Getting to Know… Sunflower Fox & The Chicken Leg | Interview 🎤

In the 379th Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from Minneapolis six-piece band, Sunflower Fox & The Chicken Leg. 

“We’re like if Heart, Led Zeppelin and Cheap Trick drank a bunch of Hamms and had an unholy love child in the back of a carpeted van.” Whoa! Now that’s some type of way to kick off an interview, 🎙 Sunflower Fox & The Chicken Leg! Like our many other Getting to Know Q&As, we get the inside scoop on the Minneapolis six-piece band’s genesis, goals, musical influences, and of course, current, and future musical endeavors. 🎙️ Kaity Heart (vocals) and 🎙️ James Gross (Guitar) answers our burning questions regarding the collective. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into 🎤 Getting to Know… Sunflower Fox & The Chicken Leg: Interview No. 379! 

For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Sunflower Fox & The Chicken Leg distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

We’re like if Heart, Led Zeppelin and Cheap Trick drank a bunch of Hamms and had an unholy love child in the back of a carpeted van. When we record-we’re doing it live. We are all in a room together-we don’t do overdubs unless we have to. We’re trying to bring back the magic that happened in these iconic studios.  

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Sunflower Fox & The Chicken Leg form and what were some of the goals or visions you had early on?  

We’re all professional session players and jobbers, so we had a lot of time during the pandemic to write since our gigs were canceled! It was rough not making any money, but we got a band out of the deal. Kaity asked James (who have been very close if not best friends for the better part of 15 years) if he was interested in just helping her put together a writing project with some other displaced, talented local musicians and Sunflower was essentially born. The mission of the band has always been to bring back the studio magic of the 70s by visiting these amazing places and getting the word out to other bands, producers and engineers that these places still exist. To lay on the same piano that Kansas/Stevie Wonder did (Studio in the Country) or set up where Nirvana/Live did (Pachyderm Studios) or legit record right next to Sublime (Sonic Ranch) and feel that energy. That’s what they did in the 70’s and that’s what we’re doing now.  

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

Well, if you know us personally, you know that some of us have problems with boundaries… So that means if there’s a goal…we will achieve it no matter what because we’re workaholics. Our goals have always been to visit iconic studios (which we’re doing), create awesome music with our friends (which we’re doing) and do it as close to the 1970’s as we can (also doing.) As far as everything else goes it kind of just changes by the day! Things like analytic goals, social media goals, touring goals are really cool, but honestly, if all that comes of this is that we got to make awesome music with some of the best producers and engineers in the country, then, that is awesome. 

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Whom would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?   

Kaity: We have a lot of the same influences as a band, but mine are a little more female focused. They include Heart, Fleetwood Mac, The Runaways, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. The band is heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Bad Company, Headeast, Big Star – the whole band is basically a love letter to the 70s. Just the raw nature of letting the music breathe and not be so sterile and perfect is really the point here.   

James: For guitar and writing, it’s Led Zeppelin, Skynard, and The Allman Brothers for sure.

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

Kaity: Well, this band has only done one show as technically we started releasing songs in January of 2023. When we first started writing it was 2020/2021 and obviously there were no shows during that time! However, we did do a big publicity stunt style show with a bar, two radio stations and a liquor sponsor where they literally just paid us to drink 70’s drinks until we could barely play. Then we filmed ourselves playing the same song multiple times so you could see how bad it got. It was completely hysterical. The video is up on our YouTube! 

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

Kaity: There’s a song on album #2 called ‘The Watcher’ that I got to record vocals with Ron Nevison. It’s the hardest song, vocally, we’ve done so far. I had sung about 6 hours the day before, and this was right away in the morning, and it was incredibly high. But with a ton of encouragement, I was able to pull it off. He compared me to some of my heroes and I literally just stood there with my mouth open like a goon not able to comprehend what he had just said. It was pretty damn amazing.

James: Agreed. It was kinda of like a sleeping giant. It just turned out great and none of us expected it until we heard the mix.  

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?   

Kaity: Half the band is oddly obsessed with Bigfoot and bigfoot type creatures. Kyle, our drummer, likes to randomly call for bigfoot in various wooded areas. James, our rhythm player, is very interested in the Skunk Ape which apparently lives in the swamps of Florida? I can’t say anything because I literally used to be on a radio show that talked about all things bizarre and spooky.  

Mike, our lead guitarist, has a snake named Ozzie (He’s a rock and roll snake). And Al (keyboards) and Craig (bass), like to get into arguments about whether it’s better to tune to A440 or A432. We usually just sit back and let them hash it out.

Closing out, what is Sunflower Fox & The Chicken Leg currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

So, right now, there are quite a few things we’re working on: we’re finishing mixing album #2, we’re writing album #3 and in the infancy of planning a tour of the UK in 2024. So, we’ll see how that goes!!  

Thank you so much for sharing and taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward.   

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Getting to Know… Sunflower Fox & The Chicken Leg: Interview No. 379 [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Sunflower Fox & The Chicken Leg; Tumisu via Pixabay]