Jack The Fox

SSW: Let’s start with the background. What were each of you doing before you came together as Jack The Fox?

Angus: Before music I flew helicopters in central Australia and far North Queensland for about 3 years before giving it all up to pursue persue music. I always knew I wanted to sing or act. I was always too shy at school and a bit of a shower singer, I suppose getting older gave me more confidence, as I slowly began to place less importance on what other people thought and did what I really wanted to do for myself.

Justin: Since a young age I knew that I wanted to pursue music and progress in my guitar playing. Straight out of school I studied Music in Melbourne. I enjoyed being around like minded creatives, but hated the competitive culture that surrounded it. I chose to continue music by just getting out there and playing gigs with as many people as possible. I joined a folk group called Sons Of May where I built my confidence as a performer. Angus returned from flying and we were both itching to start playing and writing. I’m glad I had that time to grow as a musician before Jack The Fox started.

What type of music did you grow up listening to? Who has had the greatest influence on your taste in music over time?

Angus: I had an obsession with Michael Jackson when i was young, I suppose I still do, so much of his music makes me happy. I love so many different genres of music, that it gets hard to pin one down as being a major influence. A lot of music that has a real funk/groove in it with plenty of soul really gets the shivers going, but the slow introspective styles have play a huge part in my influence also. If i had to pick a few that I really love, it would be Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Matt Corby, Xavier Rudd, John Butler and Ben Howard.

Justin: Some of my earliest memories from when I was around three or four was playing air guitar to stadiums of people, jumping on my bed while listening to Beatles, Beach Boys and The Eagles. I was lucky that both my parents had great taste in music, and I became obsessed with finding new artists to listen to. Dad’s collection got me into the blues then venturing into some Rock. These included Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters. Some Australian artists I looked up to were John Butler who has been my biggest influence, Xavier Rudd, The Beautiful Girls and Angus and Julia Stone.

Both of you grew up surfing on Victoria’s south coast. What role does the ocean play in your life?

Angus: The ocean plays a massive role in keeping me sane. It is really easy to slip into being in my head all the time and not being grounded and present, the ocean has a power that reminds me that it’s all ok. It is just so massive and powerful, it really brings me back to earth if i’m up in the clouds.

Justin: I grew up in a small town on the south west coast of Victoria. There wasn’t much to do there other than play sports, music and live at the beach. It’s a special connection we both have with the ocean. It doesn’t matter how chaotic and fast life is moving around you there is an instant calm seeing and hearing the waves, so we are always trying to get our fix before heading inland for shows.

You guys used to do a lot of busking in Melbourne. Are you still playing there? What did performing for people on the streets teach you?

Angus: Definitely, busking is bloody great. We get to play our music to complete strangers and see little kids dancing along, it really fills us up with good vibes. I think it teaches us to be grateful for what we do as a job, it’s easy to get tired and worn out in any occupation, but i think when we share our music and see the positive impact it has on people, it really shows us that we are doing the right thing.

Justin: Busking has been invaluable to us as people and performers. We see busking as a perfect platform to try new things in our performances and trialing new songs on the street to a ever changing audience. It’s such an organic style of performance as the audience member isn’t forced to be there, so building and keeping a crowd has been a huge learning curve, and we try to keep that intensity and passion in everything that we do. We still busk occasionally to reconnect with our Melbourne fans, and it would be the dream to busk in new cities all around the world to play to those that may not be able to attend a live gig that night.

Your song “Brother” was a huge success and made us fall in love with what you do. What was the story behind it?

Justin: “Brother” was a really cool process, I had been mucking around with some open tuning stuff on guitar with weird capo placements inspired by Ben Howard and Nick Mulvey. It didn’t really have a direction until Angus started to place some melodies and words, and the song started to become about the relationship he has with his brother, Tom. Once the skeleton of the song had more of a meaning behind it, I could put more emotion in the way I played it. We knew we had something cool, but it was purely a sketch of a song. Us being us, we decided to try perform it at a show and see where it went, thankfully a friend filmed us on their phone because we both randomly went into the percussive breakdown that you hear at the end of the recording, this was not planned but it just came out and we built the recording off that first performance! If only every song came this easily 🙂

After releasing “Brother,” you guys took a pretty long break before dropping the new music. What has been happening and why did you make a decision to go on hiatus after such a successful debut?

Angus: It was a pretty hectic time after “Brother” was released, my mum was diagnosed with brain cancer, so the next few years after the release were really quiet as I was at home taking care of her. We still performed and managed to record our EP, everything was just at that bit of a slower pace, so I could be with family. Justin played a big role in supporting me and my family along the way, so we both moved through it all together.

In a few words, how would you describe your signature sound? How would you characterize your music for those who have not heard it yet?

Justin: That’s a really tricky one, the reviews we have received from our performances tend to be on how versatile our performances are. We try hard to give the the crowd a unique experience and tailor the show to the environment. We often start our shows with a warm acoustic, atmospheric drones of guitar and didgeridoo complimented with some acoustic percussion and soulful held back vocals to set the mood. Once this is done we have room to build the dynamic into some more stompy, funk, blues driven songs with an underlying acoustic roots sound.

You are about to release your new EP, “Open Water,” produced by Hayden Calnin, which we are super excited for our readers to hear! After listening for the first time, we were quite surprised, since it has a very different vibe (and we loved that). The sound is absolutely beautiful and very cinematic, and we can totally see these songs as soundtracks on TV and in feature films. Tell us about this EP! What were the inspirations behind the songs and how long did it take you to complete it?

Justin: Thank you!! We are glad that it is different to “Brother”, but feel it is a good destination for our current sound. We just wrote and recorded what we naturally felt like on the day, which has formed into a mix of emotions, sounds and genres. We like not to be pigeonholed into a certain genre, as that can feel limiting in the creative process. The mix genres tied together with a lush warm underlying drone that ties all the songs together in a cohesive and atmospheric journey. The EP is a collection of stories and feelings we had at the time of writing. Stories of love, loss and brotherhood.

What would you like for listeners of your music to take away from your records?

Justin: We would love for the listener to connect with the music and take away their own interpretation of it. We aren’t out to tell people how to feel or deal with situations, more it is us expressing our thoughts, which in hope gives us a human element and relatable experience to the listener.

Tell us about the new song you guys just released!

Angus: The new song is called ‘Here We Are’ it’s about being present and really taking in the people and life that surrounds us. I like to think of it as a deep breath, realizing that we are on a spinning rock in the middle of space, lucky enough to love one another and find time stop to stop, smell the flowers and check out the bees with their fuzzy little butts. It highlights the beauty of connection, the lyrics at the start of the song are reference to a “good pain” this is the pain you feel from doing something that you love, like sore arms from surfing, pain in your neck from spending the day painting or sore legs from bushwalking, the examples are endless. It’s about cherishing this pain for being a reminder that you’re here and doing something you love and experiencing that with others.

Who is on your top 3 list of artists you would want to collaborate with?

Angus: Matt Corby, Ben Howard, Foy Vance

Justin: Justin Vernon, Fink, Kyle Lionhart

If there was a perfect soundtrack for this year of your lives, which song would it be for each of you?

Angus: Didirri – ‘Jude’ and ‘Blind You’. These are two beautiful songs I have had on repeat. Also Foy Vance has been on the list this year with songs like “She Burns’ and ‘Coco’.

Justin: Leif Vollebekk – Twin Solitude Album has been on repeat for an embarrassing amount of months. He is a truly unique storyteller and is sucha tasteful musician. It doesn’t matter what mood I’m in he always makes me calm, excited and feel like getting creative.

Thinking of yourself as souls on Earth, what do you think your purpose in life is? And in what way do you think one person can make the world a better place?

Angus: I think my purpose is to help others. Along with consistent learning I think the lessons and challenges we all face should be shared, so we can all grow together. A sense of community and positive vibrations is really infectious, music is a perfect medium to spread a caring and considerate outlook and to promote a growth and change in people, which I am extremely proud to be a part of. I think to make the world a better place as an individual it really needs to start with them, once someone can overcome some of life’s curve balls they can move on to helping others from experience, and hopefully that spreads globally to make the world a better place.

Justin: I have felt strongly that I am meant to share music with people, also to be kind, to help when help is needed. To give them a piece of what I am through my playing is just the way I try. It has happened to me numerous times seeing someone play live or stumbling across a track that kind of reminds you that you aren’t here
for long so you may as well do something you love and share that with others. A song can make someones day and if everyone took the time to REALLY listen it can be quite magical!

SSW features inspiring people. Which current peers in your industry inspire you?

Justin: Our producer/friend and housemate Hayden Calnin is a never ending source of inspiration to me. Getting honour to make music with him after being quite the fanboy for so many years I’m still pinching myself. He has an amazing style of writing that sets the environment so well, you feel like you’re there and his storytelling and expression of feelings we have all felt before is masterful.

Angus: ‘Didirri’ is a big one for me, I think the honesty and vulnerability he shows through his story telling really helps me to work my own emotions out. Hayden Calnin, as well as being our producer and good friend, is a big inspiration to both of us, he’s extremely kind and wise like a smiley old grandpa, his music is beautiful with all the feels and tingles you’ll ever need 🙂