Much of The Foxes early fanbase was built up from two very significant Myspace music features, thanks to which they attracted thousands of new listeners and their gigs got busier and busier. With repeat support from XFM and Radio 2 for their Lover, Killer EP, the live side kicked off in a big way and promoters, including Alan McGee, got hot under the collar to book this hotly tipped London four piece. The band chat to soundfreak about life on the road and stunning new single, 'Trauma Town'.

Q: Firstly, how did you all meet and why did you choose to call yourselves The Foxes?

A: We were each in our own separate bands, 4 bands that toured very heavily together in the summer of '04. Most nights in the hotel it ended up with the 4 of us being the last up, and we'd jam some stuff out that started sounding pretty good. It emerged we all had an above-average interest in elevated highways and that led to us putting together a splinter group called "The Skyroads". It turned out there was already a band with the same name based in Gohtayabagon, New Mexico, so we had to change it. When we found out that there had never been a band called "The Foxes" before and then learned from a marketing survey that 8 out of 10 people would be interested in hearing music from a musical group called "The Foxes" we realised we had struck upon a gap in the market for music by bands called "The Foxes" - so we changed the name almost immediately.

Q: Your EP ‘Lover, Killer’ was released in August 2007. Are you pleased with the response it’s had?

A: Yes, very pleased. It was never 'officially' released, though. We needed something to sell at gigs so we had 500 limited edition CDs made up which were each hand-numbered. We took 100 to America when we went touring there, which funded fuel and food for us all for 4 weeks. It's lucky we had them over there at all really because Customs & Excise in Washington DC nearly took them off us. We managed to convince the authorities we wouldn't be selling them and in the end the guy just said, "Have a great tour!". They really know about customer service over there, even when they are wearing guns and could nail you for an extra large portion of tax if they wanted to.

"Lover, Killer" is also on iTunes and is still selling well, but really it's what the song itself did for us in raising our profile. "Lover, Killer" seemed to strike a chord with a lot of people and took us up a few notches. It was the attention that it brought us that meant we could leave our 9-5 jobs and do this full-time, starting with the US tour. We've moved on a lot since that recording, however, and when I compare it to "Trauma Town" I get very excited about the comparative success our debut single could bring us.

Q: New single ‘Trauma Town’ is set for release October 20th. What’s the track about?

A: The simple answer is that it's about twats who play their mobile phones on buses. In fact, the song was called "Twat" for ages. But it goes a little deeper than that. Nigel wrote it at a time when he was commuting on public transport for 5 hours a day to save money for the big dayjob walk-out. His tolerance was already pretty low for people who annoyed him but I think that journey used to send him insane. For anything more than that I'd have to speak to him, but he's on his way here at the moment on public transport.

Q: Do you have plans to release an album soon? If so, what can we expect to hear?

A: We'd love to record and release an album, but releasing a few singles first is better for us at the moment.

Q: You have been touring manically over the past few years, what’s been your best gig to date and why?

A: We talk about this quite often, actually. It's a mixture of:
The Priory in Doncaster supporting 'Yeti' on the 6-week tour we did with them. The place was absolutely shoulder-to-shoulder with hundreds of 14-20 year-olds who were so up for it.

The 100 Club in London supporting The Animals. The 100 Club is a fantastic venue even without its history and heritage, but to share a stage with legends like The Animals was another treat. We had a great crowd there for us too and The Animals' crowd dug it as well. My Dad was there and I like it when friends and relatives see good gigs because it provides a tacit explanation of why the hell we're doing what we're doing.

The Quay in Blyth is always one of our favourite places to play, along with Glasgow, Carlisle, Birmingham and Bristol. We did a gig recently for Nigel's uncle in Llangynidr Village Hall. We were asked to do 45 minutes as The Foxes and then 45 minutes of covers, but the uncle hadn't counted on filling the hall with 300 party animals who encored us 'til 2am. We ended up playing for nearly 4 hours - a great night! That actually gave us the idea to do a tour of village halls across the country - places where the locals are appreciative to have us and we're appreciative that they came out to see some live music.

All the best with the new single!