I missed their debut performance at 2010’s Foburg music festival. I caught chunks of their set at Saturn Bar when they followed Man/Miracle (remember that entertaining post?) Friday I got another chance to bask in the mellow-ish sounds of local lovelies, Vox and the Hound. Where southern subtleties seesaw with folk-friendly psychedelia and modern indie – their first EP Hermosa (Jan., 2011) is somehow music ideally matched to all four seasons.
With dozens of shows behind them and pre-production underway for a second album, the good ole’ boys of Vox And The Hound had a drink with me in the backyard of Carrollton Station, complete with heavy humidity and spilled drinks.
Our players tonight are Leo DeJesus (Vocals/Guitar/Percussion), D Ray (Keys/Trombone/Vocals), Rory Callais (Guitar/Vocals), Andrew Jarman (Bass/Vocals), and Eric Rogers (Drums).
Let’s get down to brass tacks. I loved Hermosa, which you recorded at Living Room Studio. Looking back on that process, size up your experience in the last year with all the new songwriting.
Rogers: With Hermosa we wanted to get a very raw, very organic sound and with that studio it’s a big open room. It’s an old church. It made it very earthy. In contrast with the next record we’re kind of taking a leap forward from that. It’s gonna be more, not synthetic…
Callais: But the sounds will be treated. And they record to analog tape which is more of a rarity these days. It sounds very warm.
In minute one these boys are clearly finishing each other’s thoughts.
DeJesus: The original sounds that we’re gonna try and get are going to be a little more unusual.
Callais: Sounds that we’re not necessarily creating live at this point. I can say from my end, from a guitar standpoint – those songs were very “plug into the amp, maybe a little delay, maybe a little this or that.” This will be a lot more overdrive distortion-fuzz, so it’s a lot more involved.
DeJesus: We’re gonna have strings, woodwinds…
Rogers: We spent a lot more time with pre-production on this next record. We’ve been dissecting every song. It’s a change of pace. We want to make something that’s different from the last record. It would be very easy to just play the songs with the instruments we have and make it sound just really natural and cool. It would probably be great that way, but we wanted to take it a step further.
DeJesus: The songs we did for Hermosa lend themselves to very pretty, earthy and clear-sounding recordings. The music now that we’ve been putting together is a little more driving and angry, making them sound less natural.
Callais: There’s a little bit of nervousness because it’s gonna sound so different from Hermosa. At the same time we’re very confident that this is going to be a really good record.
How do you feel both your last release and the as-yet-untitled one fit into the New Orleans scene as a whole and what’s going on locally?
Rogers: What is going on?
Callais: That’s a loaded question!
Rogers: That’s a really cool question. It depends on what neighborhood you’re in.
Callais: I think there’s so many great bands, but right now some bands will sound more contrived than others, and some bands just fit in with their own niche. I think we’ll find our way to be right in the middle. We’re pushing the envelope, doing something that nobody else is doing. We’re going to put out a record that’s gonna sound better than what everybody else is doing.
If your next release is dirtier and filled with more angst, is there a running theme or general concept with this new collection of songs?
DeJesus: It’s not necessarily a concept, but a lot of the songs are inspired by breakups. We’ve also noticed, accidentally, there’s a lot of family and parent terminology and themes. It just happened to be what we wanted to write about in the last few months.
If you recall my last post of 2011, I put Micah McKee (Empress Hotel, Little Maker), on the spot with questions about how he manages being in more than one musical project. I’m still not convinced. Where musicians having multiple side projects is commonplace, what happens when someone has to take time off from one of those projects? Rogers plays in Empress Hotel. D Ray is in Fatter Than Albert. Callais is involved with The Green Genes. What will Vox And The Hound tell me?
Rogers: There have been moments of that in the history of the band, like last summer D Ray toured for well over a month. In the fall I had to go on tour with my other band. Whenever I was away, they couldn’t finish this fucking tune, but as soon as I get back the song is done. Having all five of us in a room is a different dynamic than any band I’ve been involved with. Writing comes so naturally.
Callais: Whenever we’re trying to write a song and one member is not there, it never seems to be going anywhere.
DeJesus: We always hit a wall.
Callais: As soon as that fifth guy comes back, within twenty minutes the song’s done.
D Ray: It’s very peculiar. And the songs stay relatively the same from that point on. It’s almost unnatural how easy it is to write with this band.
Photo: Bradd Cluckey
DeJesus: It just recently happened. We were hitting a wall with this one song, which we’re actually opening with tonight called “Slingshot.” We decided to sleep on it, came back the next week with one little idea – suddenly the song is great. I was expecting us to labor away to save this song from wherever we drove it to, but the song was done.
Rogers: When Empress Hotel got signed to Park The Van, I mean, that’s cool and everything. I think there’s a mentality to be in this and do this for the rest of our lives. If one of us got an opportunity, one not with this band, I think we’d all be very proud of that individual. “Oh, you got signed to Sub Pop? Hey dude, get the fuck out of here!” The band that’s playing right now, King Rey, had Jonathan Allen as the drummer, and he got an opportunity to go play bass for Pepper Rabbit. All they had to say was, “Dude, get the hell out of here, go tour! We’ll figure it out.” Every one of their members has been the singer at some point, which is crazy, but they somehow always put out a good product.
DeJesus: My mindset was that when Eric gets back, see what his attitude is. If Eric still wants to be a part of this band, then Eric’s still a part of this band. If he doesn’t, we will then decide if we will replace him or just keep going without him. If someone is doing something that will seriously hinder the progress of Vox And The Hound, but they still want to be in Vox And The Hound, then this is what Vox And The Hound has to be. This is the five people that we want. It has to stay in each of our lives where it’s supposed to be. And if it’s the vehicle that carries us five, awesome. If it’s a side project while people are doing more successful things, as long as we’re still creating and doing what we want to do, it’s all good.
Callais: This is the least stressful band I’ve been in, and also the most successful and gratifying. Gratifying being the key word here. There’s an effortless quality to it. Define success however you will.
DeJesus: I can’t really recall a song that we’ve written and thrown away. This band is so prolific. It’s always something that we want to play.
Rogers: I think the way that this band works together, success is the only thing that can happen, because it’s so peculiar in the way that it works so well. It’s seems obvious that it will be successful.
Callais: These four guys are my best friends. If they were out of my life I’d be devastated.
Enter the collective “Awwww’s!”
Jarman: I don’t have a statement. I concur with everything they say. We’ve always felt very comfortable out of nowhere… and it’s always been really nice.
I recently watched this lecture from TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), where it was suggested that Apple sells more of its products than its competitors simply because the company always told us why they made the products they made, rather than just informing us of their features. Now that I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Vox And The Hound, I would go so far as to say they are essentially the Apple of the New Orleans music scene. And let me tell you, it’s been awhile since I’ve been pumped over an interview, but I walked away feeling invigorated with ideas of a Vox And The Hound Record Release Listening Party. Hint, hint.
