Everett Fox Band - Indie Artist Profile Musicians hate when others feel the need to draw comparisons to others because musicians usually think they are making something unique, and of course, they are, but that doesn’t stop me from helping you make a determination about what this might sound like. I say, something like Jellyfish, XTC, Tears for Fears, Spookey Ruben and Soul Coughing. Actually, I take it all back. I don’t feel like drawing a comparison, nor do I think I can really qualify Everett Fox and his band’s output that easily. Hailing from Ithaca, New York, Everett Fox band grants us a fresh and ebullient sound that grabs your attention and does what it pleases with it until it is good and ready to let go. We asked the man behind the band (and in front of it) these breathtakingly obtuse questions: MZ: Who? Everett Fox – keyboardist, singer and songwriter of the Everett Fox Band out of NY. MZ: What? EF: We’re a keyboard led trio (and sometimes quartet) of Alternative/Rock/Pop music with a kind of urban Beatlesque kind of sound, especially the new album simply titled “Everett Fox Band.” We called the new album’s genre ‘Alternative/Urban Folk’ for awhile as it wasn’t quite urban and it wasn’t really folk. MZ: Why? EF: Why’d I bother with the music biz? Well, like a lot of artists you realize early on that you don’t have much choice. I mean you can work a day job but at some point players have got to play. But for me it was never enough to just play other people’s music. I had to write the music I performed. Music that I would want to listen to myself. But also I wanted to create a style that was piano/ keyboard led but not confined to the traditional piano-rock sounds of Billy Joel , Elton John, Ben Folds, etc. With today’s recording and sound technology keyboardist are not tied to a few particular sounds and it frees you up to try all sorts of things. Having said that, I’ve found while working on the latest CD that you can’t just play a nylon string guitar sound on the keyboard and expect it to sound natural. You have to kind of play it as a guitarist would play it. My work’s always been alternative but over time it shifted from a piano/Led Zeppelin analog funk bounce to a more crafted and visual studio-oriented sound. With the latest album I drew from more Urban/Jazz elements. MZ: Until When? EF: April 1, 2058 MZ: Where? EF: I’d like to get my songs in some films or on TV. The new album has a very visual sound I think.” - Ighuaran

MusicZeitgeist

D.A.M. Magazine’ Cory Childs speaks with New York’s Slyest, Everett Fox from the Everett Fox Band to learn a little more about this artist’s life. Cory: Could you give us a bit of a background story on your music career? I read on your website that you’ve worked with multiple bands and gone to several places to make a name for yourself. Everett Fox: No no! It says: “In YOUR journeys you’ve encountered strange, sad and wondrous things.” I’m just the leader of the key-board led anomaly the Everett Fox Band. It’s true I played in some cool other bands before, but it’s always since been just me with the songs and the band to make it so. We’ve played cool shows back in my hometown of NYC at CBGB’s, the Bitter End, Max’s Kansas City and also up here in luscious Ithaca, NY at the 9’s, the Haunt, and Castaways. We’ve released a few CDs and we’re working on another one now. We’re focusing on writing and recording as of late. Cory: I also read on your website that you started playing the piano in SoHo clubs at 16. For one, what’s a SoHo club? For two, what was it like being 16 and playing in a SoHo club? How long have you been playing the piano for? Everett Fox: I’ve messed around with the piano then started playing it for real since I was about 7. “SoHo” is South of Houston (street) but what I really mean to say is the “Village” in lower Manhattan — which maybe is actually above it or below it or something I don‘t know. You know, where all the radicals, poets and artists lived in the 1960’s and where the best rock clubs in NY remain today...and NYU and galleries and a lot of rich folk live there now too. Anyway, I did play some SoHo clubs/bars when I was 16. Well, I grew up in New York you know, and I grew up with a family that thought music was important. I’d read somewhere that Billy Joel had gotten his start playing in piano bars and so I remember wandering the streets of downtown and Little Italy asking any place that had a piano if I could play. Only the problem was Billy Joel had gotten his start in like the 1970’s and I realized there weren’t piano bars all over the place these days. Outside of the rock band circuit the small places with a piano were restaurants or pubs that wanted live background music to basically help with the customer’s digestion. There was one Italian restaurant that let me give it a shot right off the street with this manager that was from the Old Country school and the minute I finished “New York State of Mind” he rushed over saying “No, no, no,” and pulled out the charts for these Neopolitan love songs he wanted me to do. The customers had been digging what I was playing and I just didn’t understand why he wouldn’t let me play these Billy and Elton songs. Well, I guess I was a dumb ass. The first time I was allowed to do my own songs in public was in the village around the same time. It was a gay pub on Christopher Street that I don’t remember the name of. Being a teenager who liked girls it was a good thing I didn’t know it was a gay bar at the time or it would have weirded me and my friends out a bit. The crowd had their doubts, I think, but they also thought I was brave too. Anyway, all went well. The patrons all dug my songs and the manager paid me I think like $30 with free cheeseburgers for me and my friends. I also jammed with a few thrown-together blues/Zep wannabe hard rock bands around then. We were all pretty green in terms of gigging and playing. I mean going back and forth to rehearsal studios we’d carry our gear right on the subway without cases or bags. We looked like we’d just stolen some old equipment from some music store in the middle of the night. We looked like classic lost rock n’ roll youth. It was pretty funny. But once I grew up I played with some excellent bands with some great players both down in NYC and upstate before I forged the Fox band. Since then we’ve played with Grand Master Flash, Derek Trucks and others. Cory: What’s your favorite genre of music? You’ve played with several different kinds of bands “. . . from rock to blues-inspired pop”, any favorites? Everett Fox: I don’t know what my favorite genre is but lately my favorite artist is James Brown. What I’ve found in James Brown is what I’d always been looking for in rock music: Those cats in James Brown’s band like Maceo Parker and Jimmy Nolen had great jazz chops but were doing these totally funky, rocking songs and just tearing it up. Cory: What’s your biggest goal in terms of your music career? Everett Fox: To be known as one of the best songwriters of the 21st century and for it to be true. Cory: Where are you planning on playing next? Everett Fox: In the studio! I’ve been focused on composing work in new ways and trying different sounds and rhythms in the studio. I’ve really gotten into the writing as opposed to the gigging and want to keep working on producing newer, different material — you can hear some of the newer sound in our latest self-titled album: Everett Fox Band. I would like to get start gigging again soon though. Cory: Aside from music, do you have any favorite hobbies to immerse yourself in? Everett Fox: Reading “100 Bullets” by Brian Azzarello. Cory: Of all the things in your life that you’ve done, what’s the one thing that you’re most proud of doing? Everett Fox: I’m proud that I’ve been able to put out keyboard-led music that isn’t always confined to the same patterns and sounds you’ve heard from other keyboard-led bands. Cory: What’s it like being from one of the biggest, most well known cities in the United States? Everett Fox: It’s like being a brat, a bum and an artist all at the same time. It’s like knowing how terrible and also how great people can be. Cory: What’s your favorite place in all of New York to go in general? In terms of music, is there somewhere in New York that you aspire to play at? Everett Fox: My favorite place in NYC is the Village/SoHo area....or the falafel place on 104th Street and Broadway....although the roof of 300 Riverside Drive is cool too, and Riverside Park too... I’d like to someday play a huge outdoor concert in Central Park. Cory: Is there anything you’d like to mention or say to people who might be reading this that I may not have asked a question about? Everett Fox: Only that I’d love to someday write songs as a soundtrack to a good film.” - Cory Childs

D.A.M. Magazine

EVERETT FOX BAND Everett Fox Band" Modern pop/indie pop/electronic/alter pop - USA In last 10 days I have received a few very interesting albums, and among them was a S/t issue of New York City artist - Everett Fox. He is a keyborder/author/vocalists, and his small band also include a percussionist - Dave Salce. Everett Fox is in music business from his earliest age, and during the years he had performed with bands and also alone. He has played in many New York City venues, and his experience is huge. Musically, Everett communicate with many different so call pop variants. He is original author, and his songs touches elements of modern pop, alter variations, indie views and electronic performing psychology. Some of his songs posses insightfull threathenigs, but all of present tunes are different among them, judging by arrangments modifications. I would add that some of Everett authors views knows to remind na Beatles-que productional/arrangments visions "taken" from Liverpool's fellows last albums legacies. His materials also are hard for acceptables on first listenings, but after few repeatable attempts, many things easily comes to right place. Everett Fox is unique author, and he has offered an interesting authors creations. Rating: 8/10 Review by: Branimir Bane Lokner” - Branimir Bane Lokner

BloknerOnline

The Everett Fox Band lightens up and tightens up on Liberty, their propulsive and funky second album. Liberty kicks off in high style with "Need To Know." If this were a major-label deal, you can betcha "Need To Know" would be the first single. It kicks in with a wicked, Batman-theme styled boogie-woogie piano line, and then bassist Garrison Heslin and Drummer Dave Salce kick the whole thing right over the moon, pausing for a nice little descending interlude before going back into that catchy riff, which wraps up with a nice classically-inspired motif. Recorded by Jason Arnold at Pyramid Sound, the band keeps it's focus on Fox's terrific songs. There is almost none of what you'd call extraneous "Jamming," even though all three members can certainly tear it up. Everything sounds nice and natural, as if the band were playing right in front of you - there's no arena reverb or bombastic touches. "Summer Child" burbles along sweetly on a bed of Fox's shifting major seventh chords, and his plaintive vocals on tracks like "Leave Me Out" are just about as direct and free of artifice as I've ever heard from him.(The latter also features some lovely Beatles-Melotron textures that perfectly complement his vocal.) And on the mad, organ-driven title track, Fox and the band swing like stevie Wonder, while still making the sound their own. This is a major step forward for one of Ithaca's tightest local combos.” - Bryan VanCampen

— Ithaca Times

The local Scene continues to pulsate with new music that should keep the clubs hopping well into the new year. Local musicians are steadily pumping out new albums, and this week another new recording hits the stores when the Everett Fox Band releases Liberty. The album kicks off with "Need To Know" and the killer track flat-out knocks the socks off of most of the formulated junk that dominates rock radio this year. The up-tempo rocker begins with Fox banging away on the piano, and by the time the drums and bass join in, the song has taken hold of you. The music races along at an intense, rollicking pace and then fades into a brief jazzy interlude which ends when the band returns to it's original frantic rythym. The album was recorded at Pyramid Studios by Jason Arnold, who effectively captures the trio's groove. The musicianship shines throughout the recording, and several other songs which stand out are "Everything You Need" and "Keep Your Love Away. "I think there's more of an edge now," says Fox. "We're going in a funkier direction. The first album was like acknowledging my roots, kind of in the retro style. You can hear a lot of the old stuff in it, where this one is kind of a new style that we're trying to project. The biggest difference in the sound lies in the group's development into a tighter, more cohesive unit and the improvement in Fox's songwriting and singing. The material is more refined and he is much more confident and forceful in his vocal delivery. Their first album, Blacksleeves, was recorded when the group was just starting out. "I was pretty young and that was my first recording endeavor," admits Fox. With songs like "Sylvia" and "Leader of the Band," the album revealed Fox's talent as a songwriter, and also included some fine rockers like the title track and "Pistol City. The first incarnation of the band included a guitarist, but the current line-up has the unique distinction of being the only local rock group that I know of which does not feature a guitar player. Fox usually handles the leads on either the piano or Fender Rhodes and Drummer Dave Salce and bass player Gary Heslin provide tight rythmic accompaniment. "There's something about a three-piece doing piano, bass and drums in a rock and roll format," says Salce. "There's no guitar. It's pretty unique. We're just like one big rythym section. I've always drawn most of my ideas for the drums from piano players and guitar players, so to have Everett playing the piano, it's strictly a rythym game for me." The drummer adds that "one of the things that really drew me to playing with Everett was the simplicity of his songwriting and the effectiveness. It feels good and it bounces, it's nice, it swings. It doesn't have an air of pretentiousness at all. It's got a very nice sing-songy edge to it. It's got that accessibility that way, which I think is definitely going to work to the advantage of the CD. All three of the musicians are excellent players, who really feed off of each other on stage, and they produced plenty of bounce to the ounce during their opening set for Derek Trucks two weeks ago. The Everett Fox Band is having the CD release party at the Nines on Friday and there will be a free champagne toast during their set to celebrate the release of Liberty.” - Stu Fox (no relation)

— Ithaca Journal

Of all the new music to have passed my way, the Everett Fox Band has the talent and promise to be the next big act to influence the market.” - Chip Talmadge

— Former Manager Discount Records