly acquired gem that I’m going to pull out of my back pocket for the rest of my life. His ability to put himself into the lives of the people he writes about is extraordinary. The overall aesthetic of the album is so pleasing for me as a listener; I feel as if I can see him recording it in his living room while listening to it.
Josh: I believe he actually did record Nebraska in his living room. If I’m not mistaken, the final album consists of his home-recorded demos. Man, how great is “Atlantic City”? Too good.
We are already looking forward to seeing what you have up your sleeves next, have you begun writing new material at this point?
Jon: We have a few songs that we’ve been working on; it’s very exciting, but stressful at the same time.
Eric: Yeah, it’s a process that I hate and love. But I feel as if we feel more confident in our writing methods, as well as more confident in our ideas.
Josh: I was having a conversation with a friend who is also in a band—just talking about how it is hard to fully immerse yourself in writing when you have all these obligations on the horizon. It can be difficult to truly dedicate yourself to writing and shaping when you have tours to prepare for. After this year, we are going to fully dedicate ourselves to writing. It’s slow going right now, however the new material we have is, in my opinion, really good.
Conor: Our upcoming work is shaping to be much more realized and mature as a sophomore record. We’re pretty excited to get in the studio with these tracks and even more excited to play them live.
Ricky: I’m still trying to understand how to write music.