The Band Foxing

[Mellissa Sprock]

Foxingbegan in 2011 following the end of the group Hunter Gatherer,[1] a post-rock band active from 2008 to 2010 that featured Josh Coll, Jon Hellwig and Matthew Piva. The initial lineup of the band shortly expanded to include Conor Murphy, who was then the bassist of the then active emo group Family Might and formerly the vocalist of the indie/post-rock band Torchlight Red. It also included guitarist Ben Helman of the melodic post-punk band Eagle Scout.[2] In late 2011, Helman left the group, and Jim Fitzpatrick of Falsetto Boy and Muscle Brain took his place. During their formation period, the band had briefly considered naming themselves She Hums in Swarms before permanently settling on the name Foxing in October 2011.

In January 2012, the band proceeded to record the Old Songs EP. Foxing's lineup changed again with the replacement of guitarists Piva and Fitzpatrick with Samuel Naumann of Torchlight Red in March 2012 and Ricky Sampson of the emo/math-rock group Badgerhunt in April.[3] Naumann soon departed the band in May 2012, and Thomas Pini, who was the lead vocalist and guitarist of Family Might, filled his place.[4] Foxing released the previously recorded "Old Songs" in August 2012.[5] In February 2013, Foxing released a split with Send Away Stranger on the Saint Louis-based DIY label Carucage Records and another split with Japanese Breakfast. That same month, Pini left the group to be succeeded by Eric Hudson of Torchlight Red, Family Might, and Jimshorts.[6] In March 2013, Foxing embarked on their first tour through the Midwest, within which they were signed to Count Your Lucky Stars Records on the final night[7][8]

Foxing released their debut album, The Albatross, in November 2013 through Count Your Lucky Stars Records.[9] In 2014, they signed to Triple Crown Records.[10] Triple Crown released a remastered version in May.[11] In spring of 2014, alongside Adventures, Foxing supported Seahaven on their spring tour. Also in 2014, Foxing embarked on a summer headlining tour alongside the Hotelier.[12]

In October 2014, Foxing supported Brand New on their fall headlining tour, which saw Foxing playing in the largest venues of its career up to that point. Vocalist Conor Murphy credited Brand New lead singer Jesse Lacey for a pivotal motivational speech he gave to the band right before they were set to take the stage on the first tour date. "Right when Jesse said that, something just clicked for us... from that moment on, it became the easiest thing in the world and the most fun thing that we could possibly do," Murphy said.[13]

This was immediately followed by a supporting stint opening for Modern Baseball on their fall headlining tour.[14] In summer 2015, they were a part of the tour supporting Philadelphia band mewithoutYou.[15] Also in the summer, The Albatross was released in the UK.[16] On August 3, it was announced that the band's second album, Dealer, would be released in the fall through Triple Crown.[17] Dealer reached number three on the Billboard Vinyl Albums chart.[18] Triple Crown released a promotional song from the album on their official SoundCloud channel, titled "The Magdalene".[19]

On July 3, 2015 the band's trailer was stolen along with $30,000 worth of musical equipment after a show in Austin, Texas. In addition to the entirety of the band's equipment, the trailer also contained all of the band's merchandise, personal items and equipment belonging to the tour's opening band Lithuania. The band was forced to cancel several shows, but still managed to play select dates using borrowed equipment.[20] Afterward, Foxing headed on a co-headline tour that winter along with The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die.[21] The theft occurred despite a concerted effort by the band to prevent their equipment from being stolen. Coll said, .mw-parser-output .templatequoteoverflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 32px.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequoteciteline-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0

We have three top-of-the-line locks on our trailer [...] we broke a key inside of one of these locks a while ago, and it took us four days to find somebody who could get it open. We saw some of the rubber casings from those locks on the ground, so we know they tried to get in that way. We also have the trailer hard-locked to the hitch, and they popped that lock. They must have lifted it.. which is insane.. and moved it to their vehicle to drive it off.

In March and April 2016, the band went on a headline tour of the United States with support from Lymbyc Systym, O'Brother & Tancred. Immediately afterward, they embarked on their first headlining tour of the UK and Europe with support from TTNG. This tour included dates in Copenhagen, Denmark and Reykjavik, Iceland (with 2016 Phonofile Nordic Music Prize nominee, Teitur Magnsson). Foxing toured with Balance & Composure in October and November 2016.

On June 18, 2018, Foxing announced their third studio album, Nearer My God, which was released on August 10 through Triple Crown Records. They also released a music video for the lead single "Slapstick", directed by Coll.[23]

Following the release of the two singles "Speak with the Dead" and "Go Down Together" on March 18, 2021 and April 15, 2021, respectively, on May 27, 2021 Foxing announced their fourth album Draw Down the Moon, with the release of the single "Where the Lightning Strikes Twice". The lead-up to the album's release was teased by the band on the website DrawDownTheMoon.org. On June 24, 2021, the band released the fourth single "If I Believed in Love", followed by the release of the title track on July 15, 2021. The album released on August 6, 2021.[24]

On July 8 2022, Foxing released their first live album Live at the Grandel exclusively on vinyl.[25] The record was limited to 1,000 copies. A week later the band released a video of the same live performance.[26]

Foxing have been described as indie rock[27][28][29] and post-rock.[16][30] The Albatross has been described as chamber rock,[31] emo,[27][28][31][32][33][34] indie rock,[32][35] math rock,[28][35] and post-rock,[28][31][34][35] reminiscent of American Football,[36] Dads,[33] Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate),[33] and The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die.[31][33] Dealer has been described as emo,[16][37] indie rock[37][38] and post-rock.[16][37][39]

But what it really made us realize is like, the thing that we are most proud of in our career has been A. how hard we've worked every step of the way and how many sacrifices we've made for it. And then B. how eclectic we've been in our writing and in our music, where is, you know, the thing that is commented on quite a bit is like, it's a genre-less thing. It feels like it doesn't make sense to call it emo nor does it feel really correct to call it, uh, I don't know, electronic or, or, uh, alternative rock or something. So it's kind of left to these more like vague descriptors, like indie rock.

Um, or art rock, one of the most vague things of all time. But that being said, I think like that is something that we wear with pride is this idea of like confusing somebody that tries to like compartmentalize it into a single genre. I think that Draw Down The Moon is maybe the most of the records of like what genre are you going to assign to this record as a whole, other than like, I guess indie rock or something?

I definitely pick up on that. Nearer My God was a big swing and that's one of my favorite records ever. But with all like the twists and turns, you could still kind of assess it a genre, if you will. And Draw Down The Moon is a completely different animal. Not even like track the track, but just like minute to minute, it changes directions and it's such a thrilling listen.

It's just the soaring kind of thing. And then bringing Jon in, he completely changed the way we thought about like the second half of the song, uh, bringing in like this, you know, we like to refer to as the Steely Dan section of the song, but like even though it is the closing song on the album, it is also like, to me the most Foxing song on the album, because it is like, you know, the three of us truly weighing in, in a way that I feel like we never really have before.

And this song has some really heavy emotional content to it, and it's really resonated as a powerful song for a lot of people. Were you kind of expecting that when you put it out as the first single as well too?

And just the way the song transitions into one of your more vocally intense songs. You're essentially screaming over like the last half of it. And I think that is a really impactful and jarring transition that works really well with how Foxing is setting up the theme of this record.

The first time I listened to this record, I was pretty floored to find out that Eric produced it. Essentially you went from working with a well-respected and tenured producer like Chris Walla to self-producing it. And wow, this record just sounds incredible. And I just wanted to give Eric props.

Yeah. Like one of our favorite producers and mixers. But, uh, I think at the end - while it was a really great experience working with John - by the end of it, I think we really realized like the next time around, this is like Eric's whole game, you know, like he's going to write, produce, mix this entire thing, and we can do it all in the context of our studio and only outsource to another studio if we feel like it's necessary. But like in terms of personnel, the the next thing we do will be Eric's entirely.

If he says he can and wants to then like, you know, I need to believe him. Right. And it wasn't until the end of this record that we had that conversation. Whereas like, from now on, like, I trust you implicitly as it relates to the stuff like you tell me that you want to produce and mix, like I'm fully supportive and I want to do that in the future. And I think it was, you know, and this was a tough record in so many ways to make, uh, obviously with the pandemic it was logistically so hard to do, but also like just in temperament, you know, we're dealing with a lot of shit in our lives. And as it relates to each other, like our relationship, between me, Jon and Eric was tough, you know, Ricky left the band early on with making the record and like, we're really getting to this point of kind of exhaustion with each other. And I think this record was really clarifying to get to the end of, because it wasn't really, until we were finally done with it, that it was like we came to those conclusions or I should speak for myself, but I came to the conclusion of like the number one thing I need to be better about doing, and that I will and am committed to being better about doing is trusting my band mates.

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