Those devilishly plastic ‘Horns’ may’ve just been the treat on your Halloween-approved receipts, but if we were to stumble back seven years ago, Bryce Fox already claimed its crimson crown. With its irresistible alternative-rock production hooks designed for anyone flashing their forked tongue, the tune strutted its way into becoming RIAA Gold certified and has a whopping 16 million views on YouTube! This was his cocoon moment, laying front and bare on his debut album, Heaven on Hold. Plenty of heat was still cooking, though, inevitably sprouting those majestic wings with The Butterfly, his latest EP that came out just this ‘dawn of the dead’ October.
We spoke to Bryce about the Producer Aaron Chafin—known for his work with X Ambassadors—and mixing up a glorious storm Mark Needham—who would put any of our karaoke renditions of ‘Mr.Brightside’ to shame as he as he was the engineer behind that one too—collaborative EP. From Bryce’s thoughts on the record to his own confidence anthem, cast your wings to take flight on our exclusive chat.
‘Butterfly’ Cacoon
‘Butterfly’ isn’t your first encounter with animal metaphors. On your debut album, Heaven on Hold, several tracks, including ‘Lucy,’ explore this theme, with the line “Bring the animal right out of her” standing out. What draws you back to the animal kingdom to express these emotions?
You know, this isn’t necessarily something I purposefully tried to hammer home, haha. I do feel like, at the end of the day, we are all just a bunch of animals. There is indeed an animalistic side to decision-making and emotion. It’s one that doesn’t require much thought; it just mostly feels. I think In music, that’s how I like to create. Just stuff that sounds and makes me feel something. I like to throw in some headedness every once in a while, tastefully. But I really feel music isn’t as embraced by the listener, or personally, unless it has that gut and instinctual feeling of- fu*k yeah, this is my shit.
There’s an incredibly touching moment in the ‘Butterfly’ music video where your son is holding one, adding to the vulnerability of the entire montage. Were you at all nervous about sharing that level of intimacy with your audience?
I absolutely have been nervous about sharing intimate moments with my family. All my life, family business has been held close and private. In today’s world, some people really put their families on blast when it comes to social media. I feel like that can come across as gross sometimes, and I just don’t want to be that guy. I do, however, think in moderation and sincerity, it’s okay to let others inside the family walls. As long as it’s not overdone, it’s humanizing and can be beautiful. Also, my son wasn’t holding a real butterfly, so no butterflies were injured during the shooting of ‘Butterfly,’ haha.
Sprouting Into The Butterfly
‘Other People’ marks a thoughtful and emotionally angsty shift from the fully-loved-up vibe of ‘Butterfly.’ It brings to mind the associated saying that if you let something go and it comes back, it was always yours. What was your intention behind arranging the tracklist this way?
I think the intention was to show how beautiful things aren’t always just beautiful from the beginning. ‘Butterfly’ is indeed the highlight of the EP. The rest of the tracklist is kind of the emotionally dark back story of what it took to get to the ‘Butterfly.’ ‘Other People’ is about how I was dating this girl (who is my wife now), and she wasn’t able to get as serious about our relationship as I was, which led to us splitting up. Eventually, she realized she couldn’t live without me, so we got married!
You playfully engage with the title of ‘Shadows’ in the intro, featuring those almost mechanical voices harmonizing with you in the background. As the song draws close, though their voices aren’t far behind, your solitary voice remains. This feels almost symbolic of conquering your inner demons. How do you think up these witty production tricks?
That is intentional! And you hit the nail on the head. Not only is it nice ear candy. But it is symbolic of the little bit of darkness that creeps into my psyche. Shadows is very much a song about dealing with past skeletons. With the help of the producer Aaron Chafin, we dialed that effect in very nice.
Speaking of intros, ‘Sense of Humor’ opens with haunting guitar strums, creating a reflective atmosphere contrasting with the alt-pop energy of ‘Drip.’ Since it serves as the album’s closing track, was this choice made intentionally?
‘Sense of Humor’ may be my favorite song from the EP. It was nice to have an acoustic-driven song; I haven’t had many. I feel like this was the perfect end to the EP because if you made it to the end, that tells me you were ready for it. When David Pramik and Michael Jade, and I wrote this song, it was kind of a Hail Mary. We had been writing allllll day, and we took a break for some dinner and drinks. We got back to the studio around 9 p.m. and didn’t leave the studio until around 4 a.m. Michael started playing the guitar and I went into the vocal booth and just recorded what was on my mind (mostly drunken gibberish). But we were destined to finish the song right then and there, and that’s what we did. So, in honor of us finishing up that song as sort of a “last call,” we felt it was only right to finish the EP with it.
‘Sense of Humor’ is also sprinkled with Catholic references, from lyrical nods to drunken angels to mentions of the man upstairs. Once again, returning it to Heaven on Hold, could we see this track as a sort of seven-years-later reflection on that album?
I think that’s very fair. I am a Christian man, but I’m still figuring out what that means. I’m very spiritual and believe in God, and that power is the source for a lot of inspiration for me, lyrically and topically. During Heaven on Hold, I was broke, depressed, and uncertain of what my future was going to look like. During that time, I leaned heavy on my faith, but in my own personal way. For this Butterfly EP, the birth of my son was the centerstone for everything. My joy and then fear of this magical time in my life has also had me leaning to faith.
A Shake-Up Of Musical Emotions
You’re currently running a Q&A series on your socials, and one question delves into your creative process. You mentioned that you create a juxtaposition: when making your own music, you focus on the writing, while with someone else’s, you simply chill with its atmosphere. What do you think it is about your creative brain that evokes different warm and fuzzy feelings depending on which side of the music coin you’re on?
I think when you’re making art, you need to be flexible for what the art wants to be. No one knows really what it needs to be because art is unpredictable. There are happy accidents, and there are deviations you take that are sometimes better than what you had imagined. And then also you might make something you thought would be perfect, that turns out to be far from it. I think living in the moment is the best way to create genuine art, no matter what side of the coin you’re on.
You’re making the ultimate early 2010s rock dream come true by touring with AWOLNATION next year. Considering their hit ‘Sail,’ if you could collaborate to create a mashup with one of your songs from this current EP, which track do you think would blend perfectly with theirs?
Damn haha. ‘Sail’ was by far my favorite song when it came out, and probably for the next year. I honestly think mashing up one of my songs with ‘Sail’ would be a disservice to the OG, haha. BUT I do feel like I have the perfect setlist for opening up for a band’s legendary song like that.
Is there a specific song from the EP that you’ll need to psyche yourself up to perform because of the nerves it brings?
I actually feel pretty damn confident about this EP. The only time I get nerves on stage is when I have to sing a song that I know is going to shred my voice. ‘Golden Boy,’ for instance, is in such a high-key for my voice. Sometimes, if I’m feeling too nervous, we’ll drop it a few keys and hope nobody notices, haha. BUT I think ‘Sense of Humor’ will be a song that could get me emotional. It’s also stripped down and exposed, so I guess putting that vulnerability on a platter for everyone to see would get me feeling something.
Finally, since ‘Horns’ is our go-to anthem for confidence (and we truly mean it), what’s a song from another artist that instantly amps you up?
First off, THANK YOU. Second, I think the one song that never gets old and sends chills down my spine is ‘Gimme Shelter’ by The Rolling Stones. Also, ‘Testify’ or any other Rage song gets me right where I need to be to run through a brick wall.
What’s your favorite track off The Butterfly that you’re pulling into your cocoon to make your own? Let us know on our socials, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
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