LouisvilleKY.com welcomes Jake Curtis aboard as our newest contributor.
by Jake Curtis
“This scene, as well as this city honestly, has many flaws, everything does, but we’re creative and accepting of weird, new things, and when it comes to art that’s the most important thing you need from an audience.”- Kyle Thompson, bass player for The Foxery
Fresh off the release of its newest album Unless, The Foxery is one of the most talked-about bands in Louisville. Having toured around the Northeast and parts of the Midwest this year, The Foxery is finally ready to give its new album a proper home release. Before we get to more information on that, I asked The Foxery’s bass player, Kyle Thompson, a few questions about what inspires the band and where some of their influences lie.
LouisvilleKY: What is the main inspiration for the band? Where did the ideas for the album stem from, and which songs in particular stand out on the record?
Kyle: I think our main inspiration is our own experiences and viewpoints, because there are so many different mindsets within this band. So we try to tell stories with our songs that are very specific, personal, and detailed; but when the song is viewed as a whole it can mean multiple things. The lyrics to Crawl to me are about finding the beauty in the fact that life will go on without you, each of our lives are but a small, small piece in the beautiful tapestry of human existence. Than can be taken to be an extremely positive, or negative, idea depending on how you perceive it. I love the line at the end of The Filth Part I, “When the trumpets sound like an alarm clock, you better be ready.” I read that as an ominous warning of impending doom, but I’m almost positive Mike wrote it to be a call to get off your butt and be productive. For the people that just want me to name drop a band as our biggest inspiration, sorry you had to read all of that, and mewithoutyou.
LouisvilleKY: What is your main inspiration as a person in the Louisville music scene and as an “artist”?
Kyle: There’s a lot of significance that in the indie/punk world, we call concerts “shows”. It’s a performance, not just people playing songs. I don’t want a band to be “just four normal dudes who play music”, I want something huge and grandiose and epic. Ever since I’ve gone to shows, Louisville has seemed like a “less talk, more rock” kind of town, and I hate that. In my mind Mountain Asleep, and specifically Jake Snider, always perfectly captured everything I want in a band. Reading poetry before a set started, swinging from the rafters, a true sense of the audience being a part of the band, I loved every single thing about them, and Jake is easily the best frontperson for a band that I know. So thank you, I don’t think I’ve ever told him that.
LouisvilleKY: Do you have any additional interests or musical pursuits outside of the Foxery?
Kyle: .I used to play acoustic shows, and would love to start doing that again, but unfortunately I started playing shows before I knew how to sing or write good songs or play guitar, so no one ever asks me anymore, which is the right thing to do. I would do the same thing. I’d like to get into the poetry world and I’ve begun to submit poetry to some journals and would love to start doing some readings soon. My girlfriend and I have discussed the idea of doing a horror comic together, hopefully that happens some day!
LouisvilleKY: Out of curiosity, do you have a favorite comic title right now?
Kyle: Real talk using pictures to tell a story might be the oldest form of art there is. Look at cave paintings! Comics are important and awesome! My favorite right now is The Wicked and The Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. Every 90 years, 12 (maybe, I can’t remember) gods come to Earth for two years to inspire humans for the next 90 years. They’re currently on Earth existing in the form of pop stars. It’s such an interesting story, with a lot of cool ideas about religion and pop culture, and the similarities between the two.
LouisvilleKY: Tell us something unique about you, The Foxery, and something in Louisville which affected your life in some way.
Kyle: This might not answer the question exactly, but something really cool about Louisville, is that for the most part, people who live here love living here. That extends to the music scene here as well. So many bands across the country “break out” or make that critically acclaimed debut album about “getting out of this town”. Seriously. All across almost every genre of music, a band will “make it” on an album with a lot of lyrical content about “leaving everything behind”, “burning bridges”, all of that kind of stuff. You don’t see that too much here, The Foxery included. So since most bands from here don’t write those kind of songs when they start, they look for something else, and we end up with so many weird bands. I love it. So many bands from here are unlike anything I’ve ever heard, and it’s what makes me proud to be in a band that is from Louisville, KY. This scene, as well as this city honestly, has many flaws, everything does, but we’re creative and accepting of weird, new things, and when it comes to art that’s the most important thing you need from an audience.
The Foxery will be going on tour in November across parts of the Southeast to further support the new album. However, make sure to catch them in town for their record release show at Nelligan Hall (2010 Portland Ave) on October 27th. Doors open at 8PM. The show will be open to all ages, and entry is only $5! Be sure to check out their Bandcamp page, listed below, as well as a link there to order a vinyl copy of the record! Please continue to support local and independent art, music and expression!
