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With its expanded lineup, the band made a studio appearance for Local Spins on WYCE, will release a new single later this month and plans to record a new album later this fall.

THE BAND: Watching for Foxes

THE MUSIC: Indie-folk, flannel rock

WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE BAND: 7 p.m. Wednesday Oct. 21 at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids with The Fever Haze, The Great Indoors and Devin & The Dead Frets

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Like any forward-thinking band, Grand Rapids’ Watching for Foxes hasn’t rested on its laurels or stubbornly resisted musical change.

So even while the band made its mark on West Michigan’s folk-revival scene with its striking harmonies and incisive, rootsy lyrics over the past two years, it shuffled its lineup and tweaked its sound.

As frontman and lead singer Joey Frendo puts it, the much-expanded group has now settled on its “forever lineup” as it prepares to dive into a full-length studio album and book tour dates across the Midwest and East Coast.

“Everyone is really committed and invested in this project,” Frendo said of the band which officially releases a new single, “Two Lovers,” at The Pyramid Scheme next week. “The people who are part of the project now, Watching for Foxes is their baby.”

Initially molded in the image of folk-oriented artists such as The Head and The Heart, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens and Trampled by Turtles, Watching for Foxes also has found inspiration in the music of indie-rock’s We Were Promised Jetpacks, Father John Misty, Manchester Orchestra, Arcade Fire and The National. The band describes its music as a combination of “flannel rock” and “sadboy folk.”

“We are still driven by emotive, melancholy folk tones, but with this lineup, we have been really able to collaborate in the truest sense and include musically all of our vast influences,” Frendo said. “We have really been able to tap into what we want Watching for Foxes to be: a rock band derived from a folk sound that reaches to all ends of the emotional and musical spectrum.”

That solidified lineup features Frendo, Jared Meeuwenberg (guitar, vocals), Brandon Hanes (drums, vocals), Conner Brogan (guitar, mandolin, vocals), Geoff Kartes (cello, vocals), Ricky Olmos (keyboards/percussion) and Cameron Barber (bass/banjo).

COLLABORATING WITH NEW MUSICIANS, PREPARING FOR A FULL-LENGTH ALBUM

Frendo says the growth in the size of Watching for Foxes alone is proof of the collaborative nature of West Michigan’s music scene, with the band incorporating talented musicians it has encountered in the Grand Rapids area. The band has roots in Fremont, where a few members attended Fremont High School, but officially formed in Grand Rapids in late 2013.

And the singer-songwriter vibe that Frendo and Meeuwenberg exuded when they first started writing and playing songs together certainly has changed, with other band members now contributing material and everyone pitching in to create Watching for Foxes’ distinctive sound.

Frendo considers himself a musical “nerd,” embracing life stories told through song, with the “gamut of emotions” that these tales generate.

“I love the genre of story-telling and the whole idea of being able to tell a story is really big for me,” Frendo said. “There’s nothing more important than being able to tell stories.”

Soon after forming, the band released its debut EP, “The Watchmen,” and wasted little time in making waves in West Michigan. The band won the top prize – selected through fan voting – at Grand Haven’s inaugural 80-band Walk the Beat event in the summer of 2014, which earning them studio recording time at Bill Chrysler’s Grand Haven studio. They used that time to record a second EP, “Until the Winter Comes,” which was released earlier this year.

Now, band members are wrapping up the writing process for a full-length album, with plans to start recording the

project later this fall at the Grand Rapids studio of Ben Zito (bassist for The Crane Wives) while shopping for record labels.

“We’ve really come together as a band, we love playing music together and we are beyond excited for the future of Watching for Foxes,” Frendo said. “We are very lucky.”

Get tickets and more information about Wednesday’s show at The Pyramid Scheme online here.

PODCAST: Local Spins on WYCE with Watching for Foxes



Listen to the latest Local Spins on WYCE podcast above with in-studio guests, Watching for Foxes, plus songs by The Cardboard Swords, Maybe Next Time, Chris DuPont, Lacroix Winget, Hollywood Makeout, Shane Tripp, Desmond Jones, The Fever Haze and J. Rob, part of the “15 West Michigan Acts to Watch.” Learn more about those bands and listen to samples of their music online at Local Spins here.

VIDEO: Watching for Foxes, “Howl” (Re-Imagined)



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