Watching for Foxes: Story-telling through the lens of harmony-driven folk-rock (Story, podcast, video)

The emerging Grand Rapids band already has won a fan-based competition and recently added singer-instrumentalist Olivia Mainville to its lineup. The group plays The Pyramid Scheme on Friday.

 

Sometimes, it’s a musical match made in heaven.

When Holland singer and multi-instrumentalist Olivia Mainville first heard folk-rock’s Watching for Foxes perform as part of Grand Haven’s Walk the Beat event this summer, she found the quartet’s approach “refreshing.”

“They had a bit of a different sound than the rest of the bands playing at the event,” she recalls.
Within two months, Mainville had not only joined the band but developed almost instant friendships with singer Joey Frendo, guitarist Jared Meeuwenberg, drummer Brandon Harris and celloist Max Morrison.

“They’re all incredibly kind guys,” raves the 18-year-old “gypsy swing folk” musician, who still performs as a solo artist and as a duo with a standup bassist. “So far, things are going great. Just a couple nights ago, we went apple-picking at 4 a.m. and then Jared read us bedtime stories at 5 a.m. This was, of course, after a five-hour rehearsal.”

Refreshing, indeed.

TAKING TOP HONORS AT WALK THE BEAT AND PREPARING TO RECORD ANOTHER CD

Over the past several months, Watching for Foxes has worked to make its mark on West Michigan’s growing folk-revival scene with its striking harmonies and incisive, rootsy lyrics, following in the wake of national acts such The Decemberists, The Head and The Heart, Fleet Foxes, The National and Trampled by Turtles.

The band even won the top prize, selected through public voting, at that Walk the Beat event in August, earning them studio recording time at Bill Chrysler’s Chrysler Audio in Grand Haven.

On Wednesday, all five band members stopped by the studios of News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW) to talk about their music and perform the song, “Howl,” on the air as part of Local Spins Live. Listen to the podcast here, and watch a video below of that exclusive performance (and see if you can catch Mainville rushing in late to swoop up her violin and start playing without missing a beat).

“Howl” appears on the group’s debut EP, “The Watchmen,” which was released last May, and the band is now starting work on a follow-up recording with Chrysler. On Friday night, Watching for Foxes will open for Oregon punk-bluegrass outfit Larry and His Flask at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids. Tickets to the 7 p.m. show are $12 in advance and $14 the day of the show; get tickets online here.

With roots in Fremont where the foursome attended Fremont High School, the musicians reconnected “magically” last December in the Grand Rapids area, recently adding Mainville to the fold.

“It really happened at the right time and we all just kind of found each other at the right time and got interested in this genre of music at the same time,” says Frendo, who concedes that the rural nature of the Fremont area where he and his bandmates grew up gives their music a “landscape-based” flavor.

Frendo also considers himself a musical “nerd,” embracing life stories told through song, with the “gamut of emotions” that these tales generate.

“I love the genre of story-telling and the whole idea of being able to tell a story is really big for me,” Frendo says. “There’s nothing more important than being able to tell stories and it’s really attractive for people now to have those stories set to music that tells a story in itself.”

For more information about the band and to listen to its music, visit watchingforfoxes.bandcamp.com online or check out its Facebook page at facebook.com/watchingforfoxes.

Copyright 2014, Spins on Music LLC