Playing the Sugar Mountain Festival in Melbourne next month are Fox & Sui, the Melbourne & Sydney duo who have been making waves around the country since their formation just over a year ago. We managed to catch up with Andy Fox of the group to see what’s led them here and what we can expect from them next year…
You guys only met last year, and you’ve already accomplished so much and are headed for the Sugar Mountain Festival. How has this come together?
We’ve both been dabbling in a wide variety of work and pleasure activities in the two years since we met. There’s been moving about, new jobs and a variety of in-flight experiences. Somewhere between all this living we found time to make some music together.
What can we expect for your debut EP expected to be released early next year?
It’s a collection of the first songs we wrote together – six tracks that draw influence from 60s exotica records, crappy drum machines and Asha Bhosle.
Where are you recording your EP?
All the instrumentals were recorded in Fox’s Melbourne studio, and then sent via the interweb to Sui up in Sydney. At the time the EP was recorded, we were living in separate cities.
What instruments/tools did you use to create your EP?
Most of the instrumentals were made on an MPC 2000xl and fed through miles of hand-soldering and dodgy compression. Some of the tracks also include Ace Tone rhythm accompaniment, electric organ and bass guitar. Sui had access to some lovely recording equipment, but the demo vocals sung into her laptop’s built in mic often had the desired effect – filtered, whispered and low fidelity.
How would you describe your stage presence?
Sui uses her voice in weird and wonderful ways, running the vocals through effects units. She also plays bass and occasionally live percussion. I’m usually concentrating hard during songs, playing playing drums with my left hand and melodies with the right on a beautiful little thing called a ‘monome’. I try to make dad jokes between songs whenever i get a chance. We’ve been told that we have “chemistry” together – I suppose that we do like to make eye contact and wiggle our hips.
If you could choose three artists who you would consider to be like yourselves, who would they be and why?
Antena; for seaside themes, drum machines and light-hearted vocals. Ras G; for sparse feel good rhythms, crackle and noise, and maybe Virgo Four; for their repetition, humour and danceability.
Would you say that you spend more time in Sydney or Melbourne?
It was split evenly during 2011, but we’re both living permanently in Melbourne now.
What can we expect from you in 2012?
We’ve got loads of new material in the works, and an improved live-set to debut at Sugar Mountain Festival. We’ll both be writing for our own solo projects and hopefully complete our first collaborative album.
Any New Years resolutions?
Not to put anything off until next year.
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Don’t miss Fox & Sui at Sugar Mountain Festival – http://www.sugarmountainfestival.com/
