We caught up with Sarah Vitort of Fox and Bones to find out what makes the duo tick.

SNQLX: When someone hears Fox and Bones for the first time, what do you hope stays with them after the last note fades? 

Fox and Bones: I hope their heart feels a little lighter.

SNQLX: You’ve built your band through countless miles, stages, and chapters together. How has that shared journey shaped the way you write and perform?

F&B: It’s funny – our very first album was a concept album about two down and out characters who met and decide to go on the adventure of a lifetime that ends in a heist. In a weird way we manifested our own road-dog music career, which then fueled more writing.

We wrote it into existence and then just kept writing about our experiences on the road. I think we also starting making music that’s perfect for road trips because we discovered the impact a great road trip album can make on an adventure. It’s definitely been a real “write what you know” situation.

SNQLX: Harmony is such a defining part of your sound. How do your voices find each other in the writing process?

F&B: I (Sarah) have a near lifetime of training in choirs, and what that taught me how to do is blend. I can sing with almost anyone and match their tone and inflection quickly. So I did that from early on, but over time people started to compliment us on how great our voices sound together even though they are individually different, and I think that comes from years and years of being road tested.

SNQLX: Your songs often feel like windows into real emotion — honest, but not heavy-handed. How do you balance vulnerability with craft?

F&B: I am definitely a more vulnerable writer, where Scott is a more logical one and I think it’s helped us strike the perfect balance. Some people respond to emotion, others to storytelling and artful lyricism, and I think over the years we’ve found a way to marry both. We have really honed our songwriting and editing processes over 10 years and I think that really shows in our more recent work.

SNQLX: What role does Portland play in your creative identity, both as a city and as a community?

F&B: Portland is a huge piece of our identity for so many reasons. We both moved to Portland as adults and that’s where our individual music careers began, as well as our shared one. Both of us can identify our community here are the reason we were able to get a start as musicians, and it’s that same community that brought us together and lifted us up once we started playing music together. The community is so important to us that in 2018 we started a festival to bring everyone together, and it’s still going strong!

SNQLX: You’ve toured extensively internationally. How have those experiences influenced your storytelling?

F&B: One thing touring extensively does is make you a master at finding the humor in things. We’ve made so many mistakes in our time on the road and if you don’t find a way to laugh at yourself, this life can make you miserable. There is a underlying lighthearted self awareness and humor to everything we do because of that – it totally shaped how we entertain and perform.

SNQLX: Running Portland’s Folk Festival is a massive undertaking. How has curating a space for other artists shifted your perspective on your own art?

F&B: I think as artists of any kind we need to be around other people making art in order to stay inspired. We realized that when we were on the road for months on end only engaging with our own art that we would stop writing. And then we’d come home and go to a friend’s show and immediately go home and write a song. So I think sharing our hearts, our creativity, our emotions together in a space makes us all better artists.

SNQLX: Working so closely together as a duo, how do you protect your individual voices while still shaping a unified sound? 

F&B: By having solo projects! Since we are also exes, it was important for us to individuate a bit. I launched a solo electro pop project called Sasa Fox that has been a great outlet for my more vulnerable emotional side, and Scott is currently starting a project called Captain Cooter who’s supposed to be this former cruise line lounge singer that keeps getting fired. He sings joke songs bout the strangest topics and it’s absolutely hilarious. I also have a number of other creative outlets like fashion and dance that help me keep my sense of self strong.

SNQLX: What’s a moment onstage — big or small — that reminded you exactly why you do this? 

F&B: Honestly, every time we play Portland’s Folk Festival and get to sing for 1000 people from our own community. This last time was extra special because so many people were singing along to our songs and it was one of those “we made it” moments.

SNQLX: When you listen back to your newest work, where do you hear evolution? Where do you hear the “you” that’s been there since day one?

F&B:  Oh my god I hear SO much evolution. In the sound, in the songwriting, in the production value. But one thing that has stayed consistent is this underlying joy of what we are doing and of life – it runs through all the songs even from early on.

SNQLX: The indie-folk landscape is always growing and re-shaping itself. What corner of this world do you feel Fox and Bones occupies today?

F&B: Funny, we were just talking with our digital marketing strategist today about how our upcoming record can’t really be classified as “folk” anymore and we were joking about what to call our music – post-americana, modern yacht rock, alt pop? It’s always hard to define but our music definitely continues to have this retro throughline that feels deeply nostalgic, so I think we will always be defined by that nostalgia.

SNQLX: What’s next for you — creatively, sonically, spiritually?

F&B: Our 5th album, “Are We Still Having Fun?” is being mixed and we will start releasing singles April 24th! This album was so much fun to make and explores the question the title poses in many different ways – politically and personally. It’s got a lot of 80s pop influences in addition to nods to classic bands like the Beatles and Springsteen and modern bands like The 1975 and Bleachers. It’s a FUN record.

60 Seconds With Fox and Bones

Go-to road trip snack? Dream venue you haven’t played yet? City you’d move to tomorrow if music magically relocated there with you? One word that captures Fox and Bones right now.