Cody Bond
Successful bands typically follow a familiar trajectory — you know, the whole build-the-buzz-and-audience thing followed by breaking it big and having everything transformed by fame.
“I’d like to demystify the concept,” says PHOX guitarist Matt Holmen as he fields a call from the band’s tour van near Nashville. “Things are more like they were before the band started. I moved out of Madison, and I live in my mom’s basement now.”
Holmen’s kidding about some of that — the mom’s basement part is true, at least. Although it’s clear the six members of PHOX have remained grounded — “I pay fifth-graders to come up and ask me for an autograph,” jokes lead singer Monica Martin — it’s been a steady climb for the Baraboo alt-folk sextet since things began to blow up for them two years ago in the run-up to the release of the band’s first full-length album in early 2014. This year has only added more steps to the ladder, including six major festival gigs, topped off by playing to a raucous and massive crowd under a metal barn roof at Justin Vernon’s Eaux Claires festival in July.
“It’s been this crazy whirlwind of lots of hard work and surreal happenings,” says Martin, whose ethereal pipes have helped make tunes like “Slow Motion” and “1936” staples of many a playlist. Holmen describes it as “a life of high contrasts.”
This Saturday, Nov. 7, it culminates in a big ol’ PHOX homecoming, as the band plays the Overture Center’s Capitol Theater. Given that the group’s members are friends who met in high school and that Martin has become a fixture at locales such as Mother Fool’s Coffeehouse, the night could end up feeling like the best home game ever.
“It’s going to feel really special, and really weird to see familiar faces,” says Martin. “These are the people from Johnson Public House, your bartenders from Mickey’s who have seen you drunk.” In addition to fan faves from the full-length, Martin promises a peek at two new songs and mentions something in passing about a Justin Timberlake cover. Yep, it’s gonna be anything goes.
The Capitol Theater show is the last one before PHOX goes into what Holmen’s calling a self-imposed “full hibernation” to continue the serious work of writing, polishing and recording the group’s second album.
“We’re set up for moving forward,” says Martin. “We’re better now at communicating with each other about what we want, and that leads to a greater clarity in the songs. It’ll still be PHOX, but it’ll be different.”
And yeah, with the raised national profile, the band might face some additional pressure. Martin talks about not being able to unhear what industry execs have said about expectations and when and how to release the next disc for maximum effect, but she and her bandmates have become skilled at tuning it all out.
“It’s not worth it to rush anything,” says Holmen. “Deadlines can light a fire, but all of us are ready to create on our own timelines. What we produce will be perfectly reflective of what we want to say.”
Martin’s on the same page.
“I never did my homework in high school,” she confesses. “I’m good at dodging people’s expectations.”
No word on whether PHOX also plans to create a follow-up to Amor Fati, the quirky 45-minute mockumentary film the band put together while touring. (Fans who caught them at Eaux Claires had ample opportunity to watch it.) When I suggest videogames as the next medium for them to try, Holmen and Martin jokingly float the notion of creating a podcast of the two of them playing Call of Duty while talking about relationships.
“It’s all supplemental to the music,” Holmen says. “You have to have the music in the first place, and it’s the music that matters.”
