Fox Teeth - Sound In The Signals Interview
Abby Clare |
I recently had the opportunity to interview Sawyer and Andy of Fox Teeth. We discussed writing and recording upcoming album ‘Through the Blue’, filming music videos, the importance of having physical media, and more. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
Sawyer: Thank you for interviewing us!
Andy: Thanks for having us back!
Your new album ‘Through the Blue’ comes out at the end of March. Can you tell me about writing and recording the album?
Sawyer: We’re super excited for “Through the Blue” to come out. The album took about a year or so to write, and most of the songs were written while our first album, “Tite!”, was being released. Andy, myself and our previous bassist Dan McCool took all of our new material to the studio in October of 2021 and worked with our friend/producer Mike Chiarappa to bring the songs to life. We recorded all of the songs in the span of a week and had such an amazing time working alongside Mike and just bonding together as a band.
Andy: Through the Blue was written over the course of late 2020 into late 2021. We recorded the album with Mike Chiarappa at DIMM Studios in Freehold, NJ. It was our first time being able to record an album from start to finish together in the same room as “tite!” was conducted remotely due to the pandemic.
Your new single “Wednesday, Forever???” came out on February 28th. Can you tell me about writing that song specifically?
Sawyer: “Wednesday, Forever???” was one of the first songs we had written for the album. I wrote it about the general experience of feeling like you’re stuck in a negative cycle with another person. The repeating verse at the end of the song is also meant to reflect that. Regardless of that meaning, we kept the actual sound of the song very lighthearted and fun.
Andy: This song came about quite naturally. Sawyer sent me the demo in spring 2021. I remember listening to it a lot in the car and on my own time because I was so stoked on its vibe. We had the idea to end the song with the repetitive lyrics from the get go and the warm, throwback punk vibe from the verses was always there. It felt super catchy and complete without overdoing or forcing anything.
Do you have a favorite lyrical or musical moment from the song? Why?
Sawyer: I definitely think the outro of the song is my favorite part. I chose to repeat the lyrics “Am I still on your mind?” over and over to kind of send the listener into a literal cycle that feels never ending.
Andy: I really like the section between verse two and the bridge. There’s no lyrics or lead. We let the rhythm guitar and bass drive the melody. I think it shows how on this record, it’s all about riding one idea, one vibe as far and as long as we can. It’s like a Sunday joyride. We’re just having fun.
Why did you choose it as a single? How does it fit into the rest of the album?
Sawyer: I think from the first moment we practiced the song live together we knew it had to be a single. Even though there’s no chorus to it, the song ended up becoming very catchy and had a large ear worm effect on us and also all of our friends who got the first listen to it. I personally feel like the song fits well into the album because it encapsulates the feeling of going through an altering experience, which is a common theme throughout the entirety of the record.
Andy: This song closes the record out. Given our excitement for it from the early stages of its conception, we just had this feeling that it needed to be a single. We started playing it live as soon as we finished writing it before we even recorded it. We just wanted it out.
You also released a music video for it. Can you tell me a little about the concept for it and the video shoot?
Sawyer: The music video for “Wednesday, Forever???” was probably my favorite music video to shoot. Our friend Jess Verello directed the video and helped us solidify the concept for it. I wanted it to be similar to Paramore’s “Told You So” music video, hence the continuous car shots throughout it. We filmed the entire video over the span of two days last October, and had the help of our friends Sabrina Saroza, Ava Dibartolomeo, and Michelle Ruiz to finalize the project. The concept of the video follows the meaning of the song, having the same actions looped over again and again, but it’s made to seem like it’s over the span of multiple days.
Andy: The video was directed by Jess Verello who also did our Stay Here video. We wanted to go a bit more ambitious with this one and have a concept. It’s a lot like “groundhog day” but Gen Z and emo. Our friend Michelle Ruiz is in it too. It’s really tongue in cheek and I think it drives the point home that we don’t take ourselves too seriously.
Do you like making music videos or do you find them more stressful to film?
Sawyer: I think Andy and I have both grown to really enjoy making these videos, because it lets us expand our creativity as a band beyond the music. I think it’s really important to have strong visual aspects to back the music you’re creating.
Andy: It’s a bit of a dance really, just like making music. It doesn’t always come super quick or naturally, and even when it does there’s a lot of stress with post production, packaging, releasing. But it’s all fulfilling and worth it. This video was a blast to film, and Jessica worked incredibly hard on it in post to bring it to life.
I really like the artwork for the album. Who designed it and why did you choose that image?
Sawyer: I actually designed the artwork myself! It was sort of a happy accident; I sat my pocket knife down on my scanner and didn’t realize it had scanned an image of it. I thought it looked pretty cool so I edited it and knew I wanted it to be the album artwork. Andy loved it as well, and after a few minor changes, we had the finalized image created.
The album is getting a vinyl pressing. How important is it for your band to have physical media like vinyl and cassettes? Do you have a variant that you’re most excited about?
Sawyer: It’s extremely important for us to have physical releases of our music. Vinyl has been something we’ve always wanted to do, and we’re really thankful that Refresh Records wanted to press the record to vinyl as well. I also feel like having a band’s music in physical form is special to a lot of our supporters, and we wanted to make sure that was made possible for them. The splatter variant is by far my personal favorite.
Andy: It’s pretty important for a lot of bands I think. It makes everything seem more “real” when you can hold what you’ve made sonically in your hands and see other people holding it too. My favorite variant is the blue splatter, cause we used several shades of blue on a clear vinyl to base it off the album title.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
Sawyer: Thank you again for interviewing us! We’ve got a few more surprises coming before the album drops, so to anyone reading: Keep your eyes and ears open.
Andy: Our new record “Through the Blue” releases on Refresh Records March 31st!
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