Interview with Jumping Through Fiery Hoops’ Jeff Fox 🔊 WhatsMusic.de

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Interview with Jumping Through Fiery Hoops’ Jeff Fox

written by Jumping Through Fiery Hoops and WhatsMusic.de

Jumping Through Fiery Hoops: Jeff Fox’s Musical Journey

Jeff Fox, the creative force behind Jumping Through Fiery Hoops, is a songwriter with a rich history and a deeply personal connection to his music. Hailing from the small town of El Dorado, Arkansas, Jeff has spent over two decades in Athens, Georgia, where his passion for crafting heartfelt and thought-provoking songs has flourished.

Since the early 1990s, Jeff has been exploring the art of songwriting, starting with 4-track recordings and occasional live performances. His musical style, rooted in pop rock, is an eclectic blend of influences—from classic rock icons like Billy Joel and Hall & Oates to alternative trailblazers like Big Star and Gang of Four. With a talent for storytelling and a love of wordplay, Jeff’s music dives deep into the human experience, exploring themes of joy, struggle, and resilience.

Jeff’s latest album, Howling At The Wrong Moon, set to release on December 6th, 2024, continues this tradition of emotionally resonant music. Recorded in his home studio, the album showcases his evolving sound, incorporating new textures and arrangements. The album’s personal touch extends to its artwork, with the back cover designed by a close friend.

In this exclusive interview, Jeff opens up about his life, his music, and the journey that brought him to this exciting moment. From his earliest musical inspirations to the stories behind his songs, get to know the heart and soul of Jumping Through Fiery Hoops.

Interview with Jumping Through Fiery Hoops

Tell us about yourself, who are you and where do you come from?

My name is Jeff Fox. I grew up in a small town called El Dorado, Arkansas. At the age of 22 or 23, I landed in Athens, Georgia and have lived here for around 26 years. I write a lot of songs, and I try my best to document them, but I work a full time job as a maintenance technician for the school district in Athens. I’ve been married for over 10 years, have a 25 year old daughter, and a small house in Winterville, GA that I’ve been reworking for the past three years. I’ve done a lot of work on it, but there’s always some part of it that’s under construction. Before being a glorified handy man, I spent almost two decades cooking in various Athens restaurants. I enjoyed cooking, but the hours made it almost impossible to have a life outside of work. Outside of work for me means crafting and recording songs, building something out of nothing, and enjoying life as much as I possibly can in whatever time I have left in the universe.

How was your passion for music born? Who are your idols?

Like most folks who write, I heard the Beatles when I was a kid, and was enamored. I was lucky enough as a teenager to purchase a decent guitar and be gifted with friends who also shared my passion for music. Those friends and I started our first band, which was inspired by 80’s metal, when we 15 or 16. After high school, we all went in separate directions, and through the bands Soundgarden and Nirvana, I was exposed to a whole world of music that wasn’t really paid the accolades it deserved. I got into Mission of Burma, Nick Lowe, Warren Zevon, Modest Mouse, Harry Nilsson, Yo La Tengo, and so on causing my hunger for interesting and well crafted music became a bottomless pit.

What kind of music do you do?

I don’t mean to be cryptic or evasive, but I’m not exactly sure what my music is. It’s definitely pop rock, but I tend to pull as many of my influences into what I write as my brain will allow. These days, I’ve gotten interested in synths and arrangements beyond the basic guitar rock that I’ve always made and listened to. In some weird way, I’m just as influenced by “uncool” music by Billy Joel and Hall & Oates as I am by Big Star, the Replacements, or Gang of Four.

What is the most important song for you? What message do you want to convey to the listener?

One of my favorite songs ever written has to be “Angel From Montgomery” by John Prine. The way he expresses a slightly unsentimental bearing from the point of view of a woman toward the end of her days is absolutely genius. In the song, she’s just looking back on her life with zero ego, just assessing the reality of it in simple terms that anyone can understand. I think that what most songwriters essentially hope to convey, is some universal truth. In that song, I think that the universal truth is that although we all think we’re special, we’re just a very small part of life on earth.

Why should a listener who doesn’t know you listen to your music?

I would hope that folks who enjoy the wordplay involved in the honest expression of the joys, struggles, victories, and unfortunate defeats of the human condition would want to let me take them into my point of view long enough to find common ground. I also hope that I can help folks keep trying to find the best parts of themselves.

What are your future projects? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

In the future, I hope that I’m still alive and lucky enough to be putting songs out into the world that connect with someone, somewhere who needed that connection. If it’s only one person, so be it. I would consider that a victory. I hope to keep deconstructing songs in progressively interesting ways using whoever and whatever works. I would like to eventually play shows again if I’m lucky enough to connect to folks who can and will support what I have to offer.

Tell our readers a funny episode that happened in your career as an artist.

I was once in a band that I won’t name with a great friend of mine and his girlfriend. There were a lot of arguments and such, but when it was good, it was really good. I was the bass player in this band, and my friend was the drummer. Whilst recording the only album we ever made, he and I were in a recording room together doing background vocals. While waiting for our parts to come around, we were doing ridiculous dancing to the music coming through the headphones. This ridiculousness included air humping, which is what it sounds like, suggestively thrusting nothing in particular. We had a hard time keeping ourselves from laughing and thereby ruining takes. Later on, my friend’s girlfriend accused him of having an affair with me which was just not even close to reality. He was like a younger brother to me, and it would have been incest in our view. Neither of us ever thought of the other in that way. I guess the accusations were a sore spot for him at the time, but in retrospect, those two having parted over a decade ago, if I listen to those recordings, I picture the air humping and camaraderie that was happening that day, and it makes me laugh out loud every single time. This story is probably only funny to my friend and I, so I apologize, but it was the first thing that came to mind. In a lot of my funny recollections, it kind of feels like you’d have to know the personalities involved.

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