You Want Fox formed in early 2015, but you’ve played together before that, right
Natalie: We’ve played in loads of different bands. We were in a band called The Stilettos, and another called GlitterSpit, which was a bit more electro pop. Alex Mighten – also known as Karizma, who was in Out Da Ville – featured on a song. We also played in The Smears.
Where did the name You Want Fox come from?
Colette: It was good old iPhone predictive text.
Natalie: She was saying, “Do you want sex?” to her partner, and it came up as You Want Fox... Joking.
Colette: That sounds a bit like Manuel from Fawlty Towers...
Natalie: You should never call your band something beginning with The or T, S or R. You get submerged in the middle of things and you get missed.
Why the transition from punk to pop?
Natalie: We’ve always been secret pop whores.
Colette: We love Ameriie – we went to see her at Glee Club. And we saw Little Mix. We got really drunk. I don’t remember much of it.
Natalie: We sang every single word.
Can you see yourselves bringing any dance routines into the mix?
Natalie: Do you know what, I wouldn’t rule it out for a music video. Hot men…
Colette: Dressed as foxes…
The title of the new album, You Can’t Sit With Us, is a direct quote from Mean Girls. Which ‘mean girl’ would you be?
Natalie: I’d like to be Regina because she’s beautiful, but I don’t wanna be a bitch.
Colette: I like Gretchen because she doesn’t realise she’s bitching…
Natalie: Yeah, that’s definitely you. I’m the dark horse in that one – the goth girl, Janice.
What’s your songwriting process?
Natalie: I go in the shower and I start singing. I find a melody, and it’s like an entire orchestra – I can see all the parts in my head. I have to record it there and then and send it to Colette. But then she visualises me naked and she gets all horny, and then every time we play that song she’ll get the horn on.
Colette: Yeah, and then I can’t concentrate. The creativity comes to me when I’m driving. I’ll pull over and record it and all you can hear are my fingers on the steering wheel doing the drum beats and my indicator clicking.
You guys are not necessarily typical pop princesses. Do you think pop needs a stronger female voice?
Colette: It’s good that we play our own instruments and write our own songs as a lot of pop is manufactured, the Simon Cowell crap. There are a lot of strong female role models out there, I just think the music is getting lost a bit.
Natalie: There’s so much out there. I love Spotify right now. They do this thing called Discovery Weekly, where they give you thirty tracks based on what you’ve previously listened to. I get some amazing tracks.
Who are your ultimate ‘bad girl’ idols?
Colette: Gwen Stefani has been my idol since I was a kid, I absolutely love her. She doesn’t give a damn, she wears what she wants, and she’s really creative.
Natalie: M.I.A for me, she’s a bad girl.
Colette: I know it’s not music, but I love Anna Faris. She plays some absolutely mental roles. I saw her in Movie 43 the other day and she said, “I want you to poop on my chest.”
Natalie: If we’re going non-musicians, then Fairuza Balk. She’s like, the ultimate bad girl.
What’s the most rock‘n’roll thing you’ve ever done?
Natalie: We were in Liverpool not long back, exploring and getting absolutely trashed on Prosecco – as you do. Then we got a reminder that we’d booked a spa day and had our massage, facial and pedicure appointments to go to. We turned up, tried to swim and nearly sank. We were ushered off to our treatment rooms where we both woke each other up snoring, and one of us nearly vomited all over the lovely girls massaging us. I won’t say who it was because we made a pact.
Colette: It was Natty Fox.
What’s the most rock‘n’roll thing you want to do?
Natalie: I just wanna play a decent festival. I don’t wanna smash anything up or break it. We’re past that. We’ve done that.
Colette: It would be wicked to play a massive festival. Reading and Leeds, or Glastonbury.
Do you prefer crowds who already know the songs or do you like having to win them over?
Natalie: Winning them over. I like growing the fan base.
Colette: I remember playing a gig before the album was released, and people were stood at the front singing along. That always amazes me.
Have you ever performed drunk?
Colette: Yeah. Loads. I had an out of body experience on stage. I’d been drinking all day, and then had a few shots of sambuca just before we went on, and I remember watching my arms as I was playing and thinking, “I don’t know if I’m playing fast enough, I don’t know how I’m here.”
Natalie: There’s been a few times we’ve been on tour and had breakfast in a can. I often wake up naked next to Colette, and wonder why she’s stripped me and not bothered putting my jimmies on...
Colette: You do a lot of stripping yourself right in front of me.
What’s been the biggest milestone for the band so far?
Colette: We’ve just sparked the interest of a manager in London. It’s somebody who has a good reputation. He said he liked what he heard and that we’d made him sit up and listen.
Do you have any strange fans that have followed from your previous projects?
Colette: We have a guy that comes to a few gigs. He stands at the front, takes his shoes and socks off and dances around his handbag.
Natalie: The first time he did it, the smell of his feet was so bad that we now always take perfume on stage with us. We’ve been told we’re the best smelling band about town.
Colette: One of my exes used to say to me, “You don’t even wanna know what they’re saying when you lot are on stage”. That used to creep me out. Nobody minds being complimented, but there was a sinister undertone to it sometimes.
Is that part of the reason you’ve gone over to pop?
Natalie: We’ve always wanted to do that, so no.
What three people would you invite out on the lash with You Want Fox?
Natalie: Someone funny, someone hot…
Colette: Anna Faris. Johnny Depp would be the eye candy.
Natalie: And someone rich to buy the drinks…
Colette: Taylor Swift. She earned 130 million last year. We’ll bin her off, but we’ll nick her handbag. Then we can crack on with the fun.
Natalie: With Johnny.
Colette: Two become three...
Natalie: There’s four, though, cos Anna’s there.
Colette: She can watch.
What can people expect from a You Want Fox gig?
Natalie: Lots of fun. We don’t take ourselves seriously at all, and we like to interact with the audience. And our songs are really easy so they’ll be able to join in after the second chorus.
You Want Fox are playing at the Waterfront Festival on Saturday 13 August and Macmillan Fest on Saturday 3 September.
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