Photo by Pip
By DCist Contributor Caroline Baxter
Put Feist, Andrew Bird, and a dash of the Be Good Tanyas in a blender, top with a chilled distillation of Nina Simone vocals, and you get Phox. Created by a group of six long-time friends from the town of Baraboo, Wisconsin (population about 12,000), Phox is quickly generating serious buzz and a committed following. Soon after the band released their first album, “Phox,” they performed on Conan, had NPR call their song “Slow Motion” one of the best of the year; and they’ll be playing Coachella and Bonnaroo this summer. Before they do, they’re swinging by D.C.’s venerable 9:30 Club on Thursday. DCist spoke with guitarist and trumpeter Matthew Holmen to understand what makes them so great—and what’s up with that weird pre-show chant they do.
DCist: This is your first time playing—not to mention headlining—the 9:30 Club. Are you excited? Nervous?
Matthew Holmen: So excited. Our producer, Brian Josephs, he has one of the best sets of ears, and he said that the 9:30 is the best venue for sound. He’s Bon Iver’s engineer, so that’s saying something.
DCist: You’ve played big venues, like Lollapalooza, and small venues, like The Hamilton in D.C. What have been your favorite venues you’ve played at so far?
MH: The best venue we’ve played was a recent one—we just played the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee. That can be a tough place to play because you’re not going to Wisconsin on your way anywhere. You’re going there to go there. It’s taken a lot for venue owners and promoters to attract cool bands and audiences, and the guys at Pabst have done that. Also Sean Moeller at [the website] Daytrotter has created a lot of pull for the Midwest, so it’s definitely happening. We’ve also had great luck in Nashville, too—and they have a cold crowd, one of the coldest. They’re all just evaluating your use of pedal.
DCist: Things really took off after you released your first album. Do you still feel like a small band few people have heard of, or are you getting used to being a band that headlines the 9:30? Do you worry about getting “too big?”
MH: So, here’s a thing that happened. We were in Green Bay, right before the [NFL] playoff game, and we were asked to go to a private dinner catered by a private chef. It was a 20-course meal, the menu had “Phox” on it—we had oysters and fois gras and lamb and crab and salmon, special chevre cheese—and we were like, “okay, this is awesome.” We ate until we were sick. And then, next morning, you wake up groggy in the hotel, and you get on the road, and you stop at the QuikTrip, and you get the one hotdog that’s still in its rotisserie thing, and you all fight for it, and it falls on the ground. But you put some mustard on it and you eat it anyway. So basically, we’re not used to one thing or the other—it’s a constant back and forth.
DCist: Do you have a pre-show ritual for good luck?
MH: We’ve been doing the same thing since our first show four years ago—it’s a pure nonsense gesture. We put our hands in the middle and say, “one, two, three—folic acid!” Before that, Jason—he used to coach youth soccer—gives us a coach speech that can be something like, “let’s go out there and let’s kick the shit out of that other band!” One time before a show we were huddled up with a singer from the other band and Jason said that and the guy was like, “Hey!”
DCist: We’ve heard that no one in the band is allowed to say no to an idea. Is that true?
MH: Yeah. The idea behind that is that you don’t know how something is going to work until you’ve tried it; you can have an opinion, but not until you’ve given it a fair shake. If you were to listen to our earliest recordings, we’re stepping on each other’s toes—everyone is trying to grab at the spotlight. Over the years, we’ve learned how to not do that. Our original mission was to become better people, and the music would somehow follow that—that it was a by-product of our group of friends hanging out. And when we’re at our best, that’s true.
DCist: Your instrumentation is gorgeous. On “Noble Heart,” there is a clarinet solo, then the Queen-style guitar solo, and then it all gets wrapped into a ’60’s-era girl-group beat. How do you know when you’ve gotten the mix right?
MH: You’ve touched on the great question of “what is a song,” which is a running gag with us, since I tend to be overly philosophical about it. If you didn’t have that clarinet solo, it’d still be the same song, but… we try not to be too anal about it, but we love experimenting, and this first album has been a long process.
DCist: Why should D.C. come to see you at the 9:30 Club?
MH: We had a funny moment when we were playing “Blue and White” the other night. It got incredibly heavy; everyone was hushed. And then my guitar strap broke and my guitar fell to the floor and howled with reverb. Monica tried to keep singing but couldn’t keep from laughing, and soon Matteo was on the floor. So I’d say that the thing we do well is that we’re adaptive and admit that we’re people and not act like the rock star stereotype. We’re real people. We’re not holograms.
Phox is Matthew Dennis Holmen, Jason Sean Krunnfusz , Dave Raven Roberts, Zachary Sonntag Jonton, Matteo Trou Roberts, Monica Martin. They play the 9:30 Club Thursday, February 12th. Tickets are $15
