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| Photo by: Parker Day |
This peculiar alt-pop act is the latest project from acclaimed songwriter and producer Sterling Fox.
Fox's writing credits span from prolific names including Madonna, Britney Spears and Lana Del Rey, but as his career progressed, he began to feel a natural and necessary drive to create music by – and for, himself. Baby FuzZ (Brandon Lowry) was spawned in Montreal following his move from New York after the 2016 presidential election. Immediately succeeding Trump's inauguration, Fox quit working for other artists, moved to Canada and began crafting his own material.
“It was a nice experience for me, it helped me recalibrate personally and recharge and that kind of led to Baby FuzZ.”
After disappearing from the music scene entirely, Baby FuzZ reemerged with a wonderfully-weird fusion of audiovisual glam rock and normcore. The extravagantly eclectic artist independently released his debut album Plastic Paradise in 2019 as "a death rattle of a previous life of overthought pop demos that had finally eaten itself alive with a sense of ennui"
Now front and centre, Baby FuzZ brings to life a cartoon-like alter ego whose music has been described as a blend of indie rock, glam pop, and soul-crushing ballads with a live show that's one part performance art, one part rock and roll rave and wholly extraordinary.
His latest venture comes in the form of a single and music video for "Acid Night." This trippy tale is the fourth song from his forthcoming sophomore album Welcome To The Future. Fox scribbled down lyrics while on an acid trip at a Dodgers baseball game – which turned into a song reflective of his dark vision of America.
This dystopian vibe extends throughout Baby FuzZ's upcoming double album release, with him writing at times from the point of view of an orca, suburbanites named Kevin and Karen, and a cellphone.
With genre-jumping music and brilliantly bizarre verses, Baby FuzZ oozes bold, brainy, animated and enigmatic artistry with every endeavour.
I was working for years writing songs and producing for other artists, like you said, gradually as a musician, the longer you do something, the more you kind of build your skillset. When I started in music, I was just a session player – I was playing piano on people’s songs and stuff like that. Eventually I worked my way up to fully writing songs and producing songs for other people, I think the next step on my journey was just kind of doing everything – where I’m singing on songs and I’ll put them out myself. I’m just to that point now that I am my own record label, I’m writing my own songs, I’m putting them out myself and producing them. Basically, it incorporates everything I’ve learned through the years and it gives me a chance to apply it to my own stuff. It was also getting to the point where I was writing songs for people and they would record them – and when I listened back to them, they were starting to sound like cover songs to me or the versions they were doing didn’t really inhabit the lyrics in the way that I wanted them to. I guess they were getting too personal – the songs, and they felt too specific to give to other people. I felt they would be more effective if I put them out myself as a way of communicating something real that I was feeling as opposed to giving them to somebody else. It’s kind of a complicated answer, it’s more about honesty, I guess. At the end of the day, I want to convey things directly and honestly to people instead of giving them to somebody else to try to imitate what I was feeling.
Baby Fuzz is kind of a complicated thing but on the surface, it’s kind of a childlike character. It’s kind of this adult who is kind of old and is re-enacting childhood. If you see a live show, it’s like a sad imitation of a musician. It’s a vibe where it’s like performance art almost, but the overarching theme to Baby FuzZ is this hyper-colourful and really happy character who is talking about and singing about dark stuff. There’s kind of a disconnect between the visual and the subject matter for the song.
It was a combination of Trump getting elected and the climate in the United States at the time was feeling really weird, just in terms of the way people were interacting with each other and the energy was just super negative and super dark. I was like; I need a reset, I need to get out of this, just for my own mental health. I went up to Montreal for a year and that was great. It was a nice personal refresh on the way I was viewing the world. It was good, I dipped into a different sea and a different music culture there. Montreal’s a great city, there’s a really vibrant music culture – both English and French. It was a nice experience for me, it helped me recalibrate personally and recharge and that kind of led to Baby FuzZ. I was up there for about a year and have been in the States since then but I definitely want to get back up there. It’s kind of where the project started to take shape initially.
Acid Night, I wrote last summer. I wrote it while I was on an acid trip at a baseball game in Los Angeles. It was the first time I ever took acid – I don’t know why, and decided to go to a baseball game, which was kind of stupid. It was a really weird experience with security and I guess the theme of the trip was itself this dark vision of America in a Hunter S. Thompson kind of way. Before the end of the trip, I started scribbling a bunch of lyrics down which eventually became the song “Acid Night.” Basically, the idea of that was not necessarily about acid or doing drugs, but it’s about feeling this sense of unease or impending doom in a situation or scenario. It ends up being kind of prophetic for 2020 because it’s kind of what ended up happening this year. It was just this kind of dark weirdness going on – kind of trippy. Life’s trippy right now, basically. The music video, we did in May during quarantine was like a skeleton crew – it was me, and 2-3 other people. We shot it out in the desert just to be away from people and it’s kind of this post-apocalyptic music video about this traveler from the future who’s searching for clues. You’ll have to watch it – it’s open to interpretation but it’s pretty interesting.
The next album is a double album which means there’s two different sections to it – Part One and Part Two. Part One is coming out in the next two months. It’s basically a theme album – not a concept album, but the songs are connected thematically. I guess it’s like an environmentalist album. A lot of the themes on the songs are talking about either time in the past or the future or realizing the present is dystopian and it’s kind of encouraging people to think of how they interact with the world and how it affects people in the future. Each song’s a bit different, I hate to be didactic about it but the album is definitely an environmentalist concept album.
Almost all of them. There will be a lyric or two – it’s not like the whole song is about one thing but I mean I’ll drop in lyrics. For “Acid Night” there’s a lyric about Elon Musk and the KKK, so I just sprinkle stuff in that amuses me and I don’t like to be super direct with what I’m saying to people. I’m not like “Fuck Trump” or whatever but I think that people that listen to my stuff kind of get what I’m trying to say more often than not. I try to do it in creative ways and come at issues – not in a way that’s preaching at people or telling them what think. They’re more of a way for me to get them to think about issues creatively and look at them from different angles.
It’s been really tough. I have been just working on the album by myself a lot this year. So, it’s been a lot of alone time. I travel a little bit and that helps me refresh – going from place to place. I play a lot of video games – if I’m honest with myself. On a day to day basis, it makes me feel like I’m connected with people. I’m definitely a gamer – I’ll play some Fortnite or League of Legends and that’s kind of my social media for the day where I’m feeling like “okay, I’m connecting with people!” It’s tough times, I think the hardest thing is there’s this evolutionary thing where we want to connect with people and it’s so hard to right now because of the lockdown and the fact that the political climate is messed up. It’s hard to connect with people because you feel like there’s this divide based on their ideologies and that’s one thing in the States that’s really hard to overcome because it feels like half the population, you can’t connect with and that’s really messed up. There’s a lot of weird stuff going on right now and I’ll just be happy when this year is over. Maybe next year will bring some changes. I do think that I would love to connect with people more – that’s on my list of things. I did a big tour last year and that was really nice because it gave me the opportunity to meet tons of new people in different cities and it was awesome. It was a life-affirming thing to do. If you’re a musician and you haven’t done it before –it might not be the most amazing thing for your career but on a personal level, it’s definitely amazing to be able to meet tons of new people and connect with them through your music.
You can check out my music wherever you listen to music. There’s a new music video out for “Acid Night” on YouTube and just keep in touch! I’m super accessible – people are always emailing me and dropping me DMs and I will always respond to whatever questions or anything really.
Now front and centre, Baby FuzZ brings to life a cartoon-like alter ego whose music has been described as a blend of indie rock, glam pop, and soul-crushing ballads with a live show that's one part performance art, one part rock and roll rave and wholly extraordinary.
His latest venture comes in the form of a single and music video for "Acid Night." This trippy tale is the fourth song from his forthcoming sophomore album Welcome To The Future. Fox scribbled down lyrics while on an acid trip at a Dodgers baseball game – which turned into a song reflective of his dark vision of America.
“[Acid Night] is about feeling this sense of unease or impending doom in a situation or scenario. It ends up being kind of prophetic for 2020 because it’s kind of what ended up happening this year.”
Shot in the desert in the midst of the pandemic – with a very small crew, the visuals for "Acid Night" explore the story of a traveler from the future, searching for clues in a post-apocalyptic world.
This dystopian vibe extends throughout Baby FuzZ's upcoming double album release, with him writing at times from the point of view of an orca, suburbanites named Kevin and Karen, and a cellphone.
“A lot of the themes on the songs are talking about either time in the past or the future or realizing the present is dystopian and it’s kind of encouraging people to think of how they interact with the world and how it affects people in the future.”
Along with an emphasis on environmentalism, Baby FuzZ uses his artistry to encourage people to think consciously about political and social issues with heavy doses of conservationism, disguised symbolism and good old fashioned American absurdity.
With genre-jumping music and brilliantly bizarre verses, Baby FuzZ oozes bold, brainy, animated and enigmatic artistry with every endeavour.
You’ve wrote for many notable artists from Britney Spears to Lana Del Ray as Sterling Fox. What drove you to birth Baby FuzZ?
I was working for years writing songs and producing for other artists, like you said, gradually as a musician, the longer you do something, the more you kind of build your skillset. When I started in music, I was just a session player – I was playing piano on people’s songs and stuff like that. Eventually I worked my way up to fully writing songs and producing songs for other people, I think the next step on my journey was just kind of doing everything – where I’m singing on songs and I’ll put them out myself. I’m just to that point now that I am my own record label, I’m writing my own songs, I’m putting them out myself and producing them. Basically, it incorporates everything I’ve learned through the years and it gives me a chance to apply it to my own stuff. It was also getting to the point where I was writing songs for people and they would record them – and when I listened back to them, they were starting to sound like cover songs to me or the versions they were doing didn’t really inhabit the lyrics in the way that I wanted them to. I guess they were getting too personal – the songs, and they felt too specific to give to other people. I felt they would be more effective if I put them out myself as a way of communicating something real that I was feeling as opposed to giving them to somebody else. It’s kind of a complicated answer, it’s more about honesty, I guess. At the end of the day, I want to convey things directly and honestly to people instead of giving them to somebody else to try to imitate what I was feeling.
Who is Baby FuzZ? How would you describe this entity to listeners?
Baby Fuzz is kind of a complicated thing but on the surface, it’s kind of a childlike character. It’s kind of this adult who is kind of old and is re-enacting childhood. If you see a live show, it’s like a sad imitation of a musician. It’s a vibe where it’s like performance art almost, but the overarching theme to Baby FuzZ is this hyper-colourful and really happy character who is talking about and singing about dark stuff. There’s kind of a disconnect between the visual and the subject matter for the song.
You moved to Montreal immediately after the 2016 election. What influenced you to come to Canada?
It was a combination of Trump getting elected and the climate in the United States at the time was feeling really weird, just in terms of the way people were interacting with each other and the energy was just super negative and super dark. I was like; I need a reset, I need to get out of this, just for my own mental health. I went up to Montreal for a year and that was great. It was a nice personal refresh on the way I was viewing the world. It was good, I dipped into a different sea and a different music culture there. Montreal’s a great city, there’s a really vibrant music culture – both English and French. It was a nice experience for me, it helped me recalibrate personally and recharge and that kind of led to Baby FuzZ. I was up there for about a year and have been in the States since then but I definitely want to get back up there. It’s kind of where the project started to take shape initially.
Tell us about your new single and music video for "Acid Night":
Acid Night, I wrote last summer. I wrote it while I was on an acid trip at a baseball game in Los Angeles. It was the first time I ever took acid – I don’t know why, and decided to go to a baseball game, which was kind of stupid. It was a really weird experience with security and I guess the theme of the trip was itself this dark vision of America in a Hunter S. Thompson kind of way. Before the end of the trip, I started scribbling a bunch of lyrics down which eventually became the song “Acid Night.” Basically, the idea of that was not necessarily about acid or doing drugs, but it’s about feeling this sense of unease or impending doom in a situation or scenario. It ends up being kind of prophetic for 2020 because it’s kind of what ended up happening this year. It was just this kind of dark weirdness going on – kind of trippy. Life’s trippy right now, basically. The music video, we did in May during quarantine was like a skeleton crew – it was me, and 2-3 other people. We shot it out in the desert just to be away from people and it’s kind of this post-apocalyptic music video about this traveler from the future who’s searching for clues. You’ll have to watch it – it’s open to interpretation but it’s pretty interesting.
What can we expect from your forthcoming album?
The next album is a double album which means there’s two different sections to it – Part One and Part Two. Part One is coming out in the next two months. It’s basically a theme album – not a concept album, but the songs are connected thematically. I guess it’s like an environmentalist album. A lot of the themes on the songs are talking about either time in the past or the future or realizing the present is dystopian and it’s kind of encouraging people to think of how they interact with the world and how it affects people in the future. Each song’s a bit different, I hate to be didactic about it but the album is definitely an environmentalist concept album.
Are there any other political or social themes on the record?
Almost all of them. There will be a lyric or two – it’s not like the whole song is about one thing but I mean I’ll drop in lyrics. For “Acid Night” there’s a lyric about Elon Musk and the KKK, so I just sprinkle stuff in that amuses me and I don’t like to be super direct with what I’m saying to people. I’m not like “Fuck Trump” or whatever but I think that people that listen to my stuff kind of get what I’m trying to say more often than not. I try to do it in creative ways and come at issues – not in a way that’s preaching at people or telling them what think. They’re more of a way for me to get them to think about issues creatively and look at them from different angles.
What's getting you through the pandemic?
It’s been really tough. I have been just working on the album by myself a lot this year. So, it’s been a lot of alone time. I travel a little bit and that helps me refresh – going from place to place. I play a lot of video games – if I’m honest with myself. On a day to day basis, it makes me feel like I’m connected with people. I’m definitely a gamer – I’ll play some Fortnite or League of Legends and that’s kind of my social media for the day where I’m feeling like “okay, I’m connecting with people!” It’s tough times, I think the hardest thing is there’s this evolutionary thing where we want to connect with people and it’s so hard to right now because of the lockdown and the fact that the political climate is messed up. It’s hard to connect with people because you feel like there’s this divide based on their ideologies and that’s one thing in the States that’s really hard to overcome because it feels like half the population, you can’t connect with and that’s really messed up. There’s a lot of weird stuff going on right now and I’ll just be happy when this year is over. Maybe next year will bring some changes. I do think that I would love to connect with people more – that’s on my list of things. I did a big tour last year and that was really nice because it gave me the opportunity to meet tons of new people in different cities and it was awesome. It was a life-affirming thing to do. If you’re a musician and you haven’t done it before –it might not be the most amazing thing for your career but on a personal level, it’s definitely amazing to be able to meet tons of new people and connect with them through your music.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
You can check out my music wherever you listen to music. There’s a new music video out for “Acid Night” on YouTube and just keep in touch! I’m super accessible – people are always emailing me and dropping me DMs and I will always respond to whatever questions or anything really.
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