Despite working with three fellow musicians on the EP, Fox is committed to maintaining an approach that allows her to work effectively as a solo performer in a live setting. “I use a loop pedal for my live performance,” she says. “I tried to keep the same structure as I would do if I did the songs live, but in the studio you can fatten it out a bit. I don’t want to go too far away from what I do live.” Comparing the EP to her debut album Fox says, “I think it’s got more of a solid feel to it. The songs have all the same instruments, while on Unprotected Grounds there were a lot of different sounds going on in different songs. My Own Happy Ending is more sonically together. I’ve grown up a little bit since Unprotected Grounds so I like to think that my writing might have gotten a little bit better.”
Part of Fox’s charm as a performer lies in the honesty of both her writing and delivery. “There’s a really popular saying in country music: ‘all it takes to write a country song is three chords and the truth’. I think it’s the honesty that I really love about country music,” she says. Speaking about the EP, she provides a neat example of this honesty in action. “It sounds very angry,” she says. “It’s a pretty angry EP. It’s about the more upsetting side of relationships. I’m a very personal songwriter. I write about things that happen to me. It just happened that these are the songs that I wrote when I was going through a rough patch in the relationship department.”
The natural and unaffected nature of Fox’s approach is perhaps a consequence of her immersion in music from an early age. “I grew up in a very big musical family so I was always around it,” she says. “When I was 15 I was really into Taylor Swift. She wrote her own songs. I went to one of her concerts and I [thought] ‘this is what I want to do.’ I enlisted the help of my Mum who grew up as a musician and still works as one. Those two influences really shaped me. Growing up in a musical family really helped me to see it for what it is, [rather than] a big illusion. I got to see the real side of it. My Mum plays Irish music. She has been in Irish pub bands so I grew up listening to a bit of Celtic music as well.”
Like many other great roots musicians, Fox loves to grab the opportunity to take her music to the public rather than relying solely on official gigs. “I’m actually going out to busk today,” she says.” I really like that [when you are busking] you get to see the city and a whole bunch of people. You get to meet really cool people who will come up and talk to you. It’s a really cool and unconventional way to get your music out to people.”
If you don’t get a chance to catch Fox busking, it would be a good idea to head along to her EP launch on October 19. “I hope to make it a really fun show,” she says. “It will be a chilled and laid-back Sunday afternoon gig so people can come on down and relax and listen to some music.”
BY GRAHAM BLACKLEY
