Jesus H Foxx
Artist Living Room, Edinburgh, 2010
Just a stone’s throw away from Dan aka Withered Hand’s place lives Jesus H. Foxx’s singer Michael with his girlfriend. When we come over to their flat from Withered Hand, we first get seated in the kitchen for some more black tea till the other six band members Neil D., Neil I. Rich, Richie, Steve and Tallah arrive in dribs and drabs. They gather in the living room for improvising on some songs before they decide to perform “Return A Body” and “This Is Not A Rental Car” in a many-voiced way for us. They start off smooth and get more buoyant the later it gets. Neither bass nor drum would attract the attention of the cat that is drowsing beside the performers. Only the fact that someone among them is burping makes the kitty prick up its ears. But then the familiar vocals and rhythm get it doze off again. For reasons of warmth, cosiness and cheerfulness the jam session fills up the rest of the evening before we set out for the cold.
- Photography
- Simon Brugner
- Artist
- Jesus H Foxx
Artist Living Room, Edinburgh
Describing Edinburgh’s impressive scenery of outstanding old stone-buildings and the dramatic castle – that is something we leave to other more capable ones. It is true that the beauty of the city – embedded in always green hills and situated next to the rough sea coast – is breathtaking. Edinburgh as one of the cities with the highest living standard in UK is a place to breathe in history (something we are familiar with from our home base Vienna); nonetheless there is still a lot of non-historical things going on. With a population of about 500,000 (a third of the number of people living in Vienna), it is far from a metropolis feeling and still has a really remarkable music scene. To get some feeling for it, you should check out the music video project Off The Beaten Tracks and the music blog (containing videos and podcasts) Song, by Toad from this cool guy Matthew. We have to thank him a million times as he was the one who made our filming in Edinburgh possible. We were staying with him, his great wife and crazy cat and used Matthew’s resources (knowledge and opinions about music, his network as a label owner and blogger, his internet, his bathroom etc.) to connect with Edinburgh’s music world. So we are happy to start the Scotland music special with the four sessions that we have done in Edinburgh (and yeah, we know – shame on us! – we missed Frightened Rabbit). The second session we’ve done in the Scottish capital was with Jesus H. Foxx in singer Michael’s living room in West Edinburgh.