Meet Watching For Foxes

Over the last three years we have gotten a lot of emails asking us to do album reviews and nine out of ten times I either do something else with the band or decline the review. The fact is that I am not a musician and I cannot write a technical review of a band. I cannot tell you what pedals a band used, what type of instruments they recorded with, or any of the interesting technical facts that other musicians want to know when they read an album review. But, it recently occurred to me that you could review an album for the people who love music and want to know if there is something new that they should be listening to. So, I decided to start telling you about some of the albums that made my ears dance after they landed in our inbox.

The first band I wanted to tell you about is Watching for Foxes from Grand Rapids, Michigan. WFF is a 5 piece (sometimes 6) folk band that has been performing together for about a year now. They have a very relaxed and hauntingly beautiful sound. They currently have one EP on Soundcloud called The Watchmen and they are about to release a new EP called Until the Winter Comes. You can check those out here. If you are digging this as much as I am, add the band on Facebook here. Let's all rally together and get the band to come out to Detroit and perform live.

HID- Describe Watching for Foxes sound in one word?
WFF- "Expressive"

HID- How long have you been playing together and how did the band form?
WFF- "The original three members of the band (Joey, Jared, and Brandon) have been playing together as Watching for Foxes for a little over a year now. Jared and I met, coincidentally, while we were working on different projects. We were fast friends and began sending ideas back and forth, sensing a deep chemistry in our jointed songwriting. Soon after, we invited Brandon to play with us and then began playing gigs. Max and Olivia joined this past August, rounding out our sound and our weird little family! Our friend Andy Fettig has also began playing with us frequently as our of last tour along the East Coast and he will be joining our line-up as well."

HID- Why did you name your new EP Until the Winter Comes?
WFF- "It's a line from our song "Young Blood, Old Bones". It means a lot to myself as a writer, but I think it means a lot to the band as well. It has much to do with the cyclical nature of life, and how the winter signifies the culmination of life and of process. The songs on the EP follow that theme as well. It's about not only about the traditional death-metaphor that is often paired with the idea of winter, but also the reprieve from the bustle and grime of life that the falling of snow and dropping of temperatures brings."

HID- Where was the new EP recorded?
WFF- "It was recorded at Chrysler Studios in Grand Haven with a man named Bill Chrysler. He is a brilliant engineer who has worked with the likes of John Mayer, Ray LaMontagne, and Paul McCartney, and most recently BORNS. We were afforded the opportunity to work with Bill by winning a competition called Walk The Beat, which was a huge jumping-off point for Watching for Foxes."

HID- What was the band's inspiration on this album?
WFF- "Life experience is something that always drives our musical inspiration. We want to portray and express things that are emotional and evoke a reaction from the audience through storytelling. Personally, I was listening to a ton of Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Ray LaMontagne and Bear's Den during the writing of these songs, so artists like that gave us a ton of inspiration. I was also reading a lot of mythology and Transcendental literature (Emerson and Thoreau mostly), so take that for what its worth."

HID- Tell us something about the band or the new EP that no one else knows yet?
WFF- "It's a concept EP that follows the life story of The Coal Miner's Son and The Preacher's Daughter that are introduced in the second track of the EP called "Broken Hymns". Also, large amount of black coffee and beef jerky were consumed throughout the making of this EP."

HID- Is there anything else that you would like our readers to know?
WFF- We love what we do.

~S