Video Premiere: Watch Rome Hero Foxes Make A Cocktail For Each Song On Their Album
Posted: by The Editor
Rome Hero Foxes recently released their latest album 18 Summers. In celebration, they created a cocktail for every song on the record. From bitters to bourbon, the group tried their best to encapsulate their work in liquid form. While I do not recommend trying all of these at home, most will pair great with a spin of the album while you mourn those post summer blues. Watch the instructional video, pour yourself a “Chest Piece” and read our interview with vocalist C.J. Burton below:
Drinks aside, you wrote these songs two years ago, do they still feel relevant to you?
We actually had some material that was written even more than two years ago. Tracks like “Break Your Own Bones” and “Don’t Close the Door” were written in 2013 for an old solo side project of mine called Tapes and Cables. This project was sort of my overflow vault for material I had written that wasn’t suitable for the direction early RHF was going towards at the time, which was more on the post-hardcore side of things. The rest of the album’s material was written around 2015-2017. Some only half-written as short chord progressions, one liners, or just vague ideas. It wasn’t until we were kind of backed into a corner of a make it or break it type deal that we decided to change direction and expand on these 15-plus songs and ideas I had floating around in my head for 2-4 years.
It was really cool and nostalgic to revisit some of these older ideas, too, because some I had fully written about the situations I was steal dealing with years later in different scenarios and people. This is how the idea behind 18 Summers really came to be. It was a combination of all the side stories, the bits of life left out of everything we had done prior, and put back together into a fuller look into this life of growth through heartache and repeated mistakes.
When did the recording process finally hit the point where you knew that you were finally ready to call the album finished?
When we first got together to write for this next release, we only had a couple of ideas of mine that we worked on. Some made it, some got scrapped, and some found it’s way on either of our two EP’s (I/O and Horoscope) we put out in 2017 which I think is what really helped call the record done in terms of what we wanted to be on it. From there we flew out to Carmel, California to record with our friend Ben Rosett from Strawberry Girls in late January/early February where we finished a majority of the record. We put in a lot of work we didn’t expect to do once we were actually in the studio and it caused us to fall behind on everything needed to be done in the two weeks we booked.
When we left the studio, I was ready to go back home and finish up what needed to be done at my home studio so we could get it done ASAP and have the record out by summer of 2017. It was then that I noticed how rushed I was making this new album and it caused the band quite a bit of stress. We were knocked down so hard after our first release with everything that happened that we were so eager to bounce back as quick as we could with a new record that would ultimately re-brand our sound and image we were so desperate to leave behind.
Finally, after coming to agreement to push the album back another year, we flew out to Carmel again in early August 2017 to finish what was left. We scrapped the closing track on the album at the time completely and brought in a new track that I had demoed out just a couple months prior to our return. This track was actually what became the song and album title ‘18 Summers’ which was the first thing we recorded with the full lineup in the room to help work on it. It was then I knew we had not only completed the album, but we found the missing piece that glued everything else together into a timeless, summer-warped record.
How does it feel to be sitting on some of these tracks for so long?
Well if I can be kind of corny here, it actually felt like 18 Summers haha. To further expand on what we experienced in our FWYFB days, it was a lot of being turned down, ignored, overlooked, and I guess overall just not this or that enough for how close-knit the scene we were trying to get into was. It was very discouraging and kinda made me grow bitter and tired of the genre altogether so we jumped at the chance to ditch that sound and make new ones.
Once I got back in that writing headspace, I think I started working myself faster than the rest of the band and myself could handle at one time. And I mean that in the way that within a couple months I had written over 20-30 different ideas and songs, demoed them out, and sat on them for what felt like forever until RHF was given the rare occasion that we could all be in town and available to write together. Needless to say, it’s been extremely relieving to be looking back on these last two years of bringing this album and band to life with new chapters. We’re already anxious to start working on new material for the next RHF release!
If you could describe the band using any fictional character a type of food and what would they be?
I’d like to think our band would be spaghetti because we’re goofy sounding/looking but we’re still a lot of people’s favorite. And as for a fictional character, definitely a cross of Michael Cera in both Arrested Development and Scott Pilgrim.
What is your favorite song on the record?
I think everyone in the band including myself is between ‘Good For You’ or ‘San Junipero’ for favorite track. Both of them are so drastically different and have the most interesting contrast from the rest of the material on the album. The other tracks on the record are more specific and organized into what direction they’re meant to be in or sound like while these two songs started off from singular roots and blossomed into creations way beyond our perception or intention. I hope to someday see those tracks find their way to critically-acclaimed or ground breaking status by our listeners because that’s how we feel about them.
Anything that you would like to share with your fans/tell them?
It’s so hard to keep track of a fanbase that keeps growing larger every day and knowing who’s who or from where, but we want to thank everyone out there from the bottom of our hearts. There are many of you who interact with us daily, follow us, listen to us, even just have seen our name before and remembered it later; thank you for giving us a way to make this record and all the music we have released previously. Not enough bands really give their fans the credit they deserve, I feel so honored to know so many of our listeners and how they support us endlessly with encouragement and heartfelt words.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Once the record is out, hopefully it’s back to being on the road for us. We’re between booking agents but definitely trying to get some tours going very soon and very frequently. I’m excited for this album’s release and even more excited to start writing music once everything has settled again.
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Emily Kitchin | @deathnap4cutie
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