Maria: Did you guys just get here to Austin for SXSW?
Foxtrax: No, we’ve been here for, it feels like a long time.
I’ve been here for like three weeks.
Couple days, might as well be there.
It’s been like 5 minutes…
Maria: Is this your first SXSW or have you guys been coming back?
Foxtrax: It’s our second.
Maria: Oh, it’s your second? How is it different from you first? Is it…are you more prepared for it now or?
Foxtrax: I think for our first, we were like ‘Oh my god, this is SXSW. We have to do everything and everything now!”
Now we’re just like, ok, this is SXSW and we’re chilling and we get to go to what we get to do.
Maria: There is a lot to do and it can get overwhelming…
Foxtrax: I think now I’m just like, happy to get the extra few hours of sleep in the morning. Instead of hitting that paddle with the guys from that big.
Maria: How do you guys prepare to come to a music festival like this? Cause it’s a bit different you know? You have like, very different crowds, because everyone is going everywhere and trying to get everywhere?
Foxtrax: You mean as a…
Maria: I mean as a band, like mentally prepare for such a big festival?
Foxtrax: A live show. I don’t know. We kind of have a philosophy. You just gotta bring it every single time.
Maria: Go with the flow?
Band: Yeah, we love playing music. And sometimes, SXSW especially, you just can never forget if you’re gonna play for the craziest, most amazing crowds or like ok so pretty good crowd, the energy isn’t the same as it normally is. You just got to go out and do what you do.
At the end of the day, we’re just big believers in controlling what we can control, you know? That’s us. Everything else, it doesn’t matter, you know? Just chill.
Maria: Yeah totally get it! I like that philosophy of yours. As far as your set list goes…does it change for a festival or…do you keep it the same?
Foxtrax: We’re a live band so… if we’re playing the Roxy, like, we’re playing a festival stage, you gotta bring the same level of energy.
Maria: That’s awesome. Bands that focus on live music are always the best to watch live.. haha I wonder why!
Band: You’re a rock and roll band and you don’t have energy, then don’t be a band?
Maria: True. Are your roots in rock and roll? What did you guys grow up listening to?
Foxtrax: For sure rock and roll. Everything. Like The Beatles, Stones, also as kids, the bands that were big when we were kids were like Coldplay, The Killers, Kings of Leon, so those are the groups who like they played festivals as their big festivals bands, not just playing on the radio and stuff.
Maria: That’s awesome. I definitely love live bands that write for live so it’s not just a recording? It sounds very different, you’d be surprised.
Foxtrax: Yeah, we know a lot of other people in the industry without dropping any names that they make music because they want it to be on TV or …. for us we’re just trying to make music that is genuine to us that people might connect to because we’re humans and they’re humans.
Maria: Yeah, of course. Now, with the music, where did it come from? Were you influenced by your family at any point to take up an instrument? Or was it something you just discovered on your own, like this is what I want to do for the rest of my life?
Foxtrax: Music calls for you, you know? You either have it inside you or you don’t.
Maria: Ok, yeah. That’s a simple way to put it.
Foxtrax: I don’t think it’s much more complex than that.
Maria: That’s true. I think I spoke to you guys back in Dallas, I think it was last year? I can’t quite remember. You were the band that recorded the album in a cabin? Correct me if I’m wrong?
Foxtrax
Jared Stenz: You are 100% right.
Ben Schneid: Well, kind of. We recorded some demos in a cabin. We used some of those sounds, but, we didn’t actually like, the record we put out was not…
Maria: So do you find it when you guys write music, when you’re outside, kind of like in a confined space, away from the city and the people, it helps you, helps your creativity flow better?
Foxtrax: Yeah, I think it’s really nice to be unencumbered by outside influence for a little bit. I think that your influences always come from, the bands you listen to always come through but you aren’t a part of a scene. I remember The Killers giving an interview and they were like, if we were in Brooklyn we’d just be another indie pop band. But they grew up and did their stuff in Las Vegas, which was away from the scene, and that’s why they’re unique. That’s why they were so amazing. It’s because they weren’t trying to be anything other than themselves. They weren’t trying to fit into a box. I think when you go away for a little bit, and you have your influences, they’re always gonna come with you. When you are away for a little bit, you don’t have that pressure. Like “Oh my goodness, I need to fit into the LA scene, or the New York scene…” You just kind of make music that’s true.
Maria: Do you guys find that…does each member of the band bring something different? And were you guys most influenced by certain type of music? Like The Killers and Classic Rock, or were you like…do you have your own weird bands that you like?
Foxtrax: I think we all…love different kind of music on the fringes…but like general roap map or loving rock and roll is kind of all the same. We’ll all dig the Joshua Tree record by U2, and we’ll fanboy out to that but… you know, like Jared might be more into like indie folk. SO into Hiatus Coyote, it’s crazy.
I like some weird stuff, for sure.
Maria: That’s the cool thing about music. You don’t have to just be one box, you can like so many different things and come up with like weird different sound. It’s just…it works; you know?
Now we’re going to go into some fun fire round questions if you don’t mind. One question is, do you remember the first record you ever bought?
Foxtrax
Jared Stenz: I do actually…I very much do. I’m gonna split it into two parts. The first record that was ever bought for me and the first record I ever purchased… First record that was every bought was The Beatles Greatest Hits from like 1960-whatever till like 1967 or something like that. The red album…if you know that I’m talking about? That was amazing. The first record I ever bought with my own money was a band called Brand New. They were coming up on Long Island at the time… and were from long Island and part of that Long Island screamo scene…I was an angsty teen. I love that music. Still deep down in my heart. Not something we sound like, but I remember being like “wow, these guys are from where I am and they sound amazing and are doing it!”
Ben Schneid: I think, before I found out about the rock and roll music, like my family who also loves rock and roll music, I think the first record I actually had my dad purchase for me when I was like 10 years old was Get Rich While You Die Trying or Jay Z the black album…
Maria: Do you remember you first recollection of live music?
Ben Schneid: I have three older brothers so they always took me out to concerts, and the first concert I ever saw was in two months or each other like Modest Mouse at Hammerside Bar in New York City. The second concert I ever saw was The White Stripes and the Shins opened up in Brooklyn…
That’s pretty bad ass.
Yeah, it’s pretty sick! That was a while ago, some pretty rock & roll stuff.
Jared Stenz: For me, it was, I took my younger brother Jon to a concert in Camden, New Jersey had some center, we saw The Killers play a festival, and The Wigs in Athens Georgia. Great tune. Great band.
Maria: The Killers are great like. They’re a band that’s just always blows my mind. I’ve seen them once and I’m like wow.
Jared Stenz: That was the moment I realized I wanted to play music.
Maria: That’s awesome! That was my next question.
Jared Stenz: Brandon Flowers is out there doing his thing and walking up on the monitors…he’s a great front man.
Maria: He really gives it 100% Now wherever home is, what song remind you of home. Or what album reminds you of home?
Foxtrax: Album or song reminds me of home…
Jared Stenz: That’s easy for me, the Let It Be album by The Beatles. I remember every time around the holiday season, my dad would start playing that record and that is just my fondest childhood memories. We were putting up the Christmas tree or whatever, and some three-year-old plucking away at the piano.
Ben Schneid: We probably uh American Beauty…My family was just a bunch of weird dead heads; I was a five-year-old coming to school in tie dye shirts… They were like what are you doing, dude?
Maria: I guess to wrap things up, is there any thing you’d like to tell the people who will eventually be reading this interview and getting to know your music a little more?
Foxtrax
Jared Stenz: Thank you for the support!
Ben Schneid: I think that it is good to not create expectations for music. People should just listen and feel what they feel.
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