The Fox Says

Songs like "Shuggie" and "San Francisco" showcased the pair's willingness to delve deep with introspection and heartbreaking subject matter, while other album highlights such as "On Blue Mountain" and "Oh Yeah" proved they also know how to write hooks and keep the music fun. And now, with a new record about to drop and a new commitment to kickin' ass, Foxygen might just be the best damn band in America. I caught up with Rado to talk about the Oct. 14 release of …And Star Power and their upcoming Santa Fe show.

SFR: Y'all exploded in 2013 and then took a break near the end of the year. Why'd you come back?

Jonathan Rado: It was a break literally—Sam broke his leg falling off a stage in Minnesota, so we had to stop touring. The break was more forced on us than, 'We've all come to the decision that it's time to take a break!' It seemed like the press was saying we were having a hard time with each other, but it never really was that way. It was a maybe fortunate, maybe unfortunate year with the press. I think we built up a reputation for being wacky, but we were just starting to figure out how to tour correctly, so it was kind of too bad.

…And Star Power has 24 songs, which is a lot. Will this be a double album?

Oh yes. We just had that many songs—we had to cut a bunch—and knew it would be really interesting and fun for us to make a double album. We write so much, and the limits of a single album can make us feel crazy. We had a year to sit down and think of ideas, so when we started to write, we had so much material…since we've been making music for like, 10 years together. I think when you're 15 and you start making things, that's this sort of peak period when it comes to creativity. The idea of the double album is that it lets you experiment more and gives you more space to play around. We only had eight songs on the first record, and there are way more sides to Foxygen than just '60s-sounding band, which we wanted to show.

So it's a concept album?

Maybe it's more of a theme album, and the theme is that the album gets taken over halfway by this fictional band called Star Power. They're this sloppy sort of punk band, and the album 'deteriorates' as it goes. It's separated by tone. The first side is really upbeat, the second side is eerie folk music, the third is trash rock and the fourth side is uplifting.

What was the impetus behind the heavier, more experimental material?

We had a lot of aggression towards playing live because we couldn't get our live band to sound the way we wanted it to. Our first record was so based around keyboards, and all we had on tour was bass drums and guitar. This led to playing the songs really heavily, and we just wanted a bigger sound.

Right. And you're a nine-piece when you play live now?

There are background singers, two guitar players, and the band sounds just amazing. The music sounds good and interesting, and Sam has more freedom; he doesn't have to play an instrument now, so he can really go crazy. I think a lot of bands have this singer/guitar player who just kind of stands there, and a Foxygen show is more like controlled chaos. We want to bring a show that is entertaining for people in more ways than just the music.

Foxygen w/ Dub Thompson
7:30 pm Thursday, Sept. 25
$18. Skylight
139 W San Francisco St.
982-9775

Santa Fe Reporter