BY CASSIE MELODY

Foxtide sat down with Televised before their sold out Boston show. Foxtide is fresh off the release of their latest album “Entropy” and is currently in the midst of their first headlining tour. They sat down to talk about the inner workings of the album and its songs and what it feels like to be at a peak milestone as a band.

Cassie: Thanks for sitting down with me today. Congratulations on your new album “Entropy”, what is your favorite track that you wrote for the album?

Elijah: My favorite on the album would probably be, “What Good Is the Rain.” I'll go with that.

Ian: I think I would have to go "Start of Nothing" as of today

Oey: Yeah, I'll go "Days Move Slow." That's been my favorite.

Cassie: And what is the reasoning behind those for you guys. Is it a certain lyric or maybe a moment when you wrote the song?

Oey: I think for me at least "Days Move Slow" is like the overall vibe and like I like when Elijah sings like that, you know? So it was cool to like kind of try a new thing and be like, "Oh, this is really cool." Yeah. Kind of branch out.

Elijah: I think for "What Good Is the Rain," I just kind of wrote it in a different way than I usually do, like using a lot more piano, using a lot more attention to a kind of story within the song. And so it felt good to change it up, and that's why it was my favorite.

Ian: For me, I would have to say because of the last few nights, just like hearing people sing along to “Start of Nothing,” it's been giving me goosebumps and like, I don't know, it's good. It's giving me a greater appreciation for the song I didn't necessarily have before.

Cassie: Yeah, I think for sure like performing things live is always different than recording it because you don't know how people are going to react when you put things out. To stem off that, you mentioned you have been experimenting with your songs, so how have you grown in the years that you've been making music, and how do you compare this to your earlier work?

Oey: I think collaboration is probably the biggest aspect of that. You know, it's not like there wasn't that before, but I think we kind of found our stride and our strengths and weaknesses and where other people can come in and where, you know, we can all shine individually but also together as a group. Yeah, that's what I would say is different.

Ian: Yeah, I agree.

Elijah: Okay, I would say that this album is like the antithesis of us collaborating. It's us hitting our stride not only with writing but production and really figuring out what we want. I think like earlier stuff had a mix of just learning, early songwriting, and just, you know, it's like a muscle. So as we worked harder and we worked more, we got better at getting what's in our head out, and this is just furthering that. So I think this album is more to the point as well.

Oey: Yeah, and I'd say like a greater attention to orchestration as well, of like, okay, yeah, we're playing all the instruments and everything, but there's no limit of we can add a piano here, we can add a synth here, we can add other like sound bites and different things that don't necessarily have to be played live. But like making a record with the intent of it being listened to and like painting it in a way, I think was like a big part of this album.

Cassie: The visual concept of the album started with a video of you (Oey) running with denim and your bass, and then you were promoting the album to getting pre-saves by running a marathon in a Canadian tuxedo with a bass. Where did that come from? How did that start?

Oey: It kind of just fell into place because we had an off day on one of our tours in Utah and in the Salt Flats, and we were just doing takes. We were gonna do a music video, and we did 5 or 6 takes, but we were shooting so far away that I couldn't even hear the music to line it up. So I got really bored after 3 or 4 takes, and I decided to just run for, like, 12 minutes, like, straight out. And then I ran all the way back in, and I was like, "I hope Kyle's filming. Like, this will probably look cool." And then it just kind of worked out. I was like, "Well, that's kind of cool," you know? And then trying to tie that into the concept that Elijah had. The album cover, the letters, the talk show, and it was kind of like, okay, how can I make these two worlds kind of align in a way and bring everything together, make it seem cohesive even though it wasn't really preconceived? I just kind of liked the idea of something a little bit ridiculous.

Oey: Yeah, and running was mentioned a lot in the album which we didn't even know, but it was like, it was funny, it ended up working out in a way that none of us saw really before

Cassie: Congratulations for running a marathon, especially in like jeans of all things that is dedication to your craft. My favorite song on the album is "Start of Nothing." There is a particular line that resonates with me “Maybe it's always in front of me, maybe I'm running too often” How does that idea connect to the bigger themes of this album?

Elijah: I think like avoidance and this kind of like losing track of time theme and growing into yourself. I would say that's how it connects. And like, a lot of it is like an unsureness and self-doubt and, you know, introspectiveness being like, what am I even doing with my life kind of thing. So Start of Nothing is all that in a song.

Cassie: Just like entropy, how do you guys prepare to enter the higher disorder of a long touring run?

Elijah: It's usually a lot of practice, but I got pretty sick before this tour, so we didn't practice that much. I think we practiced maybe 10 times together, which is not enough, I don't think. But a lot of it is just dividing our tasks and conquering, you know? Like whether it's like Ian fixing the van, me orchestrating all the logistics, Oey counting merch, like we all do our part, you know? We all like to help each other with gear and help each other with all these tasks and shit. So I think it's really just like working as a unit. That's the only way we can be prepared for tours.

Oey: I'd say that and then like making sure you're personally all good to go out on the road, you know? Like I went through like 3 months of therapy to make sure I'd be all right on this tour. Like we're gonna work as a team, we're gonna be all right, like it's gonna be good. Just making sure you're clear and intentional and like, okay, we have a job to do, it's gonna be super fun, we're gonna have a good time, and we're all gonna work together. Stay grounded, have a good time.

Ian: Funny enough though, I feel like this tour, I feel like we had the most like time in advance to prepare for it and we were doing that, but I still feel like we always get down to the wire for some reason. Like the last couple days are always just like us scrambling around, driving all around, picking up merch, doing everything.

Oey: We also took on the task of making a good amount of our own merch for this run. So Ian and I printed about 1,100 shirts over the course of 6 days, and it was like a whole thing. And so the day before we left, Ian and I had a 14-hour day of packing up everything, getting everything all together.

Oey: So then getting on the road almost feels like a relief. Like, okay. Yeah. Alright. Exhale, but now we're on the road for a month. Like, the real work starts.

Cassie: You’ve opened for The Backfires, Ax and The Hatchetmen, Arcy Drive, and this summer The Runarounds. Over the past year and a half now can you tell me about what that was like for you guys and how it feels now to be on your own headlining tour throughout North America?

Elijah: Oh, it feels great. We love supporting every artist supports so they can headline. Yeah. It's like your show, your way, and it just feels awesome to, like, have people coming out in cities that we've only been to, like, at once or a handful of times, like really just coming to listen to the album and the music and everything, and share an experience, which is really cool.

Cassie: Do you feel like the genres that you've opened up for kind of mix well in with what you guys play?

Oey: Oh, for sure. I think in the tail end of last year opening for Arcy Drive and then Axe and the Hatchetmen, I feel like we kinda sit in a spot that's right somewhere in between those two groups. And it was, like, a lot of carry-over. And a lot of the fans we've seen here are like, "Oh, we saw you with Axe. Oh, we saw you with Arcy. It's so good to see you guys."

Oey: And so, it really does work opening for people that are doing good in their own thing, but also can, like, have similar music, similar fans.

Cassie: For all your favorite girls that love reading, what are you guys reading on tour? Or are there any books that stuck with you when you wrote this album?

Elijah: Throughout the album, for me, I was reading Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and I think I finished, Illusions by Richard Bach on, like, the start of the album process. And, um, I also finished Just Kids recently by Patti Smith. And then I've been reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. And right now I'm reading Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. In that mix of things, I think there's definitely some inspiration there for sure.

Ian: I read one book, and it was the first book I read in years. It's Been Down So Long It Starts to Look Like Up to Me. I liked it.

Oey: I would say for inspiration, I read a lot of, like, poetry collections. This old depressed Russian poet, Marina Tsvetaeva. Super good. Sylvia Plath is a pretty huge inspiration. That's kinda what I'm drawn to. Yeah. And so I'll get through a book every now and again. I'll start five books, finish none of them, leave it for, like, six months, and then come back. It's kinda like a sporadic kinda thing for me.