#oddfoxesart

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ODD FOXES + MUSICAL ABILITY

Here's a little breakdown of each of the Foxes' musical (including vocal + other skills) abilities and an idea of how they ended up with the sound they have.

ART

All of Art's instrumental ability is self-taught - he bought an acoustic guitar from a music shop when he was about ten (after saving his pocket money for weeks), and found a chord book at the library and taught himself. The tin whistle and harmonica came a little later when he was about thirteen, after acquiring both at a market in Basildon and teaching himself how to play them. His vocals came naturally and is a touch lower than his baseline voice tone. He'd practised singing by learning his favourite songs and singing along. Once he felt he was good enough at playing guitar and singing, he tried his hand at songwriting when he was fifteen with his strongest skill being his lyricism. Reg wanted him in Odd Foxes' original line-up because of his songwriting and vocal skill but was pleasantly surprised to learn that Art could also play guitar. His main influences are: punk, blues, and general rock music - all of which he actively listens to on a near-daily basis.

FRANK

Like Art, all of Frank's instrumental ability is self-taught. Unlike Art, it was due to him having access to all three instruments at home and learning how to play folk songs (specifically Welsh folk songs). He started with the violin, which is rarely used on Foxes' songs but it is used, it's him playing it, then moved on to the guitar after becoming obsessed with Top Of The Pops and wanting to be a 'cool guitarist'... The bass became his main instrument because he preferred the sound of it and he was gifted one for his thirteenth birthday, so it was his most practised instrument of the three. Frank learned how to sing early because of his family encouraging it and teaching him old Welsh folk songs, and the tone of his voice matches his normal speaking tone. His only other skill is related to singing, which is his ability to sing in multiple Celtic languages (Welsh, Irish, Scots, etc.) - the others don't know the languages at all, while Frank grew up in a Welsh family and eventually learned other non-English Celtic songs as he grew up. His biggest proficiency (obviously) is in Welsh. His main influences are: punk, blues, folk, and funk - all of which he actively listens to on a near-daily basis.

JAMES

Of all the Foxes, James has the most musical ability - not that people would really know that. He's been playing the drums from the age of six, having lessons through school, but he also had private piano and violin lessons - both of which, he's graded in (grade 3 piano and grade 2 violin). He learned the guitar, bass, flute, and harmonica for fun in his late teens. Vocally, James is a tenor, which is just a touch higher than his normal speaking tone and this skill had been hidden from Foxes fans until after Frank's death and they released Polaroids as a single - on which, James sings the second verse. His other skills all revolve around the studio-end of things: production, arrangement, and composition. He is self-taught in these skills, having learned them over time whilst making records. His main influences are: punk, blues, prog-rock, folk, funk, thrash, and general metal - all of which he actively listens to on a near-daily basis.

TIM

In the original line-up, Tim was the most qualified musician, but since James joined, they're the second-most qualified. Synth keyboards are his favourite instrument to play, but his ability comes from a transferable skill in the form of his grade 1 piano - which they'd had private lessons for as a child until his parents couldn't afford the lessons anymore, but they kept at it. Guitar he picked up at Frank's and taught themself to play, while the melodica he had bought at a toy shop and purposely learned to play "properly" so that Foxes could use it in their music. Tim's vocal ability was something he learned from growing up in a relatively musical family and being around Frank and his family from the age of about eleven - they're a higher tenor than James is and it's higher than his normal speaking tone. They are the highest vocal tone in the Odd Foxes line-up. His songwriting skill they picked up whilst helping Art writing the original Odd Foxes songs early in the band's life, production and composition he learned similarly to how James did - on the job while making records. His synth programming skill, however, comes from Tim's obsessive special interest in synthesisers and learning exactly how they work and why - it's his most proficient skill in the studio. His main influences are: punk, blues, funk, disco, pop, prog-rock, and glam rock l - all of which they actively listens to on a near-daily basis.

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if you see darkness, look away | really not my best work but i was working on an odd foxes vibe using the narcissist by blur as inspo

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you act like i'm nothing to lose  | james 🔪 dave + dylan (ft. dan smith/bastille)

As you can probably tell (especially if you've read that one one-shot I wrote a whiles back set in 1979), Liar Liar by Dylan ft. Dan Smith/Bastille is probably the perfect song to describe how the relationship between James & Dave ended. To tl;dr the lore: Dave had been cheating on James the entire time they were together - doing it more when James was away on tour for work - and would straight up lie to James' face about it. James had his suspicions because he'd caught Dave in the act once before and when he found out the last time, James (understandably) lost his shit and broke up with him - kicking Dave out of his flat in the process. 'Killing off my fantasy' I've decided is in reference to how James had thought that they'd sorted the issue out in the past and how he'd planned a great many things with Dave, which were, ultimately, torn into tatters by Dave's serial cheating. 'Always bad news when it comes to you...' in my head, is in reference to how they keep accidentally meeting during the Odd Foxes years and how Dave purposely sets off Frank (which, inevitably, ends up in a fistfight because fuck Dave x).

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so you can point, you can stare, nothing's bringing me down | james + lights

In My Head by Lights seems to fit James as a character - particularly when it pertains to his public persona as Odd Foxes' drummer. He's an openly gay 'celebrity' in the 1980s, and while that comes with a lot of controversy for him (and, to an extent, the band's reputation), James truly doesn't give one iota about anything anyone says about him... I mean, he's far too busy focusing on his own life - and his career - to pay attention to anything the press (or the general public) has to say about him and his ""lifestyle"". James is just livin' his best life as the Foxes' drummer + human embodiment of "unbothered, staying in my lane (etc etc)". I made this graphic look like a magazine page scan to sort of highlight that idea.

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odd foxes licking wounds (released: february 6th 1984) | oc band (album edition)

I had the tongue from my Whiplash lyrics post saved as a psd and I decided to do a full 'mock-up' of the album the song comes from - Licking Wounds. It's shortened to either Lickin' or LW, and its full reference name is Odd Foxes Licking Wounds (to make the 'gimmick' they have work). It comes in various formats and comes in both standard colours as well as special edition pink & purple splatter vinyl & translucent pink cassette. A CD version isn't released until 2004 as part of its 20th anniversary re-release. I thought it'd be fun to have someone have the full collection of tapes, both a signed and unsigned art card, and the special edition vinyl that they're "selling" on some site or another in the present day.

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keeping the tea hot while you're taking the piss... | reg mcnulty + lights

Jaws by Lights is the perfect song for Reg in my mind because it shows both sides of him: the 'bitchy' persona he keeps up in private as a sort of defence mechanism, and the perfect (bubblegum/synth) pop persona he shows the world (as a form of "getting back" at Odd Foxes). Yes, the song has "she" pronouns but given how slang was within the (UK) LGBTQIA+ community back in the day, the idea of 'she got claws, fuck it she got jaws' is the perfect allegory for Reggie's overall bitchiness. It also perfectly captures his feigned 'unbotheredness' -- i.e.: how he pretends to be completely fine with Odd Foxes' success without him being part of it when he's actually quite excruciatingly - and unsubtly - jealous.

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i trust almost everyone but still carry a pocketknife  | tim + eddie ft. lights

Pocketknife by EDDIE & Lights is a newer addition to my in-head Tim playlist but I really think it fits him - particularly when in relation to how he is seen in public, how he sees himself, and who he, ultimately, sees as 'safe'. He knows what it means to be 'different' because Tim has always been different in some way, shape, or form - he's biracial, he's (unknowingly) autistic, he's aromantic, and he considers himself genderless (which means he refuses to conform to the idea of gendered anything, but especially clothes), and while those differences quickly weed out who is friend and who is foe, that doesn't mean that he's certain that a person is 'safe' so he still carries a metaphorical 'pocketknife' in the form of sharp-tongued wit and inarguable self-confidence. Tim finds it difficult to trust people who aren't in his close-knit friend group or his family and he has an anxiety around (particularly white) fans - but he still carries himself with confidence, regardless of what the world around him thinks of him. He doesn't care what anyone thinks but he still gets anxious around people. He's seen the world for what it really is from a young age, so while he has his unwavering self-confidence and 0 fear when it comes to just living his life the way he wants, he fears people because people tend to be the cruellest of animals - especially when they get a whiff of low confidence and difference.

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you like his strong hands, strong hands  | frank x james (frames) + blegh

His Hands by Blegh is on the Frank x James playlist that I made and posted a while ago, and I picked it because of the lines 'prolonged eye contact in casual conversation' and 'you're too real for me, you should go to something better, i'll give you to someone better' - both of which make me think of how they'd met during the 1980 Wretcheds tour (before James joined Odd Foxes) and how they have to keep their love on the down-low given how things were back then. In particular, how Frank was still in the closet despite his deep, deep love for James and his pure desperation to be able to feel his 'strong hands' against him, with each encounter they have (outside of their/James' flat) leaving Frank desperate and 'starving' for more. The pair of them treat every intimate (read: sexual/sensual) encounter (regardless of where they are) they have 'like it was a religion' - with James feeling that more as the pair initially fell for one another during those first few months after meeting. Line use on graphic: 'you know i was still down on my knees like it was a religion'.

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my fears, they keep me rational  | frank + balance and composure

I picked Last To Know by Balance And Composure as Frank's theme song while I was writing up his character sheet and, in the grand scheme of things, it does fit him both in terms of as a person and in terms of his arc really well. Now he isn't the 'last to know' anything, neither is he the 'last to show any sign of passion' - in fact, he's the opposite when it comes to that - but he does have the overall feelings presented in the song toward Reg, who is an old friend of his and he feels deeply betrayed by (given what Reg does to Art, and how Reg acts toward James) and it does, in my mind, feel like a conversation he's having with himself in a way... It's this sense of conflict he has within himself in terms of who he really is versus the person he presents in a bid to keep himself safe - in particular, safe from his older brothers, whose lifelong bullying makes him terrified of coming out - and as he gets older, he feels like he's getting colder toward himself, even when he doesn't deserve it, because of both the fear he has and the way he hides his true self (until 1993). The line I used in the graphic "I will never be somebody you can just forget" is in reference to his death in 2023 + his well-known loud, energetic personality and how he touches the people around him (often without knowing).

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those were, hands down, my favourite days  | james + lights

I know, I know, another Lights song for James but: this is Running With The Boys, which is his actual theme song (quoted on the top of his character sheet). It's the perfect song for him, given his melancholy nostalgia (in 2023) for the old days where he and the Foxes lads were on top of the world, "captivated by [the] craze" of being in a band and somehow making it work - whether it be by hard graft (work), or by sheer dumb luck. It's also a good audio reference to how he remembers his memories of him and his Frankie when they were younger, having small, intimate, hazy-filtered moments in the safety of their own little kingdom - but also surrounded by their friends. James feels safest being part of the band and, although he, of course, deeply misses Frank, he can find solace in the fact that he, Art, and Tim are able to carry on and pay homage to Frankie's spirit by continuing to 'run with the boys' & making music - just like the old times.