If the phrase “Foxy Shazam” makes you think of a film starring Pam Grier, you’re not too far off. The name comes from a slang term for “cool” common at lead singer Eric Nally’s high school in Cincinnati, OH, and is only the tip of the iceberg for their balls-out rock domination dreams. Foxy Shazam has been around for about eight years now, and after searching for the perfect characters, the current incarnation is ready to take the world by storm.
On the Foxy Shazam way of life, drummer Aaron McVeigh says, “It’s kind of one of those things where we definitely want to be more than just a band, for sure. When we get on stage I think we want to be the best and most interesting band that anyone’s ever seen, not just a band. As far as it being more of a lifestyle for us, it most definitely is. Obviously, when we’re on tour it’s kind of a 24-hour a day job. We have to live the lifestyle all the way.”
The band has been compared to other bands like Queen, as Nally seems to channel Freddie Mercury through his own performance, painted on pants and loads of swagger, but that isn’t to say they are trying to be any characters other than themselves. Says McVeigh, “when I get up there and start playing, it’s more about just losing myself in the moment and in the music, and not thinking about anything. I think the ultimate goal is to have it to where you’re so into it, so into a groove, so comfortable with what you’re doing every night, that you don’t have to think about what’s coming up next, you just feel it. You know it. I don’t know if there’s any specific character we really put ourselves into, I think it’s part of what comes natural to us. I think that’s what makes it special.”
Foxy Shazam’s latest full length, The Church of Rock and Roll, just came out last week, and if the band is preaching anything, “it would just be that rock n’ roll is still alive, in us, and we’re ready to step up and take it back, take it over. I think things have gotten a little weird in the music industry.” McVeigh reveals. This is the band’s fifth release, and they’re trying to keep it as real as ever. “I think the beauty of Foxy Shazam is that you don’t ever really know what to expect. That comes every night on stage, and that comes album to album.”
With all the pomp and talk of grandeur, it all almost seems like too tall of an order really deliver on live. As McVeigh puts it, “It is definitely beautiful organized chaos. Foxy is a different band live. From my perspective, I’ve always appreciated and respected bands that could go on stage and really give you something different from what you can put on your headphones, or put on a CD in your car and just listen to it. If people just wanted to hear the record, they would just stay home and listen to the record. I think we bring a different energy to the songs live. They’re crazier, or more intense, or something. Live we try to just put on the best possible show that everyone’s ever seen and just make people walk away with their jaw dropped.” Foxy has been building their reputation of backing up all the hype, and they’re really not making any promises they don’t intend to keep. They believe it, and they want you to believe it.
“I want people to be inspired by us, and to be able to relate musically and lyrically to everything, and I think no matter direct certain things are, everything is open to interpretation on a certain level, personally, depending on what that person has been through. They can take what they hear and relate to it, be inspired by it. As everybody does, I have some bands that completely changed my life when I was younger, and I think being that band to a lot of people, that’s the ultimate goal. That’s the most important thing.” As for what inspires McVeigh in particular, “Guns n’ Roses was a band that, in the late 80s and early 90s, completely blew me away and inspired me. Being from California, I got very into the Bay Area punk rock scene – bands like Green Day, Rancid, Operation Ivy…and just to see beyond the biggest of the biggest bands possible, seeing that there are bands who record and do it on a smaller level, and are passionate about it still. Even though they’re not making millions of dollars.”
With each member of the band contributing their own inspirations and influences, from rock to soul, and everything in between with some real life issues mixed in, Foxy Brown covers the bases on having something that everyone can relate to in some form. On songs like “The Streets,” where Nally sings “The streets is where I was born, and the streets is where I’ll die,” conveying that he’s paid his dues and will continue to keep it real, and the song becomes so much of an anthem at the end that it’s easy to picture the epic sing-a-long that must happen at live shows. It’s easy to imagine the same for the album closer, “Freedom,” where Nally belts out the title and states “free, that’s what I was born to be.”
As far as Foxy Shazam’s plans for 2012, McVeigh tells us “we plan on doing a nice big, long headlining tour, hopefully in the spring, and…just take over the world. I think this is probably our year. I think that’s how we’re all feeling right now.” So get ready to join the Church of Rock and Roll, and get your lighters out to hold high.
