Localized: Fur Foxen

Ditch your upcoming New Year’s resolutions for the only one that matters this season — supporting Salt Lake City’s local music scene. Come check out the Kilby Court stage on Wednesday, January 15 for a night of genre-melding performances featuring guitars, cellos and harmonicas from co-headliners John Elwood Morgan and Fur Foxen, along with opener The Snarlin’ Yarns. SLUG Magazine’s Localized showcase is sponsored by Riso-Geist. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and music starts at 8:00. Get tickets here.

While Utah may outwardly express itself as a hyper-religious, sleepy state full of do-gooders and rock climbers, Salt Lake City maintains its local reputation as a counterculture refuge. Similarly, Fur Foxen is a band composed of four individuals who seek to redefine genre and place themselves in a label of their own creation: counter-country. The quartet has managed to conceive an anti-genre that uniquely describes their blended sound of country with alternative elements.

Beginning as an acoustic duo in 2017, Fur Foxen was founded by original members Steph Darland and Amber Pearson. Darland and Pearson originally met in 2015 at a show where Pearson was performing, as Darland was looking to add a string musician to his project at the time, Harold Henry. After Harold Henry split, Darland and Pearson stuck around as a duo before introducing new members Ben Thornton and Ryan Houts to Fur Foxen in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

“It’s this resistance to these sounds that we’re inherent to because we want it so badly to be our own, you know?”

After speaking to each member about how they were introduced to Fur Foxen, it seems almost kismet that these musicians found one another when they did. From Houts moving from Boston to SLC and seeking the right project to join as a bassist, to Thornton’s band First Days going on hiatus at an ideal moment, everything aligned and allowed Fur Foxen to evolve into what it is today. Pearson says, “It seems like the timing for everyone was perfect, which is kind of crazy that it worked out that way.” Darland adds, “Like dominoes falling into a puddle of gold.”

Before Houts and Thornton joined, Fur Foxen sought a description that laid beyond the categories they were often lumped into, such as folk. Darland says, “We had the instruments and maybe the look of that kind of band, so I understand why we would get placed in that category from a visual standpoint.” With the addition of Thornton’s percussion and Houts’ bass, the duo’s sounds melded together into what they now define as counter-country. The term derived from the band’s love of SLC and its resistance culture. “That’s where our sound lives — sort of on this fringe area between country and rock but not quite fitting into either of those categories. It’s this resistance to these sounds that we’re inherent to because we want it so badly to be our own, you know?” Darland says.

With the latest releases of Fur Foxen’s single “Burn” and their EP Fox, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes — which Pearson credits as the most accurate representation of their sound — Fur Foxen’s counter-country label continues to sharpen. The band performed at The DLC this past July and highlighted a moment in the show where they felt more confident than ever. Darland says, “We were just thinking about having fun and being comfortable in the moment. And we had collectively not experienced that before, but it was noticeable.” Houts adds, “It’s probably one of the first shows where we all knew the songs front and back and we could have that confidence of just putting our hearts out there.”

“We were just thinking about having fun and being comfortable in the moment.”

Darland notes that SLC itself is thick with myriad genres and scenes that are incredibly talented and welcoming (they mention a love for local artists Ambedo, Vincent Draper and the Culls, Lord Vox and Sean Baker’s Recycled Stardust), and their eclectic rehearsal space The Foxhole often moonlights as a small venue in the backyard of Darland’s garage-turned-studio. The group notes, however, that one of the greatest challenges of being a local act is just getting people to come out to shows. Darland says, “In my heart of hearts, this is good music. This is music I would listen to. And we think if you like good music, you should listen to Fur Foxen. It’s nostalgic. It’s different.”

Check out Fur Foxen at an upcoming performance, whether that be at Localized, other local venues or their upcoming tour in Germany and the Netherlands. Keep an eye out for their new single “Murders and Metaphors” this January, and follow their Instagram @furfoxenmusic.

Read more Localized interviews:
Localized: The Medicine Company
Localized: Chegoya