Foxhunting (AKA Joe) only played his first gig in November 2010, at Aberdeen's Musa and, since then, has self-released several singles and an EP.
And after spending some time with a local music producer, his debut album was recorded just in time for him to relocate to Australia for a year.
But we managed to get hold of him for a track-by-track guide to" Come On Sweetheart, Take My Hand".
Track One: Know
"Stop being so hard on yourself / I know / I still know"
Foxhunting: Know was one of the two tracks I wrote while I was actually in the studio and recording other stuff. It was just something we came up with while messing around and waiting for other things to work, and eventually decided to play about with loops and little bits and pieces. The resulting mishmash of stuff sounded quite nice, so with a bit of tweaking it was crafted into the opener. The lyrics over the top were put in afterwards with a Mac microphone on a bed in Perth.
ABZ: The song is very instrumental, with only one line running through it. Why did you choose to keep it light on the lyrics?
Foxhunting: The song's very loopy, since we decided that the album would be "bookended" by two instrumentals. "Now" [Track 10] is much the same, if I'm honest. This was originally due to not having enough time to do as many songs as I had planned.
Track Two: December
"Never thought that we'd get this far"
Foxhunting: To be honest, I wrote the song so long ago I don't recall how it came about. It's a song about going for a walk with someone you love, and being so disinterested with life as you knew it before that walk and before meeting that person that you just walk for as long as you are able. It hasn't changed too much, since most of my basic songwriting gets fixed up as I'm writing it; it's difficult to alter stuff you have written in the past, in a certain mindset. The only real differences between the new recording and my demo is that it's to a beat, it's a little slower and has a more electronic influence.
ABZ: What's your favourite line in the song?
Foxhunting: I really like singing "But I won't wake you yet!" live. Has a sort of pent-up, urgent quality that's fun to just lose yourself with.
Track Three: Little Song, or, Outer Space
"We're so far away / It's like we're in outer space"
Foxhunting: Little Song wasn't a very difficult song to write, which was odd as it came following a long period of writer's block. The original was very slow, then I sped it up for playing live, before it got slow again during recording - a lot of the album is at a lower tempo than I was expecting it to be. The song itself is pretty simple, about being trapped in a certain scenario and not being able to get yourself out of it or to tell anyone about it. The effect Iain [MacPherson, who produced the album at Bedford Records] applied to the guitar was too good not to put in - a swirling mesh of reverb-soaked strumming, while the vocals, too, got the echo treatment. It helps aid the feeling of distance the song is trying to convey.
ABZ: Several of the songs on the album have alternate titles, where did the two for this song come from?
Foxhunting: I gave the song an alternate title as "Little Song" was just something I came up with in five minutes. "Outer Space" suits the sound of the song a lot better, but it's up to the listener which they prefer.
Track Four: Damocles
"Come on sweetheart, take my hand"
Foxhunting: Damocles is one of the songs not really written from a personal point of view, rather channeling the view of a lot of people my age. It's basically a song about wanting to progress a relationship faster than one really should, and being considered too "young" to do so. It's using the mythical thing as a metaphor, in that sense, of time being against you.
ABZ: And just for those who don't know, what is the mythical "Damocles"?
Foxhunting: Damocles (or rather, the Sword of Damocles) is a phrase coined in Greek times and in modern-day English it alludes to mounting pressure - a sword hanging over one's head - on those in power. For instance, Shakespeare made use of it: "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown"
ABZ: The album's title comes from a line in this song, why did you decide these words were the best fit for your work?
Foxhunting: I won't lie to you, the words just jumped out at me as something to name the album. I could have picked any other lyric, but that one was the best, in my opinion.
Track Five: Blood, or, And I Was Right
"I look up at the trees, the leaves have all turned red / The sun rises behind them, summer isn't dead"
ABZ: Blood is a track you've played to a lot of audiences in Aberdeen, is it one of your favourites to perform live?
Foxhunting: Not to play, no - I more enjoy the more active, strumming songs as opposed to the slower, finger-picked ones. The meaning of the song is very cryptic and came to me during a charity walk aged around 15, but I think most interpretations will be able to transfer the hopeful nature of the song.
ABZ: This is another song where you've given the listeners the choice of two titles, which of them do you prefer?
Foxhunting: I personally prefer "Blood", since that's the one I used when first writing the song. "And I Was Right" is purely to convey the hopeful nature of the song in a more clear-cut way that "Blood" doesn't.
Track Six: La chasse, or, The Hunt, or, Echo! Echo!
"Always have and I always will / Loved you then and I love you still"
Foxhunting: La chasse has been around for a while now, in reality. It was written as an attempt to bridge two different songs together during a guitar lesson I had a few years ago. This new recording is a completely different kettle of fish to the demo, and to be honest I much prefer the faster, demo version. The song itself is using the metaphor of a fox hunt ("la chasse" being French for "the hunt") to present a couple unable to escape persecution for being together.
ABZ: So why did you decide to include this slower version of the song on the album?
Foxhunting: It's professionally recorded, and as such it falls in line with the album's flow. The demo version would see a lo-fi spike on the album, which would be good if it were all lo-fi; it isn't, really, so it wouldn't fit. Which is a shame.
ABZ: I can see why you included the English translation of "La chasse" as an alternate title, but where did "Echo! Echo!" come from?
Foxhunting: That's a lyric from the end section, referencing the bells of a cathedral. I won't lie, I just wanted to put an exclamation mark on the back of the album.
Track Seven: Cuervito
"If it's such a bore then why are you so still on the ocean floor?"
Foxhunting: This is another song written during the month I spent in the studio. The piano part came about from me mucking around on Garageband on the laptop, experimenting with sub bass and overlaying piano. Iain got a hold of it and added the rattling drum loop and just gave the song a bit more oomph. The lyrics are the best on the album, as far as I'm concerned, and are more imagery-based than meaning-based. I'm just really proud of them, and I think they really fit the mood of the song.
Track Eight: National Park, or, Yellowstone
"Who's laughing now? / Who's laughing now? / On my knees by your feet, I gain a better view somehow"
ABZ: Some of your song titles are quite obscure, is this song actually about Yellowstone?
Foxhunting: In a sense, yes. The song was written hypothetically from the point of view of someone inside Yellowstone National Park, but it was written a long time ago - some of the lyrics are just there to hold rhymes together, and so on, and they sort of stuck. One verse I wrote while waiting to perform the song at a talent show, in those five nerve-wracking minutes. Musically, the song's ending is longer than it maybe should be, but the overlay at the end I really like.
Track Nine: Wolverines, or, This Isn't Happening!
"I wanted to take every one of your dreams / And through each one in turn to the wolverines"
Foxhunting: "Wolverines" is probably the only song on there written in a bad mood, and it probably shows. It's basically a vent directed at some anonymous person, but done in an overly metaphorical and imagery-based way, not truly a personal take. This, cleaner version of the song doesn't really have the visceral edge the original demo had (which is true of all songs, I suppose) which is a shame, but the verse riff is far more pronounced and almost - almost - balances it out.
ABZ: Why did you choose to write about wolverines in this song?
Foxhunting: Wolverines came to me while working. They're able to - and regularly do - take on beasts well out of their league and win due to sheer determination and viciousness.
Track Ten: Now
ABZ: You mentioned that the first and last tracks on the album act as bookends, how does "Now" compliment "Know"?
Foxhunting: Both are instrumental for the most part. "Now" definitely takes a lot more from tribal vocals and things with lots of strange percussion and stuff. It came about from messing around with a loop pedal and my laptop at about 1am one bored morning, and we decided to try and replicate the sound again through Ableton. The result was odd, but seems to work.
"Come On Sweetheart, Take My Hand" by Foxhunting is released on Foxhunting's Bandcamp on October 22.
