San Francisco orchestral indie-pop group Foxtails Brigade gear up for debut LP

With a sound that is truly unique, Bay Area-based orchestral indie-pop group Foxtails Brigade are gearing up to make big waves in 2016. With their proper, full band debut LP on the way, the band spent much of this year teasing their enormous potential.

With the video for single “Long Away And Far Ago” establishing Foxtails Brigade as visual and aural visionaries, the group put a re-working of “Joanna Newsom’s “Book Of Right On” out into the world last week.

Groundsounds caught up with the group’s Laura Weinbach amidst all the new release activity.

 

Hi Foxtails Brigade, how’s it going? How has 2015 treated you?

Pretty alright .

You have such an interesting, dynamic sound. What’s your creative process like? Who or what do you cite as chief influences?

Thank you. Creative process usually involves some sudden occurrence of listening to one’s own thoughts and then seizing the opportunity by attempting to pen a song or at least a sketch of one. Constant repetition and meditation on the written parts eventually leads to a filling in of the empty spaces.

Following that, I present the work to Anton who will further edit and refine and then arrange with the rest of the band. Chief influences include, my brother Brent, the rest of my family (dad Robert, little brothers Max and Nicky, mother Patricia), Joanna Newsom, Pink Floyd, Siousxie and the Banshees, The Smiths, Billie Holiday, Faun Fables, English stuff.

Your last video for “Far Away And Long Ago” is stunning. How did it all come about?

THANKS! Our drummer Dominic who also happens to be a mega talented film maker, went to a Halloween party one night at a dilapidated old mansion in the Berkeley Hills. Awe-stuck and inspired by the magnitude of the haunted location’s overwhelming beauty, Dominic knew that he simply MUST one day, somehow, shoot a film of some kind in that house. When his desires became known to the house’s caretakers, they generously offered it as a work space for him to make all his wildest creative (wet) dreams come true.

Immediately following the good news, Dominic wisely decided to call upon the greatest band he had ever known in his lifetime, Foxtails Brigade, and inform them of this most radical opportunity. “Far Away and Long Ago” it seemed, was the obvious choice for which to center a fantasy nightmare in a haunted mansion around.

After that, the super talented crew and everything else came together fairly effortlessly and on the day of the shoot we got just what we wanted on the 4th one-shot take. It was the best day I had all year, maybe ever.

Can you give us a little insight into what the video is about or what themes your exploring?

The song is about the desertion of refined old-world beauty and craftsmanship in exchange for the economy of new-world innovations and machines. It’s paralleled by the story that the house seemed to tell with the remains of it’s original, detailed, hand-crafted art deco architecture ignored by soggy left over early 90s furniture and random florescent-colored paint jobs that were probably executed in the mid 70s. I guess the whole thing was  kinda sad. But cool too.

I’ve been told Foxtails Brigade is more than just a music project, with talents extending into animation, film and more. Can you tell us a little more about that?

Yeah. We like to make little animations. I guess it all started when necessity lead to invention for a Kickstarter video we made.  I really didn’t want to have to talk to a camera much less beg people for money to “be an artist” as was the case for many of the Kickstarter videos I had seen at the time.

So I figured a way of avoiding that would be to make an animated video. Anyway, we ended up really liking how the cartoon came out and have been making little cartoon stingers ever since. Instagram is a particularly inspiring platform because the videos have to be 15 seconds or less which is perfect for animation ’cause it can tend to be a lengthy process.

Also, I guess it’s kinda fun to make stuff that’s other than what’s expected in general. I suppose I’m a rebel in that way.  And also,  since Dominic who is an incredible film maker joined our band, we’ve got that going too. Oh yeah, and also I’ve had to draw album covers for past releases and website stuff which has created a kind of general aesthetic, so there’s that.

You’re releasing a cover of Joanna Newsom’s “Book Of Right On.” How did that come about?

I’d always thought about covering one of her songs, but never really had a reason to and figured it would never be as good as the original anyway. But a while back we were asked to perform in a Joanna Newson tribute show which finally gave me a concrete excuse for learning my favorite of her songs: Book Of Right On. Anyway,  we really enjoyed playing it and decided to record it.  I know it’s not as good as the original,  but I reckon it’s just a different direction/interpretation of a timelessly great song.

Have you had a chance to listen to Divers yet? Thoughts?

Haven’t heard the whole record yet, but LOVE the most recent officially released single, “Leaving The City”. I especially like the first 40 seconds of the song which sound like an awesome neo-Renaissance Christmas carol or something. Probably listened to it around 10 times in a row the day it came out.

What can we expect from Foxtails Brigade in 2016?

A NEW ALBUM! Out March 2016 on OIM Records. This’ll be our first full-band, full-length Foxtails Brigade studio record. I’m really proud of it.

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