THREE LEGGED FOX INTERVIEW
It is hard for The Pier to believe that Philly's Three Legged Fox formed only in April 2006. With a successful debut album already under its belts and an established loyal following, this lame fox is making surprisingly quick moves. Lead guitarist Michael Brody, drummer Kory Kochersperger and band manager Josh Zimmer let us into the relatively new world of Three Legged Fox.
The Pier: So tell us what inspired you guys to form Three Legged Fox?
Kory Kochersperger: The forming of our band was kinda just something that fell into place. Kyle Wareham (vocals/guitar) wanted to put a band together and went looking for people down at the University of Delaware. Held some casual auditions, and a couple months later I came on board. I think every band can just feel it when the line up is right, and this was no exception. I think that in the very beginning those three just wanted to play some bars and make a little bit of money. But I came along and gave them a boost, just sensing that maybe we had something special and should take it a bit more seriously.
Michael Brody: Eric Weisenstein (bass) and I had been playing together throughout freshman year. When Eric told me he was auditioning for a band that needed a guitar player I was in, no questions asked. When the four of us got together to play it was so easy and natural that we knew we had something to work with.
The Pier: So how would you describe the Three Legged Fox sound for those that haven’t heard you before?
Kory Kochersperger: Our sound is still finding itself, always evolving. The two styles are definitely inter-changeable. We could either be considered a reggae band with a heavy rock influence, or a rock band that carries a total reggae vibe…but those are the two most glaring elements. Our music is also pop-sounding. We keep our song length around four minutes. We try to write catchy choruses. Ultimately, we end up writing and playing songs as something we’d want to listen to as an outsider.
Michael Brody: I would say the new stuff sounds like The Black Crowes with some reggae undertones.
Josh Zimmer: We like to call it “organic roots rock” because that really sums it all up. It means to me that the sound is very natural, they don’t really use effects other than a few pedals on the guitars, and that their sound is true to the origins of the different genres they mix. I always enjoy listening to people try to describe their sound…it always sounds something like this: “Well, they sound kind of like The Black Crowes, kind of like Pearl Jam, kind of like Sublime, kind of like John Mayer...but they don’t really sound like any of those bands either.” It’s amazing to me how well their different influences come together (Kyle & Kory bring the reggae and pop, Eric brings the jam band, and Brody brings the blues). But it sounds good to me, so if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it!
The Pier: Nice. I agree you guys certainly have your distinct sound. How has your brand of music been received in Philly?
Michael Brody: We’ve had a great reception everywhere we’ve been. It feels really great to go somewhere new, put yourself out there and know that people like what you do.
Kory Kochersperger: Whenever an artist brings something fresh and different to the table it tends to take a little bit longer for it to catch on. However we’ve been lucky to often be greeted with a very positive reception right from the beginning. We often hear from people, “I don’t know what to call it, but I love it.” And that makes us feel good, cuz we’d like to think that our music is at least a little bit different than most other music that’s coming out these days, and for people to embrace it is great.
Josh Zimmer: Man, I gotta say, they’re pretty well received everywhere we’ve been. People tell me that the larger cities like Philly, NYC and Baltimore, are among the most difficult cities to develop a consistent draw in. We’ve pretty much consistently drawn more people each time they’ve played in all three of those major cities! That’s just makes it too obvious to me that we really have something good going on here.
I often people watch while the guys are playing, to see how much the audience is digging the music. Have you ever been to a show where you’ve had to see a couple shitty bands in the lineup and look around at the crowd, and everyone has that bored, on-the-verge-of-falling-asleep look on their face? I often notice that while waiting for 3LF’s time to come, and next thing I know, I turn away for a second and turn back and those same people that were about to fall asleep are dancing like crazy!
The Pier: You have a new live CD out. What can you tell us about the recording of that?
Michael Brody: We recorded our live CD at Grape Street Pub in Manayunk on June 9th. It was our first time headlining Grape Street.
Kory Kochersperger: That's a real nice venue here in Philly and yeah we play at it every couple months or so. When we scheduled our first headlining show there, we worked on some little things to make it a special show both for us and the people that came out. We decided to have a studio come out and record the show, and after hearing it a few times, we felt like it was something we wanted to make available. We’re hoping to put a series of Live CD’s out, similar to what some of the biggest bands in the US are doing with their live stuff.
The Pier: How have the songs evolved on there from when you originally recorded them for IDEAS?
Kory Kochersperger: There’s definitely some differences, though most of them are subtle. IDEAS was recorded and put together right as songs were being written, so after playing them a few hundred times, you figure out some things that make them a little bit smoother, or more naturally sounding. Some songs are easier to change around than others, particularly One World One Heart. For live shows in general, we find that tweaking songs here and there helps keep them fresh and fun to play.
Michael Brody: We have some new songs on that CD, but the ones from IDEAS remain pretty much the same. We do change them sometimes, mostly for our own sanity. I think One World, One Heart is the song we toy with the most. That song can change monthly. But usually if the songs sound any different now it’s because we’ve grown so much as musicians since we recorded that record.
Josh Zimmer: It’s funny to me that everyone has mentioned One World, One Heart. If you listen to the Live CD, at the beginning of the song, Kyle says (joking) “This is a new song…” I don’t think anyone even got the joke because it does almost sound like a whole new song!
The Pier: How was the IDEAS recording experience? Was it your first time in the studio?
Michael Brody: First time in the studio? I guess, if you can call it that. We recorded Ideas at Natural Sound Studios (Kyle’s basement), which doubles as our rehearsal space. It was definitely a learning experience. Some of us took to recording quicker than others, but when it came down to the wire we were changing parts up until the day we mastered it.
Kory Kochersperger: Haven’t been to the studio yet. We did IDEAS all on our own. With a Korg 1600 and a click track, no producers, sound engineers, just the four of us. It was a major learning experience. It’s taught us about being organized, and preparation. We had a good time with it for the most part. We figured no one would ever hear it, and thankfully we’ve been wrong, and people do actually want it. But we’re all pretty stoked to make a record for real.
The Pier: Is Three Legged Fox something you want to commit to full-time? As a relatively new band what are your goals at this moment?
Michael Brody: 3LF is something that we already have committed to full-time. There’s just other stuff that we have to do that gets in the way like school and work. Really, I think there’s been too much progress, so far, to give up any time soon. Our short term goals are to expose ourselves to as many people as possible and continue to work on our new album. We can’t wait to start recording again.
Kory Kochersperger: Absolutely, there’s nothing better than making money while hanging out with your friends playing songs. Hopefully in about the next year, the smoke will clear for us and we’ll really be able to see where we’re headed. Hopefully some touring, some new opportunities, and being able to make enough money to just do music. That’s the ultimate goal.
Josh Zimmer: Hell yes. I think this band is really going places...we’re all on the same page, and we’re all really dedicated and willing to doing whatever it takes to “make it”. Like Brody said, we just have some side things that get in the way like jobs and school. Of course, we just have to keep it up with the live shows to really build up the fan base and get people talking, so I don’t see us being able to lost the jobs in the next year or two, but we’ll see what happens.
The Pier: What’s been your favorite experience of being in this band to date then?
Kory Kochersperger: We got to play the biggest rock radio station in the Philadelphia market (104.5fm). That’s a pretty big deal for us. A year ago we were doing some no-name internet radio station, so to be able to play on 104.5fm shows a lot progress and helps us to stay focused.
Josh Zimmer: I gotta agree on the Radio 104.5 show. It was such an amazing experience..I’ve never been in a radio station at all, let alone one of Philly’s biggest stations. It was really amazing to work with such professionals, people with so much experience…they really made things so easy and smoothly. And to see the equipment and organization of a major radio station like that was just unbelievable..I definitely wasn’t expecting that opportunity to come any time soon.
The Pier: What have you got coming up in the New Year?
Michael Brody: We’re always booking shows and trying to reach out as far as we can. We’re taking a little well deserved Christmas break, but you can catch us on 1/11 at North Star Bar with Ballyhoo! and Mike Pinto and 1/12 at the Underscore in New York City. We really have too many shows to list here. You can check out all our shows and some music at Three Legged Fox Web-Site or on Three Legged Fox MySpace.
Josh Zimmer: We have some college shows coming up in the spring semester which is early 2008 in some new areas. So that’ll be great exposure and nice and relaxing since we aren’t expected to bring any people to college shows, they’re already there. That makes things 10 times easier since we don’t have to bust our asses nearly as hard to do promotions. We also have the Millennium Music Conference coming up in February. That is definitely getting to be one of the largest music conferences in the nation, so I’m really excited about that. It’ll be nice to get to meet some top industry people and get some real feedback on what we’re doing.
Thanks to the guys for taking the time to hang out at The Pier. Make sure to check out some more Three Legged Fox on the interweb here: