I first saw The Fox Hunt (John Miller, Matt Metz, Matt Klein, and Ben Townshend) at a show we played together in NYC last year. Not exactly what I would have expected on a bill with a bunch of rock and punk bands, these dudes gathered around one microphone with nary a drum or amp between them and delivered a set of old-timey string music that, to me, stole the show. By no means a museum piece, these were young men writing modern songs about bars, relationships and hardships delivered through the airtight harmonies and taut musicianship that these West Virginians inherited honestly. That night was a blast, but the details get a little fuzzy…

The boys are on yet another month-long tour right now, mostly hitting the southeast and many places they haven’t played yet like Birmingham, Asheville and Atlanta. These dudes play well and play a whole lot. It’s fitting that their forthcoming LP is entitled “Long Way To Go.” I got a chance to check up with the fellas on a rare day off.

DI: So you’ve never been to Atlanta?

John Miller: I’m probably the only one… but yeah, we, as a band have not.

DI: It’s gonna be fun, we’re looking forward to it. So, y’all already have two full-length CDs , 2007’s “Nowhere Bound” and last year’s “America’s Working So We Don’t Have To” and a 7″ under your belt. Did you put those out yourselves?

John: The 7″ we split with our good buddy Dave Casagrande. He’s from our hometown of Martinsburg, but he’s in New York now and he has a label called Big House Records. Our own label is Skull City Records, so it’s kind of both of those. Those (CD’s) are all us.

DI: Y’all have one in the can for The Colonel Records, don’t you?

John: Yep. We actually just got the masters for that and it should be out Feb. 20. Colonel will putting it out on LP and we will be putting it out ourselves on CD.

DI: How did y’all hook up with The Colonel?

John: I had been a fan of The Weight when I was in college, before the Colonel Records stuff. We were up in Brooklyn one night and they just so happened to be playing across town and I wanted to go catch them, I got to talking to Joe and wanted to bring them down to Shepherdstown. Mostly just being a fan of them and getting to see them play and have ‘em down our way, and ended up hitting it off really well. Through them we met Bryce (Colonel records CEO Int’l…-ed), and it’s been a Cinderella story ever since

DI: It’s a unique label, with punk bands like All Night Drug Prowling Wolves and Ex-Humans, stuff like The Weight and King Tuff, The Goddamn Rattlesnake… seems to be a good fit for a band like y’all.

John: I feel like we’ve really hit it off with them better than anyone else we’ve met in the past few years; we really feel at home playing shows and hanging out with them. Bryce has always been really enthusiastic and we really trust his ear… they’re good guys.

DI: Do y’all share that background in punk/HC? It kind of comes across in the music a little bit, the way y’all tour…

John: We all kind of come from that area of musical interest, yeah, but we’ve all been into a lot of other things. (ask them about The Hot Dicks… -ed)

DI: Yeah, but it’s still very West Virginian. The real deal. Did y’all grow up with this music? Is it still that much a part of your culture to where young people are into it?

John: There is still a very strong culture of that kind of music in West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina… We’re seeing a lot more interest in the past several years of young people getting into it.

DI: Are people generally receptive to it? Y’all tend to play a lot of rock clubs.

John: It certainly depends on the night, but we have had a lot of good reception. Especially on this trip so far people have been really good to us and are actually listening a lot more, and it’s really nice to play to a listening crowd. Since we can’t be loud it can be a little intimidating playing with bands that plug in and have drums, but we pull it off and we have a lot of fun playing those kinds of shows.

DI: Y’all tour quite a bit. What do you do at home?

John: Well… this is all of our main source of income. We all have odd jobs at home, like Matt Klein works for his brother sometimes, Ben and Matt Metz teach mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and guitar lessons, I work at a burrito shop sometimes… but for the most part this is what we do. It’s tough, but it’s really gratifying. None of us have anything else we’d rather be doing.

DI: Good. Keep it up because y’all do it exceptionally well. Anything else?

One of the Matts: I love Faith Evans!

DI: Me too.

The Fox Hunt play 529 Flat Shoals Ave. Monday, December 7th with Jason C. Waller and Giant Lion. It’s free, broke ass!