There are few bands and musicians still regularly making new music from the earliest days of Joyzine, back towards the start of this millenium, fewer still from the formative period before Joyzine was even a twinkle in my eye, and almost none from that period making anything that appeals to me on its own merit when stripped of any sense of rosy retrospection, that is intriguing and enjoyable outside of the context of what has gone before. Ben Fox Smith is one of the few.
I first became aware of his music in 1997, when ‘This Kitten Is Clean’, a track by Stony Sleep, the teenage alt rock band he’d formed with his brother, was featured on the cover mounted CD of issue 4 of Sessions Magazine (a publication which, despite only lasting a dozen or so issues, played a big part in shaping both my musical taste and the ethos of Joyzine). As a music obsessed teen, giddy on their grungey guitars and gothic overtones, I quickly sought out every release and caught them live every time they played locally until they split up just before the turn of the millennium.
Since then Fox Smith has been through a number of musical evolutions, with bands including Serafin and First and more recently self-releasing as a solo artist. This latest guise has allowed greater opportunities for experimentation, with his sound branching off in varied, often unexpected, directions and this was never more in evidence than last year, which saw Fox Smith put out four releases, each with their own very distinct flavour. These included an album of songs from an obscure sub-genre of Peruvian folk music, a lo-fi experimental record created in a single 9 day stretch, a genre sprawling studio LP which includes two versions of the national anthem (one a bleak vocoder deconstruction) and, to round the year off, a pristine low-key cover of Lily Allen’s ‘Pussy Palace’.
We caught up with Ben to find out more about a busy year of recording, the upcoming Stony Sleep documentary, and his plans for 2026.
You had a pretty busy 2025 with three albums and a standalone single released over the course of the year – how did you find working at this rate, what did you have to do differently and are you planning on a similar level of output this year?
I’m having a bit of break now as I’ve moved from London to Lancaster where I’m fulfilling a dream of building a studio in my garage!
2025 was probably the largest output of mine so far but it wasn’t planned that way… things culminated at the same time I guess.
Each of the releases had a very distinct feel to them, so let’s look at them individually – the first was Chimaycha, released in June, which comprised of your versions of seven songs from the Peruvian folk sub-genre of the same name. Is this the first time you’ve worked with music from that side of your heritage, and if so what led to you incorporating it now?
It is indeed my first foray into my Peruvian side of things… the album was actually a university project… I wanted to find out what Peruvian music really was as I had a sense it wasn’t really panpipes on a mountain top!
What are the traditional characteristics of this form and how true did you feel you needed to stay to them?
It’s quite strange music which I enjoyed deconstructing. The main elements are the high pitched female vocals, chimanga guitars and very odd meters.
K-Town came out the following month, recorded in 9 days on a 4-track tape machine. What were the inspirations behind taking this approach?
I love working intensively (although it’s quite unhealthy) and saw an opportunity to grab 9 days alone in a house with my bits and bobs. I wanted to try out new techniques with old processes like using a teenage engineering pocket sampler for all the drums and using a ribbon microphone instead of the usual shure 57.
What qualities did this process bring out in the recording that a more traditional approach might have lacked?
Because of the limitations intrinsic to tape machines you get more atmospheres in the form of mistakes, noise, noises, happenstances. These help with directing me forward.
Your third long-form release of the year, Steady Thy Laden Head Across a Brook, was released in November. The title is a line from Keats’ poem To Autumn – did his influence, or that of the season, extend beyond name the record?
It was the season really, and the time of my life… the prospect this year of moving to the countryside was a pleasant surprise and my wife and I had been walking a lot more in the Forest of Bowland for example. A life with less concrete and more greenery was knocking.
The final release of the year was a cover of Lily Allen’s ‘Pussy Palace’, why did you choose this particular song? Are there plans to make this a more regular thing?
Yes I’d like to do more of these covers that come with YouTube videos on my channel showing the process. Since I don’t play live very much anymore I enjoy making content instead. I chose ‘Pussy Palace’ because my wife wouldn’t stop singing it so it became an ear worm I could work with. I think it’s a pretty great pop song! My version might appeal to different people.
In addition to these releases, you’ve also been working on a project, Puke Bitch, with filmmaker Sam Tricomo. Can you tell us anything about the series?
Oh yes Puke Bitch is at festivals like Slamdance at the moment, looking to be snapped up. It’s about two late teen siblings, Dove and Larry, rather left to their own devices and getting into weird, wonderful and scary scrapes in small town America. Murder, church and dead-cat sniffing are on the menu.
How did this collaboration come about, and how has it been working with Sam?
Sam is a Stony Sleep fan and found me that way. I love working with him… a special film-maker akin to Lynch at times. Really good chap too.
How, if at all, does your process change when making music for a wider project such as this, rather than a standalone album?
More fun in a way… the visuals give me more freedom and lots of inspiration!
You’ve been documenting some of your process via Youtube and BlueSky – how have you found opening up your way of working with the wider world, and how has it been received so far?
It’s been a long time dawning on me that this is a way forward, people are interested in the process, maybe more than the result! Which I find a bit weird… But in my new studio I’ll be able to dedicate more time to improving my communication of my processes and hopefully it won’t get in the way of actual creativity which is the heart of it all of course.
Work has been underway for a little while on a Stony Sleep documentary, What Rough Beast. Is there any news on when we might be able to see it? What had it been like looking back at that time in your life and the music you were making?
Yes indeed, an old Stony fan and musician Tom Burgess has interviewed many people involved in those records and how we got signed at school etc. including a Libertine, a Razorlight, Mystery Jets, Electric Soft Parade, Steve Ludwin, Britt Collins, and our parents!
Tom is a great interviewer and person so it’s all been a joy reminiscing… unfortunately my memory hasn’t proved to be very good, but the doc is going to be wonderful I’m sure… the editing of the hours of footage is taking a while but hopefully 2026 is the year.
It’s been thirty years since the first Stony Sleep album, are there any remaining threads from the music you were making then that remain in your most recent work?
Yes I’m sure there are although I don’t like to repeat myself. There are only 12 notes in western music after all! One can’t escape oneself of course and I never wanted (so far) to alter the impetus of writing by getting too theoretical or something. The joy and excitement remains and the simplicity I think as well. I have become more experimental to find new music to make.
What do you have lined up for this year?
Just to get my new digs together ready for mixing and mastering other artist’s music as well as my own which has become a good source of income… and ready for more YouTubing!
Ben Fox Smith: Bandcamp / Youtube
Interview by Paul Maps
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