Über Rock Introduces… Foxhaunt

Introduced by Monk

At the heart of Über Rock’s ethos of our approaching 13 years of existence has always been a passion for discovering the hottest new bands and bringing the excitement we feel for such discoveries to you, our knowledgeable and ever musically hungry readership. Our latest find comes in the form of young York alt-rockers Foxhaunt, who have definitely caused a shift in our ‘Mindset’ with their just-released debut EP… what better opportunity to introduce them to a wider audience, eh?

So, this feature being called ‘Über Rock Introduces…’ I started in the most logical of places by asking them to, erm, introduce us to the members of the band…

We’re, myself, Ollie Swift on vocals, Thom Clayton on guitar, Nick Dawson on bass and Jamie Scott on drums.

How did you come together?

We came together through the beauty of joinmyband.co.uk, ha ha. I was looking on there to join a new band as my previous one had split up. I popped an ad up and Thom dropped me an email. It’s kinda like a dating site, but for a few lads up in Yorkshire to start a rock band.

Personally, as a historian, I have an interest in etymology, so I feel have to ask about where the band name came from and if it has any special significance…

Umm, there’s no magical meaning behind it I’m afraid – I mean I basically was looking at logos and thought a fox would be cool, then to make it a bit freaky/dark I added haunt to the end of the word and showed the lads a logo on photoshop – and here we have it. Mystical!

Does the name in any way reflect what you are seeking to do/achieve as a band?

No, but if it needed to then I’d change our name to Worldwide Global Success!

Music is categorized into various genres and sub-genres. How would you define your sound? What individual and collective influences do you draw on for your sound?

Rock to alt-rock to a bit of pop rock – we just like making tunes that are catchy and have sick riffs in. Influences range from Alexis, to Anberlin, to Architects, to Don Broco – really, we just take everything in and write what we thinks good and try to remain as original and high impact as possible.

The reason we’re chatting is because you have just released your first EP: can you tell us a bit about it?

‘Mindset’ had us rethink how we approach music: sonically, mentally and what kind of message we wanted to voice. We delved deeper into what sounds we can make using our instruments and what we can use to expand the bones of these tracks to reach their fullest potential. We really wanted to release a body of work that resembled our experiences over the line-up changes in the band and how to show people what we’re really about.

Are there any particular lyrical themes/personal issues you are addressing in the song(s)?

Yeah definitely. Throughout lockdown we all found it tough – especially being trapped away 24/7 and being lied to by the government. This EP refers to anxiety, missing the real world and missing normality – we all get daemons but lockdown for me was especially tough.

How important is social media in getting your music out there?

Well that, and playing live, is everything really isn’t it. We push social as much as we can, but you know nothing beats the feeling of being out and about performing live. I think this is the thing we’ve missed the most, even rehearsals are so much fun – ya know, just being together and playing is mint.

Is it more important than, say, streaming outlets especially given the fact that the financial returns for streaming can mean a band doing a lot of work for relatively little reward – i.e. you earn very small percentage returns, with the services themselves taking large chunks of your potential income. Is it worth the effort or is it a fact of the business that you just have to accept?

Yeah definitely, Spotify basically controls the music industry – they’re everywhere and if they get you on a playlist then happy days.

The pandemic of the past year led to a lot of bands having to explore other methods of generating income marketing themselves. I’m thinking of how many bands found themselves having to go down the live streaming route. And a lot of them charged their fans for watching the shows. I know there are pros and cons to “free” versus “pay per view”, but as a young band I’d be interested to know if, given the shitfuck of the past two years, it is more important for you to get your music out there than to make money out of doing so? I guess the point I’m making is “is it worth some short-term pain for long term gain”?

I can guarantee we don’t make any money haha. Live shows help pay some costs through merch sales and stuff, but really, we only care about people listening to our tunes and enjoying them – if one day we get an offer to do this full time then obviously we’ll take the opportunity.

Life does seem to be getting back to some form of normality, but do you think the option of things such as lives streams will continue to be used by bands, especially to reach into territories where they may not be able to play, or afford to go to?

Live streams are good, we haven’t done them to be honest, but we use Twitch to speak to people and have a laugh. It works pretty well though in terms of engagement. Maybe a live stream one day, hey!

So, what is next for the band? What is the plan for, say, the rest of 2022 in terms of getting out there and bringing your music to new and expanding audiences?

Play as many shows as possible, write and release more music and continue enjoying the band life. We want everyone, everywhere to hear about Foxhaunt, so we’d definitely look to get over to Europe/US at somepoint.

OK, now a bit of fun, and a couple of quickfire “out there” questions to give us a wee bit of an insight into your personalities:

Ice cream: vanilla or strawberry? Strawbs
Gravy or curry sauce on your chips? Gravy
Salted or sweet popcorn? Both
Buckfast or Iron Bru? Buckfast
Smarties or M&Ms? M&Ms
Pineapple on pizza? If I must.

Final question: when live gigs are fully up and running again, and you have your choice of any bill to be a part of, who would be the three other bands (signed or otherwise) you would choose to play with?

Architects, Don Broco and Alexisonfire – love, love, love them!

‘Mindset’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.

www.facebook.com/foxhauntband