Q&A with Monica Martin of ​Phox

Look “Phox” up on YouTube. Watch and listen. There, that should be enough to convince folks to attend the up-and-coming indie/artsy pop band’s concert Wednesday night at The Aquarium.

It’s lead singer Monica Martin’s glorious singing voice. It’s the band’s rich back-up harmonies. It’s the titillating instrumentation accompanying Martin’s memorable main melodies. It’s the amalgamation of all those things, and then some, that’s turning Phox into everyone’s favorite new band – everyone meaning anyone who’s experienced its music.

All within the past year Phox has performed at Coachella and South by Southwest and has been featured on “Conan” and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, among many other significant programs.

Martin answered questions from HPR, via email, and she informed us about Phox’s music, new material and interest in the behavior domestic cats.

High Plains Reader: One thing I appreciate about Phox is its orchestrations, as I like to call them, because they are tastefully elaborate. And they match your singing style so beautifully. Can you take us through the approach your band has to coming up with these gems of ideas?

Monica Martin: Well, thank you so much! So a lot of these songs came together when we all lived together in Madison, Wis. I’m writing the skeleton of the song, or melody and lyrics. Occasionally, I just have verse and chorus, and Matteo or Zach help me with bridge chords and I’ll sing melody over it. Everyone is multi-instrumental and has a fairly wide-spanning taste in music, so lots of ideas are floating about; while I’d be in the piano room with Matteo, Zach would be writing string parts in his room, Matt would making midi guitar parts in his, Jason would be constructing harmonies and bass lines, and Davey in his dungeon considering drums and space travel … and after all that, a collision would happen in our living room … and then there is a long rolling reduction of parts and ego. Or, it’s as convoluted as my explanation. Ha!

Phox must be a fairly new project considering you have just one record out. What were your musical/performing experiences like before Phox?

Everyone had different relationships with music growing up. The brothers Davey Roberts (drums, audiotech) and Matteo Roberts (keys, vocals) grew up studying both classical piano and cello. Jason Krookedfoot (Krunnfusz) (bass, vocals) comes from a musical family, his mom a dance teacher and his dad a choir teacher, and was in bands from an early age, mostly hardcore until this point. Matt Holmen (guitar, trumpet) was in a punk band in high school with Florian Zach Elder (banjo, film director) and I played the trombone in the marching band and sang in private places.

Phox's band interests include "The behavior of domestic cats," according to your Facebook page. Please explain this.

HAHA. We just really like cats. Our ageless overlord, Hautey/little chocolate cat, actually writes the songs and sings them in the studio. We’re just her puppets; glad to be.

Phox's new release "Never Lover" kicks ass. Why release it the way you did -- through the North Shore Sessions?

Oh man! Thank you. It was maybe going to be on the record, it just never made it on. We released it with North Shore Sessions because they’re cool folks, and as we started playing it more on the road, it seemed a decent version should be out in the web/series of tubes.

Any other future releases we can look forward to?

Of course! It will be some time … we’ve been touring so much that it’s hard to have a moment of stillness to write. In many ways, our last record was rushed, and that’s not going to happen this time. I’m going to plant the hopeful seed of an early summer 2016 release.

If so, what's been changing or progressing, specifically from the last record?

My very slender grasp on ideas of what might be different, considering the songs I’ve been writing and are still very much in utero, are that I want to fall a bit more into a groove with some songs, not have the songs feel as segmented, and refine the structures a bit more for clarity.

Are there any ways you'd say that Phox is characteristic of Wisconsin?

Hm. I’m not sure. We’re very much six people from Wisconsin. I’m glad they continue to have us. We went out in Baraboo (our hometown of 13,000) last night and there was free pool and Jameson drinks for like 3 dollars … and as we’ve been talking to each other about potentially moving to dodge winter weather and be in a more culturally diverse city and/or musical mecca we had a few laughs thinking about how it could be a huge mistake to leave our pretty lakes, cheap housing and simple joys.

Because "1936" is my personal favorite (it's so magnificent), can you break that particular song down? It's meaning, origins, approach, what have you?

It’s about my family, and you’ll have to forgive me for being vague for that reason. I wrote the melody in our unfinished basement because it was so dang hot outside. I knew at that point it was going to be about my family, and lyrics trickled out over time. It’s largely about a conversation that turned into an argument that I had with my sister about our family, and coping with dealing with it all together. She ends up bringing me a lot of peace in an otherwise messy atmosphere.

IF YOU GO:

Phox w/ Into the Lake

Wed, May 20, 9 p.m.

The Aquarium, 226 Broadway$10 adv at Orange Records and Ticketweb.com