In Conversation with The Foxies: A BST Hyde Park Exclusive

July 8, 2023 rocknews

I had the wonderful opportunity to connect with The Foxies at this year’s BST Hyde Park event. Meeting them was an absolute delight, and I sincerely hope you enjoy this account. If reading isn’t your preference, you can listen to the interview here.

RN: First of all, hello

Foxies: Hi

RN: How are you guys?

Julia: So good. How are You?

RN: I’m very well, thank you. Huge congratulations on your set. How are you finding the day so far?

Julia: It’s been a whirlwind, honestly. We got here probably within an hour of setting up, and then we played, so it’s been a it’s been a whirlwind, but nice, and everybody’s just so very lovely. But even being around in the artist area and stuff and seeing all these other bands, it’s really frikkin cool.

RN: Is there anyone that you’re particularly excited to see after you do all of your press?

Julia: The Darkness!

RN: I think they’ve just finished!

Julia: Well, I want to see them as friends. I want to knock on their door and be like, “I know you.”

RN: YES! So my first question The Foxies! How did you guys meet, and how did you then decide to do these really cool things and form a band?

Julia: So I started writing some songs in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2014, and then I moved to Nashville in 2016. I needed a guitarist, and a friend of a friend was like, “Hey, I know this dude. His name’s Jake. He’s amazing.” So Jake played one of the first shows that I did in Nashville, and then he never left. And then Rob came in about a year later, maybe six months later. Rob was drumming for another band at the time.

RN: So you stole him away?

Julia: YES!

Rob: I kind of forced myself into the band!

Julia: He said, “Your drummer sucks. Let me be your drummer!”

RN: Brilliant. So I noticed, and I think the whole crowd around the stage noticed that you’ve got very unique style and amazing stage presence. Who are your biggest musical influences, both individually and as a band?

Jake: I really grew up on a lot of classic rock. I grew up on the Beatles, and I grew up on the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen and Carol King and stuff. But when I joined this band, there was such – even more than there is now – such an 80s punk energy. So I had to learn a lot of the bands that Julia was really into, but I was tapping into Prince and David Bowie and Blondie, and I loved all those bands growing up. I’m really lucky that I had a good rock and roll education as a kid. So it was kind of just like a big, huge crayon box, and I could

RN: Take bits from each band?

Jake: Yeah, and that’s just how it works when you work with anybody. You’re like “I think it’s this colour today.”

RN: Definitely. I love that. What about you, Rob?

Rob: I love pop, punk. I Grew up in the greatest era of pop punk.

RN: You have a very pop punk look about you!

Rob: [Laughs] I can’t help myself! Obviously, Blink 182 is one of the bands that made me want to play music. But the influences of this band are so diverse, so as far as what influences the band, I definitely cut the edge where I’m, like, rocking out like a pop punker, but I also love pop music, even the bands for Justin Bieber. It’s like such a crazy influence, just to be able to take soft elements and rock all in one.

Julia: I think that for me, musically it was always Joy Division, No Doubt and the Smiths, but as a frontman, my biggest influence is Scott Weiland. There’s just something about him that’s just so feral on stage. Him and Johnny Rotten.

RN: Definitely! Now you said that, I’m like…that’s it!!

Julia: Thank you. It’s a very feral thing and it’s all with the eyes and your body movement. I have appreciated them as frontmen for a very long time and that’s something that I want to be able to emit. It’s just like the ‘feralness’ of how music makes you feel.

RN – Definitely. You definitely do that. That’s one of the things I thought was brilliant. The way you move, all of you, it’s so elegant. I was a dancer for a long time and I was watching thinking it’s very beautiful, but, yeah, very feral

Julia: Thank you! A dancer on a mission!

Rob: That’s me in the pop punk realm. If I can thrash my head around and have a headache tomorrow, we’re in a good place!

RN: Absolutely. That’s how you know you’ve done a good gig. You get a headache in the morning.

Rob: Yeah!

RN: So – brilliant songs. Your album ‘Who Are You Now, Who Were You Then’ is amazing.

Julia: Thank you.

RN: What is your creative process? Is it as a group or do you come in with different bits and put them together?

Jake: Stages.

Julia: Yeah stages. Little tiers. We’ll write songs together. He’ll come in with an idea, I’ll come in with an idea. We’ll create it, produce it out. He’ll produce it out. Our co writer will produce it out. Rob comes in, he adds his sauce to it, backing track. Chris (bassist) comes in when we’re playing the show and he’s like, Fuck, yeah, it’s time.

Rob: Yeah, we’ve definitely taken it to new realms too. With the new music, we’re trying to spend time – even though the songs can be written by anyone – we also try to sit in a room and say “How does this work for everyone?” So, you know, most recently we took a trip to the cabins out in North Carolina and we just spent five days, where we just set up all of our gear in a cabin and we just played all of our new material. We’re like “which ones do we like?” Kind of just putting ourselves into it and really immersing it. Because some songs I don’t write anything, but I still want to have ownership and musical parts in it.

RN: Yeah. I think music is a very immersive experience, especially live music. Your confidence on stage is ridiculous. I know I keep going to it. I’m going to keep going to it. I loved it. Is that something that you had to kind of learn or is it something that just comes naturally, like when you take a step back?

Julia: I think the performance aspect is something that I’ve always felt comfortable doing, but it’s the speaking that I’ve never felt comfortable with. The boys have really trained me a lot. It’s very hard for me to speak to people. Singing is fine because you’re not having to think about each thing, but being able to speak is a very, very hard thing for me, and I’ve never been good at it, so I’m still trying to understand how to do it.

RN: I think a lot of people are like that. It’s one thing to be in your art and in that kind of world on your own, but then to step out of it and suddenly you have to be yourself, it’s a bit……. OOH!

Julia: Exactly! You can be so eloquent while writing a song and singing it because you’re stringing your thoughts together

RN: and it’s a pattern….

Julia: Yes, but speaking – that’s not how my brain’s ever been able to work.

Rob: It’s about opposite flows, though. I would say leaning towards, like, coaching. She 100% was good at it, but it’s like, how do we fine tooth it? And then what I found works for her is that when we’re playing music behind her, it’s a million times easier for her to speak. If it’s her alone, that’s where I know Julia’s anxiety is…..

Julia: I start dropping f-bombs all the time! I’m like “Fuck Fuck Fuck HEY!”

Rob: Yeah. We’re just kind of just going in that tangent and I know that world and that’s why I was like, let’s play behind you while you speak, so then you feel like you’re not alone when you’re out there, you feel isolated where you’re staring at them and you feel like you have to look into their souls and capture something. It’s like, no, we’ve just got to get into what we want to say and play the song. So once we started doing that and shifting towards music AND speaking, she’s been fucking killing it.

RN: So out of your set tonight, what was your favourite song to go out there and perform.

Julia: Call Me When Your Phone Dies. Because that’s just the one where it’s like, okay, we’re gearing up to literally unleash the demon on stage!

Jake: It’s like, no, this IS punk rock. You thought it might be, but it is!

RN: That absolutely brilliant. What about your favourite venues that you’ve performed in? And maybe a dream venue that you really love to do a show at?

Rob: Like ever?

RN: EVER!

Rob: We just played freaking Hyde Park!

RN: Well yeah! I was thinking maybe apart from this, but go for it!

[Laughs]

Rob: Wembley would be fun.

Julia: Wembley would be sick. One day.

RN: You’d fill that, for sure. You would. It’s that kind of stage. It’s a huge venue, with a very tall stage.

Julia: I will climb! Climb all the things to climb! What do you think our favourite one has been, though?

Rob: That’s so tough. We like them all for different reasons.

Jake: Some of these venues have an energy to them and some of these cities have an energy to them. And then there are some that just you’re like…we’re in Düsseldorf. Random, but how special was that? It doesn’t mean that Berlin was not special.

RN: ….the unexpected ones are sometimes……

Jake: I think that’s true,

Rob: because we played a show in the middle of Budapest Park in the rain, and we were like, hey, this will be really, really fun. And we continue to talk about that show. That is one of the most special shows.

RN: OK I’m gong to try and wrap it up now……

Rob: No, you’re fine!

Julia: [Hears music from the stage]: This is Bad Nerves playing right now. I love them.

Jake: Weren’t they playing on our stage?

Julia: Yeah

RN: That’s a good stage. You were in a really good spot there.

Rob: Yeah. People that are walking in just stopped and we’re like, yeah!

RN: So, you’ve been doing this for a while. You’re obviously very close and have had some really amazing experiences. But throughout the whole thing, what is the best piece of advice someone has ever given to you? Whether that’s life advice just for you or for your music?

Julia: Enjoy the journey. I mean, as Miley Cyrus says, everybody remembers the journey.

Jake: I thought you were going to say it’s the climb, but I totally forgot. Yeah…

Julia: Everybody remembers the journey.

Jake: Yeah. When people say live every day to the full, it sounds like a cliche, but it’s not bullshit. It’s absolutely true. I would also say in terms of ever when people say stuff like that, I agree. But I saw Jacob Collier give an interview the other day and I think he said that Quincy Jones gave him advice that was “everyone’s always trying to be cool, and that’s cool, but don’t try to be cool, be warm.” We need more people who are warm. And I think that’s something that I strive for. I think that these two do that really well. They’re sweet. People. Surround yourself with sweet.

Rob: I’m from New York, remember? I would say work hard. And that was my old man. And it wasn’t even spoken. It was by just what he does. I’ve never seen someone work as hard as my own father. The man woke up so early where I never saw him, and then I saw him at dinner time. And the reason I love motorcycles is because I can remember the smell of his motorcycle rolling up in my driveway. And then people are like, Why do you love motorcycles? I literally remember my dad every time I smell a motorcycle. So it makes me so happy. And that man literally worked so we could live. So I’m just like, work hard. And he never said it. He just lived it.

Jake: what I always tell people in other bands or artists is, Dude, just keep going. Keep going. And I think that to get on what he was saying, really the only way to do that is to work hard. Because whether it’s a day that we spend with our band or doing any of the other side projects we do, we’re freelancing. We have this little company called the Foxies, and it doesn’t move itself. We have to move it. So if we do something cool or do a cool tour, the only way to get the tide to rise up to the next thing is to raise our game. So if you want to keep going or you want to keep working on it, you have to work your butt off. Yeah. Work smart, work hard. That’s the whole thing.

RN: I live that. My last question, then I’ll let you get on. What’s next for you? Anything exciting coming up? Anything that you can tell us?

Julia: We’ve got some tours in the works right now – some really, really cool ones, and I think we’ll be back here very soon.

RN: Well if you need a photographer 😉

Julia: Dude! I want to see, because you were all up in there. I’m ready to see them!

Rob: I promise, you probably got really good shot of me doing this [pulls a face].

RN: Ahh! The classic drummer face!

Rob: I’ve been trying to make sexy face, too, though.

Julia: What’s, your sexy face?

Rob: Just my “Hey, Rob, take a photo” And then I give them that photo face. But when I do that face, I try doing it on the drums, so I’m like, make the sexy face. Because I’ve been seeing some photos where I’m just like, come on, fuck off. That’s terrible.