THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Most of us run towards comfort at full tilt. There are only a select few individuals among us who, through natural inclination or learned behavior, are equipped to thrive in the face of chaos. Foxy Shazam’s enigmatic frontman Eric Nally is one of those people. This innate ability to find progress in disorder has largely shaped Foxy Shazam throughout their career and it was integral to the creation of the band’s sixth full-length album Burn.
The initial ideas that would eventually become Burn began to take shape in early 2019 while Nally was on tour with Macklemore, something he’s spent a great deal of his time doing after collaborating on the Seattle rapper’s massive 2016 hit Downtown. In contrast to their last record, Gonzo, which was written and conceived in the moment with the band in one room, Burn was often worked on remotely and recorded in the same manner. Sky White (piano) and Teddy Aitkins (drums) recorded in the legendary London Bridge studio in Seattle. Loren Turner (guitar) and Trigger Warning (bass) tracked their parts from Dayton, Kentucky at The LodgeKY studio. Finally, the process returned to the state of Washington, this time in Ryan Lewis’ Mundon Canyon studios, where Nally and Alex Nauth (horns) would add their parts to complete the picture.
On this record, Foxy Shazam eviscerate traditional genre lines. It’s a testament to where the band came from while aggressively pushing their sound forward. Throughout it all, Nally masterfully channels the lyrically abstract as he portrays feelings in the way one would describe a flavor. As a result, the listener is able to translate it through their own thoughts and experiences, adding a level of universal relatability that is hard to achieve. Burn is a collection of certified anthems that unintentionally provide a roadmap for fighting to live your best life in spite of the myriad obstacles that 2020 is throwing in your path. Speaking on the creation of Burn, Nally boldly declares “I will stand for 2020 and say I made moves during this time. It is hard, but we do it anyway. It might not be what you expect but, with Foxy, isn’t that what you expect”?
