On The Verge

Foxygen

Photo by Angel Ceballos

Los Angeles, Calif.
Tomorrow’s Acid-flashback
www.foxygen.bandcamp.com

Twenty-two year olds Jonathan Rado and Sam France have made music together since their days as high school freshman growing up in LA. “We always made tons and tons of records in my bedroom and it developed into a real thing,” says France. “It developed into amazingness.” After splitting off to attend college, the two friends rejoined as Foxygen and created a series of EPs, one of which they handed to producer Richard Swift as he left the stage following one of his New York shows. After listening, Swift heard Foxygen’s unpredictable, hodgepodge sound. “When we started the band, our big influences were Beck or The Flaming Lips or The Brian Jonestown Massacre or Adam Green,” says Rado. “I think we like the BJM kind of ‘60s garage rock thing and then the wackiness of those other artists.” Months later, Swift brought the band into his neo-legendary National Freedom studio to create their debut full-length We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, which the duo believes is a message of peace delivered from cosmic beings who used them as messenger vessels. Far out.