#09 – The Stone Foxes

Entretien réalisé avec le groupe en août 2010 / VO
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Alright, could you tell the french who still don’t know you a few words about the band?

Avi: Bonjour! We are 4 guys who play music and swap around instruments and singers. We play what we like, don’t think too hard about it, and always try to have fun doing it. We love going crazy at our live shows. Maybe someday we will come to France!

How did you decide to call your new album ‘Bears & Bulls’?

Avi: Saturday Night Live: Bill Swerski’s Superfans « Daaa Bears… Daaa Bulls » Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Michael Jordan etc.

Being French, I certainly have a few clichés about the United States Of America. But when I listened your album, it reminds me saloons, cowboys, steam locomotives, or long roads surrounded by cactus and canyons. What can you say about this feeling?

Avi: We still have cowboys and saloons out west and we hop steam locomotives to go from show to show… (not really). You should come out west and see the Grand Canyon if you’ve never been. Worth the trip to America. Many tourist go to New York or Hollywood or San Francisco but the wild west is still very remote and lonesome. Come see. Our music must be a little inspired by it because in order for us to go to the next city on our tours we have to drive through that wilderness. I never thought of it, but you’re right.

I guess I appreciate your album because you’ve included in your blues-rock sound a few music elements that people generally love (Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones riffs, powerful & catchy chorus, a touch of Bob Dylan’s songwriting …). You kinda sound like bands in the 60’s and 70’s but your sound is just punchier.

Avi: Thank you! We love all of that music you listed.

You also kept the spontaneity proper to this musical period. The bass line of ‘Young Man’, the harmonica solo of ‘Mr. Hangman’, various guitar solos and instrumental breaks, nobody dares that nowadays!

Avi: We love that stuff too! That’s why we tried it. Glad you liked it!

When I listen your song “Easy” (btw the best ballad I hear this year) over and over, I like to imagine myself lay down in a sack under the sun of San Francisco, drinking a good soda or a beer. This is a very frustrating dream. Do you know that?

Avi: Thanks man. Yeah we love the idea of that freewheeling lifestyle. Sleeping outdoors. Like in that Jimmie Rodgers song « Blue Yodel No. 4″. Do you know it? « I’m going to California where they sleep out every night… ». We do find ourselves stuck in a van a lot of the time and wishing to be home in the sun. (San Francisco is not very sunny though, but when it is it’s very nice…).

The song which ends up your album (“Come Again”) is my favorite one. It sums up your talent, your personality and your different influences. That’s probably the ideal tune to discover ‘The Stone Foxes’. What do you think?

Spence: Come Again is a slower song with lonesome longing lyrics and a nice sweet melody for them to follow. As far as it being the ideal tune to discover us by, I’d say that depends on the mood you’re in.

I like the fact that music is totally unpredictable, the fact that even bands who seem to cultivate a particular sound or anything else finish to change. For instance,Kings Of Leon becoming kind of mainstream after many years playing their Nashville dirty rock. Could you envisage to swap your current heavy-blues sound for another one in the future?

Spence: I personally would love it if the KOL went back to their early raucous sound, they’ve turned into U2! I think our music will evolve, it has to to stay fresh, but I dont ever see a genre change.

Do you share together the same musical tastes and/or influences? If not, is it a problem to compose your own albums?

Spence: Yeah we do have a pretty significant common ground in bands we like, but everyone has their own unique preferences that fall outside the box. It’s probably more helpful than problematic, every one can add fresh ideas to songs being worked on.

Is there a main composer into the band? How did you proceed to compose ‘Bears & Bulls’?

Spence: We all write whether it’s musically or lyrically, all the songs on ‘Bears and Bulls’ were written together. Someone will play a little riff during practice that catches on and then someone finds or writes some lyrics to it. We had about a year to play most of those songs live before we recorded them.

These days, Is it difficult to record and produce an album like this one which sounds pretty vintage? What kind of equipment do you use for this?

Aaron: We have a very basic and simple approach to recording. We dial in the tones we are looking for, pray that we play the song right (we record all of the instrumentals live) and try our best to capture those sounds through the microphones. There are a few studio tricks here and there, but its all mic placement and getting your sound dialed in before you hit record. We also use a lot of vintage gear, which doesn’t hurt in achieving a vintage sound! Old Fender tube amps matched with various odd-ball guitars does the trick when trying to get those retro sounds.

As a young band, do you have to create some things by yourselves (Accessories, Album covers …)?

Aaron: Yes, we’ve done pretty much every ounce (hum, I believe that is grams in France, no?) of promotional graphics, design, album covers, websites, posters, merchandise and whatever else ourselves. Luckily Aaron and Spence are good at all of these things and do all of this for the band. Its always been another outlet for creativity for the band, something we actually enjoy having to do

Is the internet (Facebook, Website, Twitter, …) helpful to exist and survive as a group?

Aaron: In today’s world you have to have all of these things. You just can’t function anymore without a website, twitter, facebook, myspace, etc., etc., etc! You can reach such a wide and broad audience that you wouldn’t be able to do any other way. You can actually be personal in a very non-personal way, which sounds funny but is true. Plus with the state of the record industry you have to have a cyber space to push those digital and iTunes sales since record shops are sadly becoming harder to find.

From what I saw here and there, your new record is on the whole acclaimed by the press and the public. I guess it’s pretty encouraging for the next …

Aaron: The press and the public have been wildly positive which is awesome! Not that we haven’t had a bad response every now and again, but the general vibe from people is very positive and we are extremely grateful for that. It definitely is encouraging to know you have support out there and people pushing you on, excited to hear new material and see you play live.

According to a few articles I read, it appears you are pretty awesome on stage. Is that true?

Shannon: I can’t say that we’re awesome or not, but I can tell you that we sure have a great time on stage. It’s a great place to just let go. If we feel it’s a good time to jump down into the crowd then we will. If we think it’s a good idea to tell people they are sexy then we will. The stage is where we feel most at home and we just like to have fun up there.

Do you have any shows to announce in the next few months? Maybe in Europe, in France?

Shannon: No, but we wish we did! We would love to. In fact, if you would be so generous as to pay for our flights out there and find us some gigs we would really appreciate it. Thank you.

During the different interviews I do, I always ask to each artist and bands the following questions: so, could you give me:

Shannon:

- Three reasons to love your new album: It’s kind of like a lady, you should love it because it’s beautiful, intelligent, and not like all the other girls (or CD’s in this case).

- Three words to describe it: Rad. Sweet. Bodacious

- The songs in it which represents the best you and your music: I don’t think I can answer this one. All of our songs are pretty different and represent a unique side of what we do.

- Your favorite song on this album and the reason why you love it: I love « Reno » because the riff is so fun to play along with on drums, Avi’s singing is great, and Spence’s solo is a trip.

If you have to choose right now:

Shannon:

- An artist: Van Morrison

- An album: ‘Moondance’

- A song: « Caravan »

- One of your songs: « Stomp »

- A movie: ‘Inception’

- An actor: Joe Pesci

- An actress: Natalie Portman

- A drink: Fat Tire Beer

- A meal: Salmon and sweet potatoes

- An animal: Wolverine