HANGING WITH FOXYGEN

August 8, 2017

10:44 am

photos / MATT LICARI

styling / SHANDI ALEXANDER @ The Brooks Agency

grooming / MICHAEL MORENO

story / ALYSSA HARDY

Close your eyes for a second and picture yourself inside the 1970s music scene. Even if you didn’t grow up in that era (I didn’t either), your mind’s eye takes you to a certain place. Are you seeing bell bottoms? Hair everywhere? Sex appeal? Now picture that scene in 2017. If your first thought was HBO’s now canceled series Vinyl, you were close, *but* there’s something even better. Foxygen, the California based duo made up of Jonathan Rado, and Sam France, is the modernized version of rock-n-roll in a nostalgic era gone by. Their 2013 break out hit, “San Francisco”, gave fans a psychedelic, indie rock song that came with an over the top performance to back it up. While the label is unarguably cool, it’s something that, for them, doesn’t mean that much. “I mean as far as psychedelic things go I’m not concerned with that, like that word just never pops up, ever. I don’t know. We were just trying to make something that was timeless,” Jonathan says about the comparison, “That wasn’t psychedelic or 70s, but could be if you wanted it to be or whatever. It could be 1930s jazz or it could be ‘70s pop. It’s all sort of in there.”

Their newest album, Hang while staying true to the band’s unexpected throwback roots, takes on a whole new theatrical vibe. “I think the last thing anyone would expect of us is to put out a record that’s eight tracks, and really concise, and well-orchestrated, put-together, and crafted,” he muses about their new sound, “I think that’s sort of our response to that. Our last album was made in the garage. It’s 24 tracks and it’s very long and trying on a lot of the listener, which was by design. With this one, it’s a complete 180. It’s over indulgent still on a different way. We’re just trying to surprise people.”

T-shirt / Vintage. Jacket / Artists own

Leopard Print Jacket / topshop Shirt / Vintage

Surprising people is not something that Foxygen is new to. On top of their famously wild shows, in 2015 a controversy surrounding rumored turmoil in the band had indie reporters clamoring to get an exclusive about them breaking up. “I don’t know. I think some drama is good,” explains, “I think a lot of what people like about us or were intrigued by when we first came out was how they weren’t expecting what was going to happen here. It was like ‘out of control’ or whatever.” Whether or not their wild vibes fit into the mold of a traditional rockstar is subjective, but it’s certainly helped them grow.

Now, a few years later and little more mature, the band is ready for a new chapter in their careers and their music. “ I think we’re on the level where we can work without really discussing the dumb intricacies of what we’re working on. We can just sort of like work with each other. I know what Sam likes and Sam knows what I like,” he says about being together after so many years, “There’s not really a lot of discussing the bass tone or something like that. There’s dumb crap that you deal with when you are just getting to know somebody because you’re just trying to get on the same page. There’s a lot of discussion over minutiae, and we don’t do that anymore. We’re just sort of on the same page all the time when we’re making music.”