WL 370 - Sunday, July 8 - 12am
Purveyors of: Big, happy group sing-alongs without the self-indulgent wankery

Foxfire Forest have been stalking the streets of Toronto for years, and have now begun to really build momentum. The nine-member band has spent the last two years finessing themselves into solid, working order, and the effort and organization shows. After much harassment, Doug Nayler finally found Neil Rankin, the one member willing to talk to him.

How exactly does one even begin to organize practices and write songs with nine different people?


Well, organizing practices can be like pulling teeth at times, but now that we have a fairly regular rehearsal schedule it has been going relatively smoothly. As for the writing process, it has changed over the course of the last year and a half. It used to be that Anna and I would write the songs and then bring them fully structured to the band, but then we started re-arranging things and trying new suggestions from every member. There have been other instances where a single member writes a song and then teaches it to the band. Sometimes all we have are parts to a song and then we all collaborate on it and decide what works best. Writing with nine people has its advantages and its disadvantages; it's great to see so many different perspectives on one song but at the same time that means we take a lot longer to write songs. It's hard to be prolific with nine writers so now we're trying out individuals' songs. 



Considering the size of the line-up, and the Toronto basis of the band, do you have any distaste for immediate comparisons to acts like Broken Social Scene or The Ghost is Dancing?


There's no distaste for comparisons because there have only been comments made about comparisons, no actual comparisons. So, we feel pretty good about being mentioned in the same sentence as these bands as we are all fans (and now friends with some members) of these bands. We mostly get compared to other bands with a similar sound (at least what I've heard so far) and the Broken Social Scene/Ghost Is Dancing comments are usually just along the lines of your question, it's as though we get compared to them all the time but we really don't. It's a compliment really to be on the same level as these fine folks. 



How problematic has it been to expand your audience beyond the limits of the GTA?


Seeing as nobody in our band drives (legally), yes, it has been difficult to expand. We are hoping to take this show on the road in October on a grand caravan with The Ghost Is Dancing. That mini-tour should prove interesting for us all. We're really only using The Ghosts as our chauffeurs, so it's a pretty swell deal for us. There will be no stress from driving and we get to hang out with some of the sweetest fellas (and ladies) this fair city has to offer for a whole week. 


Something very surprising about your recordings is how focused and tight the songs are despite such a large line-up. What led to that?


We approached the last recording with no experience at all which equalled all of us recording more or less our individual tracks after the masters had been laid. So with no contact with each other I suppose we were able to focus our energy on what we were all doing independently. The singers (Hannah, Monica, and I) all ganged up on Jack (zee producer) and forced him to do our bidding. It made for some tighter harmonies, although half of dem harmonies are these little aliens we captured and cajoled to sing by squeezing notes out of them. 



Where would you like to see the band going in the future?


Our immediate goals are to write harder, better, faster, and stronger songs and to finally get somebody to take some photos of us (all fully-clothed of course) and then to shoot a music video for our upcoming single "Black Light Dick Fight". Somewhere amidst all that chaos an album or EP or some sort of recording will be recorded and then unleashed onto the world. 
Longterm, our goals are to grow long beards (even the women) and make Southern Fried Rock 'N' Roll a la ZZ Top and then of course world domination won't be far off. Seriously though, I think we need to start taking things more seriously and to really get new barbers and better costumes. Anyone into wardrobing looking to work for free?

by Doug Nayler