Fox
45 brings some cool heavy sounds from Rochester, NY. The band
released their debut album “Ashes of Man” a few days ago through
Twin Earth Records and the ladies will support this release with
their mini-tour in States. Why do Fox 45 deserve your attention?
“Ashes
of Man” demonstrates groovy doom rock with big range of classic
influences from rock’n’roll to stoner music. Catchy, attractive
and ardent Fox 45 play sincere and actual material, and look – the
album’s artwork is good too! Amanda Rampe answered some of my
questions being right on the spearhead of the Fox 45 US tour.
Hi Amanda! Thanks
for your time; I know that you're busy with the tour. How many cities
are in your list?
We’ll be hitting 8
cities total, not counting our Rochester kick off show. They’re all
listed on our bands Facebook page, facebook.com/foxfortyfive.
How does this
mini-tour go? Did you already get the emotions you were looking for?
It's going great so
far. We're lucky to have some great connections that have helped us a
ton with booking and we're looking forward to making new friends.
We're just getting started!
What
do you usually take with you on the road? What are the necessary
things you take with you?
Other than the obvious
(gear)... Water. Snacks are very important. Tunes. And our driver
Biff who is very important to the whole operation.
Do you plan another
tour in this year? What was most difficult in organizing this tour?
While we're not
planning another full tour, we are doing a couple farther away dates
in early September. We're really excited to be playing he very first
Stoned Meadow of Doom Fest in Omaha NE. We're planning on playing
some other dates on our way to and from, so stay tuned!
You're from
Rochester, NY. Is it easy to organize gigs there for the band like
Fox 45?
Rochester has a really
cool music scene. Although we are trying to play fewer local shows in
order to get out of town more often, I’d say that yes it is pretty
easy to organize Rochester shows.
What difficulties do
you face as a band? Are promotion, financial side, recognition in
this list?
Nothing specific really
comes to mind. Of course things will always happen that are
challenges, but you just need to work hard to overcome them!
Fox 45 - Gehenna
You started the band
with Casey, Pauline and Vicky three years ago, how did you gather
this lineup?
Casey actually only
joined the band a little over a year ago. Vicky, Pauline and I met
through mutual friends and started jamming together. We went through
quite a few drummers before finding our perfect match with Casey.
I saw that there was
a man amongst ladies. Who's Dusty West and where’s he now?
He was a past drummer
in the band. We’ve since parted ways. He has a couple other bands
including metal band Diluted who we saw at the last Finger Lakes
Metal Fest.
By the way, what
does band's name mean?
The name is a reference
to a Quentin Tarantino film. See if you can figure out which one!
How did you work out
the sound of your debut "Ashes of Man" album? What are your
requirements to the songs?
It all came together
pretty organically. We had some references for how we wanted the mix
to sound, but as far as writing the songs they’re really just a mix
of our different ideas.
What are your main
influences amongst doom and stoner artists?
Of course, Black
Sabbath is a given. Pentagram, Blue Cheer, others for sure. Some more
current bands that we think are really cool include Windhand, Sleep,
The Sword, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats… I’m not sure if those
are really influences on our music, but I guess everything you listen
to comes through somewhat.
How long did you
compose these songs? And how is the recording process organized in
Fox 45?
The songs on the record
were composed over varying periods… For example Phoenix Tongue was
one of the first songs we ever wrote as a band, way before Casey
joined. It’s morphed and changed since then, but it’s been around
for a while. Other songs were written during the course of recording.
We recorded the album
at More Sound Studios in Syracuse, NY. Andrew and Jock are the two
engineers there and they really know their stuff. So we had an idea
of how we wanted the recording process to go, but we really worked a
lot with Andrew to make things go smoothly
Who produced the
general ideas for “Ashes of Man”? How do you share duties with
writing lyrics and music?
Everything with our
song writing is a collaborative effort. The division of duties just
changes depending on what will work best for that song.
Fox 45 – live in
studio
Your
debut album has laconic yet impressive artwork, what tasks did you
set before the artist?
The artist that did our
cover art is Harley and J; she’s done a lot of work for many
stoner/doom bands and we think her stuff is amazing. We were pretty
vague with the instructions that we gave her. We knew that we wanted
something dark, and some kind of landscape scene, but she really put
her own interpretation. We love how it turned out!
What is Fox 45
message? I don't see titles based on such terms as "devil",
"ritual" or "weed". But there's "Urinal
Acid" song for example. What's it all about?
I wouldn’t say that
there’s one central message. We definitely don’t try to do what a
lot of stoner bands do and make everything about smoking weed and
hailing Satan. You might be able to pick out a couple of those themes
in some of our lyrics, but they’re kind of hidden. I think most of
our songs just tell a story, and the story is in the person’s head
who wrote the lyrics (all of us take turns writing lyrics). For the
most part we just choose song titles that entertain us.
What else entertains
you in Fox 45?
Cheetos, pizza, vegan
cheesesteaks, playing pool, and singing along with songs in the van
are some of the things that have entertained us today.
You just finished
the album, but do you already have in mind an idea how would you like
to see the next one? Do you already have a plan for it?
We don't yet! A couple
new tunes are in the works, but a new album isn't yet taking shape.
We'll have more news on this later!
Amanda, you also
play in new southern / stoner outfit Saints and Winos, what is the
story behind it?
Saints and Winos is an
awesome band! They’ve actually been playing together for a few
years at this point, but I just joined about a year and a half ago.
Fox 45 played a show with them, then soon after they lost their bass
player. I offered up my services, and we’ve been playing together
ever since! So the line up is myself on bass, JB Rodgers on drums,
and Joe Dellaquila on guitar. We’ve been writing tons of new songs
and hope to get into the studio soon.
Amanda,
that’s all for tonight – thanks for your time! I wish you all the
best in promoting Fox 45 and good luck on the road!
Thank you! Peace love
and rock and roll... Til next time!
Words by Aleks Evdokimov and Amanda Rampe |
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