SUNFLOWER FOX & THE CHICKEN LEG – interview

“Minneapolis based 1970’s original rock filled with shag carpet, crystals and the nostalgia from a bygone era.” is the info you find on the band’s webpage, https://sunfoxband.com/ If this captures your interest, here’s an interview in which the bands tells more about their musical style, inspiration an plans for the future

Answering this interview is Al Berg on keys**

Introduce your band, and describe your latest release:

Sunflower Fox and the Chicken Leg is a throwback to the 1970s, a time when being in a rock ‘n roll band was the epitome of musical freedom! We pay homage to this lifestyle by creating and writing music together as a band that brings back sounds of the 70s rock through a modern lens.

Band members are Kaity Heart on vocals, James Gross and Mike Schmidt on guitar, Craig Holets on bass, Kyle Primus on drums, and me [Al Berg] on keys.

Our latest release is a single, Shadow Girl, which tells the story of a wayward gypsy maiden through layers of instrumental motifs [more on this later].

What’s the hardest part about being a band in this day and age?

Everyone in the band, to some extent at least, has spent time on the road in what feels like the sunset of the working musician. There are fewer and fewer venues that cater to live music, which not only makes it nearly impossible to make a living solely as a performer, but also makes it very difficult to build a following through live shows.

When did you realise that your project had the potential to be much more than just a fun idea?

I feel like it was when I heard the first rough mixes from our initial session at Pachyderm, but I think most everyone would state that it was when we started working with Ron Nevison. The fact that Ron, who worked with massive bands from the 70s, is interested in and supports what we do . . . that is probably the clearest point when we realised Sunflower Fox had real potential.

Tell us about your latest release, why should we check it out?

You should check it out because it is a great song! Seriously, this is hard for me to answer without sounding like some music critic (which I probably will), but in my opinion Shadow Girl is a great showcase of how our individual musical influences come together to tell a story in a musically unique way. It starts with an eerie (spooky?) organ line and a soft vocal intro, to slowly blend in crisp acoustic guitar tones with driving support from drums and bass. It continues to build to a peak through Mike’s guitar lead, which is followed by a brief tension release before Kaity Heart’s vocals bring it to the final climax. We close the song on a retrospective outro, which subsides into echoes of the intro.

How does a song typically come together for you?

Typically what happens is that someone in Sunflower Fox, often Kaity, brings in an initial idea for a song, which could be a chord progression and set of lyrics, or a promising riff. This is then worked by a subset of the group to expand the song into a rough outline and general form. We then work the songs together as a full group, where everyone contributes and writes their own parts; this causes the songs to morph further as we listen to each other. Depending upon the style or the feel of the song, in some cases one of us may take on more of a lead role in arranging or producing the song, but in all cases everybody works together to create the final sound.

How would you describe your sound to an unfamiliar reader?

A glorious amalgamation of musical scars and triumphs, rooted in the rock sounds of the 1970s.

What do you want listeners to take away from listening to your band?

We want them to remember that Sunflower Fox is made up of working musicians, who have built their sounds and styles over years of playing shows in front of audiences from packed venues and empty dive bars . . . and we love every minute! What they are hearing is this experience and passion condensed into every live-tracked, minimally overdubbed, and collaboratively produced minute of rock ‘n roll music we release. This is how rock was done in the 70s and it is what Sunflower Fox is doing today!

Where would you really like to tour that you haven’t done so yet, and why?

I think everyone in the band would love to make a trip over to Europe; some of us have performed overseas, but we haven’t had the chance to do so together. We’ve been getting a lot of streams and followers on social media in Europe, particularly the UK, and would love to line up a tour.

How would you say that the sound of your band has progressed over the years?

When Sunflower Fox started, it was without any real agenda other than we had some great song ideas from Kaity and a set of great players that wanted to take our experiences playing together live into the studio together. Since that initial launch, we have learned much more about how each player creates and contributes. For example, I can 100% guarantee that Kaity will ask at least once in every session for me to write some borderline-ridiculous bridge a la 70s prog rock . . . and that Craig, Kyle, James, and Mike will take whatever I come up with and actually make it work! The band is also starting to bring together songs that showcase our multiple influences, with ideas coming in from everyone. Based on this, we feel that our musical breadth continues to grow every time we hit the studio.

How excited are you for 2024, and what can fans expect from you?

We are very excited for 2024! Sunflower Fox’s first EP will be coming out at around the end of 2023, and we are already planning for the release of another batch of songs throughout 2024. The band has been doing a lot of writing this fall, and we are hoping to get back into the studio again in early 2024!