Scrunchie jumped on Zoom with Foxx Bodies, a rock band originally hailing from Tuscon, Arizona that recently relocated to Los Angeles. Foxx Bodies is composed of Bella, Bailey, Adam, and Matt. Bella does vocals, Bailey plays guitar, Matt plays bass, and Adam plays drums. In this interview, they discuss trauma inspiring their art, finding love and solace in their bandmates, and give some advice for navigating your twenties. They also touch on topics like go-to gas station order, the inspiration behind their song “Chaos Reigns” and upcoming plans now that the pandemic is winding down.
What’s your go-to gas station order?
Adam: Gummy bears.
Bailey: Instant noodles. And making pizza in my mouth with cheese and V8.
Matt: I used to go for V8, but I’m not as much into that anymore. I probably would just get a carbonated water to be honest, which I never thought I do.
Bailey: Matt saying that is a bit of an understatement, because Matt would like bring six packs. Like Matt was on the verge of like, shotgunning V8.
Bella: He would get a V8, and a cold brew, and like six Reese’s peanut butter cups.
Bailey: We were trying to get sponsored by V8, we’re like, we just kept going. It was a weird enough thing. We were like, “No band is trying to do this.” And so we kept like, trying to make fake ads for V8.
Matt: Yeah, we really did that.
Bella: I’m always looking for Hi Ball, which is an energy drink that has no sugar in it. That is phenomenal. If you ever see it, get it. I highly recommend it. And if that’s not there, then I get like, you know, sugar free Red Bull. And then maybe like Hot Cheetos.
Adam: I always get gummy bears for sure. Haribo gummy bears. Like the stars mix. It’s all their best shapes and flavors all in one bag. That’s a pretty good one. But other than gummies I guess whenever there’s like a Cinnabon. Like if there’s weird shit, it’s always in an odd spot we don’t normally see when we’re on the road or whatever. I’ll definitely get like six or seven mini Cinnabons.
Bella: I wanna go on tour. I wanna go to a gas station.
Bailey: I love gas station cuisine.
Recently, you posted about Best Friend Day. What’s something you admire about each of your bandmates?
Adam: Bella and Matt, and in their own ways, are very grounding in the band dynamic. And I definitely take different energies from both of them constantly. And I think Bella and I specifically vibe on like a higher level whereas with Matt it’s being met on a much more chill level. And then Bailey is almost my opposite side of the coin, where all the things that I falter in life and in general, Bailey’s very good at and vice versa. [To Bailey] I don’t know how artistic you are, but—
Bailey: What do you mean? I’m in a band!
Adam: I mean like the visual side.
Bella: Bailey and I have the same drawing skills. It’s like a big stick figure head with hot dog arms.
Adam: Yeah, I can’t stop using my hands on like, graphing and colors and art and stuff like that. And like, I can’t do administrative work or organization shit, whereas Bailey is very good at organizing and very good at getting things done. And I don’t know, for me that’s like, the dynamic that I see for everybody. I feel like there’s also dynamics where it’s like Bella and Bailey together, or Matt and Bailey together, or Bella and Matt together, or whatever. All of those have their own unique little advantages when hanging out as well.
Bella: Bailey and I are earth signs, and Matt and Adam are air signs. So we have all earth and air and there’s just nothing in between. Bailey is a Taurus, I’m a Virgo, Matt’s a Gemini, and Adam’s a Libra. So I feel like that actually plays a lot into what you’re saying. Because I have a lot of similar things to say, because I put a lot of work onto my friendships and onto the people that I know. So I guess like mine are very similar, because I feel like when I’m around Matt, it’s the same thing. It’s like, I have a lot of manic energy. And sometimes it doesn’t seem like I have manic energy, but it’s always there. And I don’t feel like…at least Matt doesn’t show that, or make you feel that way. So it’s nice to be around that. And I feel the same way about Adam and I. I think my favorite thing about all of us as a group is just the factors. I feel like we can just goof around no matter what, and we’ll get in a fight or you know, someone will be yelling at someone. And then 20 minutes later, it’s fine, and we’re watching It’s Always Sunny, and I think it’s because our personalities are so different, but similar in very specific ways. It makes it work really well.
Bailey: There’s a level playing ground we all meet on. Bella and I totally are yin and yang, and Adam is so chaotic. I actually feel like I’m a more grounded, focused person and then Adam is the chaos. So in the way that we butt heads, we also vibe together really well. Even in a way of guitar and drums, does that make sense? It’s like clashing drums.
Bella: We’re very much our instruments. Matt’s like the most… Thank god for Matt in this band. I feel like Bailey and I are very similar, we vibe on the same frequencies. And then Adam and I are opposite, but it’s fun. And then Matt is just the chillest fucking person ever. So it’s like, I feel like all three of us will be spazzing out at each other en masse and then Matt’s just like… chill. And even if he does get mad, or he’s like, “I have something to say and I haven’t said it,” he’s just like, “This is what I think, this is what I feel, this is what I’m seeing. If you don’t want to see that, that’s fine.” That’s like the maximum amount of anger or aggression that is ever going to come from him. And that’s great. Because I feel like the three of us can be a little explosive.
Bailey: Matt’s like a dad, he just wraps his wings around us.
Matt: Yeah, I mean, I think we can get along in a car. And that’s kind of a huge part of being a band. And I think that almost as its own dynamic that shows, in like a non glorious way, like…being able to play on a stage is one thing, but when you see some, like people in a car, it comes down to how well they get along. Yeah, like we just talked about all the gas station food, which we already know about each other and stuff. We’re all different enough where we benefit from each other, but we don’t get on each other’s nerves. It just works. We got lucky.
Bailey: We’ve also all lived together. Like we’ve all been roommates at some point.
Bella: This is the first time since we became a band that none of us live together.
Bailey: I feel like we just learned to interact with each other in so many different ways.
Bella: When Matt was saying like, it just works, I was just thinking about our driving schedule on tour, which is that I always drive through the night and then when the sun is just coming up Bailey starts driving and I sleep in the passenger seat. And anytime we’re in the inner city, Adam is driving, and anytime there’s just a long daytime drive Matt’s driving. It’s like always like that. I don’t want to do any of the things that I’m not doing in this band. It rocks.
Bailey: And then we try to go on tour with like some friends and we’re like, “Y’all don’t drive for 46 hours straight?” and they’re like, “What the fuck is wrong with your band?”.
Your song “Chaos Reigns” touches on themes of resisting conformity and an overbearing relationship. How have you grown comfortable being yourself?
Bella: The people in my life have made it possible. I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot lately. So the relationship that you’re most likely referring to, is something that I, I kind of happened to get out of, like, I wasn’t trying to leave it. It’s kind of like my body was just kind of shutting down because of it. And then I told Bailey about the things that were happening with me in this relationship, and she was the first person I ever told. And she was like, “Um, I’m gonna call the police if you don’t delete his number in front of me right now.”
And I think in a lot of other situations, people shouldn’t do that to each other, but in this specific situation it absolutely saved my life and saved my normalcy. I think that if that hadn’t happened, if people hadn’t entered my life and kind of told me, “Hey, this is not good, I’m telling you from an outsider’s perspective that the things that you’re experiencing are fucked up.” That was kind of the kick off of me just kind of recognizing that if your teachers aren’t your safe people, and the people that let you babysit their kids are not the safe people and like, the adults in your life are the ones that are causing the most pain, like, where do you go from there? And then I got to like, tell Matt, and Matt’s my brother, but he didn’t know that any of this stuff was happening. Because on some level, I knew it was wrong, obviously.
So I was lying about a lot of stuff. But then I got to tell him and it got to be this huge forgiveness, it was like a forgiveness to me, because I felt like I had done something wrong. Because I was lying for so long, I felt like a bad sister, and I felt like I was a bad friend for having lied for so long. And it felt like I was being forgiven for that. When we started this band, it was actually because I was like, really starting to unpack all of this stuff that happened. And I worked with Adam. And he was the only person I told besides my family, but like, I would casually tell people what had happened. And Adam was the only one that was like, “If you tell me where he lives, I’ll burn his house down, like you don’t know me that well yet so it won’t come back to me. Just tell me where he’s at and I’ll burn his house down.” And I was like, “Oh, well you should come over to my house and we should play some music.”
This is a very small example of how these three people helped me deal with that, but it’s just like, I 100% was not alone. I think that I made the decision to feel it, to like, feel the pain, and I braced for it. But other than that, it’s like, there are people all over the place who, you know, go to their mom or go to their friends and they’re like, “Hey, this terrible thing is happening to me” and that person is like, “Well, okay, sorry, but you sound kind of slutty.” That is not what happened to me. And I feel very grateful that I got to be surrounded by people who were like, “Oh fuck that” and also had all of their own shit for all of us to say fuck that too. And I think that’s kind of where that song comes.
Bailey: We’re trauma bonded as hell.
Adam: I also just like, I want to add a little bit also, because I remember when we wrote that song, Bella had asked each one of us about what we thought about religion, and what our viewpoint on religion was. And if we could boil it down to a single phrase, or a word or something like that, that symbolized our feelings behind religious institutions. And I think there’s a lot of talk about like trauma bonding, I think there’s a lot of trauma that people don’t realize that they have, through religious institutions that tell people like, this is how you’re supposed to act, this is how you’re supposed to think, and they inevitably get taken advantage of, in certain ways. I guess I’ll just end it with that I’m a firm believer that the only constant in life and in reality is change. And that nothing ever stays the same. And so you could take from that the chaos does reign, because no matter what, change is happening.
Bella: Can you imagine being so terrified, and so sad that you want to die? And then someone just tells you that? It rocks. It’s fucking awesome. It’s like, okay, yeah, everything is terrible. But like, that’s the thing. It’s terrible. And then it’s not terrible, and doesn’t really matter what you do.
You’ve also posted about new tunes and a big announcement coming in July. Can you drop any more hints, or talk about the recording process for these tunes?
Bailey: We’re going into the studio Sunday, for something in relation. We can’t really say more than that. We recorded an album a minute ago. You know, we’ve been working on this album, and it’s like, we have this album that’s really near and dear to us, that we’re really fucking excited to put out there and it’s gonna happen and we’re really excited to share just all of the stuff we’ve been working on. We’ve got exciting news along with it, and I’m just I think we’re just really stoked to show people all this stuff. It feels like a lot of stuff is finally manifesting itself. And so yeah, I don’t want to say too much about that.
Bella: People are gonna get some music and some fun news in July.
Bella, your vocals are immensely expressive and emotive, making each song sound even more personal and powerful. How did you sort of ‘find your voice’ and come into your vocal style?
Bella: I was very mad. I was very sad. I was very mentally ill. I was very traumatized. And I didn’t know what to do with any of that information. That’s it. I don’t know how any of the vocal stuff happened. I mean, like I’ve always enjoyed singing, I would say, like, choir in high school and stuff. I was actually in varsity choir in high school. So I did know how to use my voice because of musical theater and choir. But then like, after I had the base of all that stuff, it really was just that I wanted to kill myself. And so I was very upset when I was singing and then it came out that way.
Your Indiegogo page mentions how you sing about having to survive your twenties. What’s the most valuable advice you collected in regards to making it through your twenties?
Adam: Don’t do what people tell you to do, do what you love to do. Do whatever you want to do. Because before you realize that that was the thing you wanted to do, it might be too late. So don’t wait. I’m 33. I’m gonna be 34 in October. So I’ve been through the 20s. And I’ve been in my 30s for a minute. And I wish I had played more instruments as a child. I wish that I was able to find the outlets that I needed, like these folks right here, when I was younger. Not to say that I regret anything. I’ve had a pretty good adolescence. Don’t wait to do the things that you love to do. Because before you know it, people are gonna be like, no, like, you need a career too. You need to do this too. And then you won’t have time for it. I guess that’s advice for my 20 year old self.
Matt: I’m about to turn 29. And it’s my last twenties. I think I would say taking care of your body and mind is most important. But also, you’re not getting any younger, so take chances. Like, you know that that advice works. But honestly, taking care of yourself. And learning how that works is probably way more important, but people seem to just try to be all professional. And it’s like, make sure you’re actually okay, though, first. I wish I would have done that. Just enjoying life before I actually dedicated to doing something.
Bailey: I think mine is a combination of fake it till you make it. You don’t have to be good at something. When I was in high school and stuff, like I played guitar, and I never thought I was that good. Like, I would try out for all these dudes bands, and it would be really bad. Even though reflecting back, I was better than all those dudes at guitar, but I let other people’s perception or my own shit in my head make me think I wasn’t worthy. And even when we started this band, it’s like, I’m not the best. I know I’m good at guitar, but I’m not the most phenomenal guitar player. I’m not the most amazing person at everything that I do. But it doesn’t fucking matter. Because I’m still having fun at it. And I’m still successful at it.
You’re never going to be the fucking best at something, even being really good at something, I think is overrated. Like, I think you should practice it. But I think that more than anything, you should just try things, and not be afraid to be bad. I kept not feeling like I was good enough at things, but I just did it. And then I look at all these people around me who were maybe in theory better than me at guitar at whatever, but they just don’t put themselves out there. And it’s like, just go fucking be bad at something and see what comes of it? Because you don’t have to be good at shit to like it. I think about how many times I wrote songs or did all this shit. And I was like, “Oh, it’s not as good as this.” And it’s like, yeah, it doesn’t have to fucking be, or maybe it is, or maybe it’s not. And it’s okay to make music that sounds like shit. Like, it’s okay to fail and fail and fail.
Bella: I guess mine is that I think people need to pay attention to not only what’s going on around them. That just sounds rude, like pay attention. But seriously, pay attention to the way that people make you feel, the way that you feel when you walk into a room, the way that people talk to you, the way you talk to other people. The mistakes that you continue making, like look at them, don’t just be like, “Oh, that’s classic me.” Like take a look at all of the things that are happening. And don’t judge them, but just see them, see the things where you are so that you know what you like, and you know what you don’t like, and you know who you don’t want to be around. And then you’re not spending a bunch of time in a relationship when you’re like, “I don’t even like coming into the room with you. And it feels bad every time but I’m in a relationship, so I’m staying in a relationship.”
I think that that’s something I wish that I did a little sooner. And I wish that I had adult talking to talk to and not let that happen. Also, the only other thing is like, it kind of goes along with that. But not reacting to things, just taking things in and then deciding, making decisions and responding, but not just reacting to things because that’s where a lot of my manic decision making came in it was like, “Oh, something happened.” And instead of looking at it and seeing oh, why is why is this making me feel the way that it is? It was just like, “Oh, I’m like excessively drinking and like hurting myself and hurting other people.” And I just I’m happy to know now that like, I just need to take it in. And like, if I want to do something that’s bad for me and bad for other people. I need to like figure out why before I do it. It’s really weird that you’re all of a sudden in your own life and you’re supposed to know how to do it.
Your self-titled LP really packs a punch while also remaining incredibly honest and open about your experiences. What goes through your mind when you prepare to release new songs into the world that touch on the more vulnerable parts of your life?
Bella: Honestly, I’m really happy about it. Because it’s, it’s a thing that no one did to me. Like the first album is really great. And it’s raw and whatnot. But that still sucks to rehash to save up songs, to listen to, all that stuff. It still sucks because it’s trauma. And the second album is just a different type of trauma. And it’s a trauma that like no one did to me. So it’s like, it’s trauma that every time I feel like I perform it, I get to kind of deal with it a little bit more. And in a way that keeps making me a better person. So I guess that’s how I feel. I don’t really feel like I’m going to be embarrassed or anything.
Matt: I think there’ll be some relief, I guess. People always ask me about like, “Oh, what’s Foxx Bodies up to?” And I’m like, “Mm, we got some stuff, you know?”. I think it will be a nice breath of fresh air like to be able to say like, “This is a long time coming, I’m proud of everything that I’ve got on this record, and I want to share with the world.” I mean, I’m, you know, I’m the drummer. I don’t say anything at all, even in banter. I’m in the back, you know.
Bella: But there are parts of the first album that you and I were like, this is fucked up. Like I did this wrong. Like, I listened to the first album. I’m like, my voice is fake.
Adam: I had to transfer everything into double bass, like for shows and stuff like that, because we recorded and I didn’t even have a double bass pedal. So a lot of I yeah, I understand now, when like, artists are like, “Oh, this album is just a snapshot” because like, we’ve evolved since then. I think there’s so many sentimental snapshots in within our album that like I don’t like, personally between us four or at least, with myself, that like, those small details that like we experienced while recording, and just the whole event itself was a huge experience. Even if we were to re-record it, like let’s say something got, like, totally destroyed, or something like that. And we had to re-record everything, it wouldn’t be the same. Because there’s things on there that I don’t know if we could ever reproduce. So like, a lot of it is very special, I guess.
Bailey: I’m excited because I feel like I love our first record. But like we recorded it, like, I feel like we were a band for a week. And our buddy was like, “I’m in my living room, we’re gonna record it on this Tascam.” And we kept having to redo cuts because we were recording over a classical reel to reel tape.
Bella: They sent me “Do you want to do harmonies on any of the songs?” and I was like, “I don’t know how to do that.”
Bailey: It’s like you’re saying, Adam, it’s like, it’s such a snapshot. And I wouldn’t change that first record. I mean, I would, but I wouldn’t. I think I’m so excited for this record to come out because it feels like it just feels like…when I listen to it, it’s what we are as a band. It’s like, “Oh, this is what we sound like in my head.” And our first record is like when you think he’s really good, and then you listen back to your phone, you’re like, “Oh, fuck.” The new record is what we sound like, what I think we sound like, and I’m so jazzed for people to hear it because it’s so big. It’s really pumping. It’s who we are, but it feels like a gimmick. Like when they remaster stuff and they’re like, “Music the way it was meant to be heard!”.
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