To some it may seem like Fox Glove is long overdue for their turn in the spotlight as The Zone’s Band of the Month, but they think the timing couldn’t have been better. Rocktographers met up with Claire Butterfield, Chelsea Kanstrup, Renn Madeleine Bibeau, and Renn’s dog Beau on release day of debut full length album, Jessie. They dug deep into the mysteries of #ExcitedTired, blep, and the mythical spatchcock chicken.
Rocktographers would also like to thank the fine folks at The Room at Uptown for letting us getting balls deep in their colourful ballpit for this Band of the Month promo photo session.
Tyson Elder: Congratulations on the new record, Jessie.
Fox Glove: Thank you!
TE: How has release day been?
Fox Glove: [laughter]
Claire Butterfield: I’m very excited and I’m very tired.
Chelsea Kanstrup: #ExcitedTired
Claire: #ExcitedTired
Chelsea: The support has been really wonderful; especially from the local community. It’s been overwhelming and exciting.
Renn Madeleine Bibeau: It’s been wonderful seeing people rally around the album and to getting to finally share it.
TE: I had a chance to listen to the whole thing today on my drive down here from my office.
Renn: And?
Claire: You probably got to listen to it twice.
TE: The album finished just as I pulled into my parking spot. It was well timed. There parts of the album that I found very soulful. The harmonies in Dear John felt almost like old soul revival.
Renn: Dear John is quite soulful.
TE: It was really refreshing. It’s not often you hear that sound in Victoria music.
Fox Glove: Thank you.
TE: Also, it’s hard to not mention this, but it is about time that Fox Glove is The Zone’s Band of The Month.
Fox Glove: [laughter]
Renn: When we tell people, they’re like “what?”
Chelsea: I had a couple people ask me “weren’t you Band of the Month last year? Didn’t you do that like four years ago?” The answer is, no. Well… sort of.
Renn: To be fair I feel like we didn’t have anything that would have been on The Zone or if we did it would have been a huge stretch for the listeners. I think The Zone is opening their doors a little bit to new genres now. They are trying some interesting things, and I think we have the material that is fits a better.
TE: I think it’s great that you were able to pair it up with your album release
Claire: Absolutely, that’s just a lucky thing. I feel like we waited to be Band of the Month for a reason. The universe made us wait for a reason. This is the perfect moment for it. We really appreciate The Zone’s support and the timing of it. Dylan Willows is a hero.
TE: He’s everybody’s hero.
Renn: What do you want to know, Tyson? You know so much about us you could really just make up anything and we would just sign off on the interview.
TE: I might just do that.
Chelsea: You can just make it all up, Tyson. Something like “Fox Glove going to the moon next month.” How do you feel about that?
TE: Fox Glove just got back from a Vancouver Island tour. How was that?
Chelsea: Yes! It was so lovely.
TE: I know you did some interesting things on this tour. You had local artists from the communities Fox Glove was playing in come to perform a few songs and tell stories about those songs.
Renn: The good ol’ songs and stories tour.
Fox Glove: [laughs]
Renn: You did your research, Tyson.
TE: [whispers] I just remember you telling me this during our Band of the Month photo shoot.
Chelsea: At each show we had usually 2-3 local singer/songwriters we invited out. They played 2-3 songs each in succession, and each would tell the story of their song. Either about the songwriting process, how they wrote it, or whatever they felt like talking about.
Renn: It was amazing.
Chelsea: It was cool hearing how people write songs, but really interesting for the audience to get that behind the scenes look at how songs are made. After we’d play our album from start to finish acoustically and told the whole story of Jessie. It’s a concept album. We’d talk about how it came to be and the story of this character as she moves through these songs.
Renn: I really enjoyed having the in the round performances open up our show. It got people primed for what we were going to do. We did one show with Alexandria Maillot. She’s incredible. Every time I see Alex perform I’m reminded that she has something extremely special.
TE: Speaking of Alexandria Maillot… How was Tobias?
Renn: OH MY GOD! So cute.
Chelsea: He’s the best.
Renn: He comes in… he’s just a little bean. You have no idea if he is an elder or fresh out.
Claire: He’s 12 years old!
TE: The first time I met Tobias he had his whole little head in Alexandria’s glass of water. That’s when I decided I needed to meet this dog.
Renn: He’s so charming. He just sits there with Alex’s mom like a little prince. So lovely.
Claire: What a dog.
Renn: Tobias just had a bit of dental work done so he has a bit of the tongue that won’t stay in his mouth.
Claire: I learned what that’s called! I showed Dougal a picture of Tobias, and he was like “Oh, he has a blep.”
TE: What’s a blep?
Claire: Look up #blep on Instagram.
Renn: What’s wild is when they loose their teeth their jaws start to deteriorate so that’s why their tongue sticks out.
Claire: [starts searching #blep on Instagram].
TE: How do you spell blep?
Claire: B L E P.
This commences a 5 minute break of looking at #blep photos on our phones.
Renn: Oh, Beau had a blep.
Chelsea: They are so good.
Claire: There was a piglet one.
TE: Amazing [looking at a piglet blep].
Claire: [laughing] I look at this all the time. I’m sorry. We are… what did we say #ExcitedTired? Oh my gosh… too many hashtags.
Renn: [pointing out a photo on her phone] This is a mini blep. A micro blep. You want to touch it, oddly.
Chelsea: The best is when you touch it and they don’t do anything about it.
TE: The last time we chatted like this it was before the second Love In, and recently Fox Glove hosted it’s third Love In. This one had lasers!
Renn: Did you enjoy the lasers?
TE: Yes, I accidentally got super high.
Chelsea: That’s right, you accidentally ate something before coming to the show.
Renn: I didn’t know that. I’m sorry, buddy.
TE: Don’t be. It was great. I sat at the back, melted into a pew, and enjoyed the lasers.
Renn: I’m glad someone was high at the Love In. I feel like that’s what it’s all about sometimes. We are really pleased how the event went.
Claire: We had a little help from our friends. Kirsten Ludwig and Mike Edel killed it. The Good Party and Emma McCormick Creative were big supporters. Decorate Victoria provided the big space rocks. I’m sure I missed some people.
Chelsea: Those space rocks are the coolest things. We did have a lot of fun setting them up and pretending to throw them at people
Renn: Oh, and Auburn Blind. They were so good.
Claire: All and all it was so much fun. That’s what I love about putting on events like this and the little tour we just did. It’s being able to give those opportunities to people. To be able to say to someone “you are amazing, here is 800 people – do your thing!”
Renn: And making new friends. This tour was full of many new friends.
Chelsea: There are some interesting and talented people on this island. During our Port Alberni show we had Madi Duncan who is sixteen play. She’s the girl who got dragged up on stage to sing with the Foo Fighters when they were in Vancouver.
Renn: We made sure to include youth anytime we could. The youngest person we had play with us on the tour was thirteen.
Claire: Can we talk about what’s going on under the table?
Renn: It’s his spatchcocking. He does it all the time.
Claire: [laughing] Wait… what?
TE: That’s how you cook a chicken.
Renn: You spatchcock your chicken. If you just look at that [points at how Beau is laying under the table] that’s what a spatchcock chicken…with a tail.
Claire: [hysterically laughing].
Renn: Honestly, I looked at Beau the other day, and said “you are making me hungry.”
[Entire table bursts out into laughter]
Renn: Which is not good. We call him “street meat,” because we found him in Mexico. I’m sorry, Beau. He’s just adorable and he just spatchcocks all over.
Chelsea: I’m really glad this is a written interview.
Renn: I’m going to make a meme of Beau yelling “SPATCHCOCK!”
[Entire table bursts out into laughter]
Renn: Sometimes his wiener gets hot and he likes to press it on the ground. It’s cooling. I have hypotheses. He can’t talk. I have many theories.
TE: Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?
Claire: I’m pretty sure you have enough blackmail material.
Chelsea: Do we have anything that could actually be used in the article?
Renn: I’ll send you a picture of Beau’s ass and a spatchcock chicken. You’ll have to guess which is which.
You can hear Fox Glove’s song Universe, Be Damned featured for the entirety of April as well as download two more singles at The Zone @ 91-3. Rocktographers is proud to be a supporting sponsor of The Zone’s Band of the Month program.
On April 20th, 2019, Fox Glove will be collaborating and performing songs with Gracenote Vancouver at Camosun College. Tickets are still available.