BLOXX are eager, young, and fresh. Selling out three dates so far on their first headline tour, the four from London are yet to even put out an album or an EP, and yet boast 220,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. This interview with lead singer, Fee, took place a few days ahead of their set at Chapel, Leeds.

This is your first headline tour, isn’t it?

Pretty much, yeah. We did a few headline dates at the beginning of the year, but there was only four and they were quite small. This is our first proper one.

How does headlining compare to supporting?

Oh, it’s another world- it’s so much more fulfilling. Every show for us, even before tours, we love playing. But headline shows are different because people are there to see you, and they stay for you and sing your songs. We keep having a chat about it after the show in the van, how crazy it feels to finally be doing our own tour. We’re super buzzed right now. It’s a feeling we can’t shake.

You’ve sold out three shows now, did you ever think you’d be selling out headline shows?

Not on our first proper tour, no. We sold out three of the four last gigs as well, and that was such a surreal feeling. We’re looking at selling quite a few more of these venues out, like Manchester will go, London will go, hopefully Liverpool will go as well.

You’ve had a good festival season this year with Truck Festival and Live at Leeds. How does it feel to have been announced alongside massive names like The Kooks for Community next year?

We’re so excited. I’ve been to Community the last two years as a fan. We went this year as a band. It’s unreal, it’s crazy, and we’re so happy.

Regarding new tracks, you released new song ‘Lay Down’ last week. How do you feel your new material has developed since your earlier stuff?

I feel like we have a sound now, you know? We’re still a young band, we’re still quite new. Some of the songs from last year were songs I had written years before the band, some of them we wrote together, but we’ve really got a sound now. It’s staying a bit more true to our live shows, with more energy. It’s a direction we’re really happy to have gone in, and its only going to get better from here.

Lyrically, what sort of a place do your lyrics come from? What inspires them?

I’d say personal experience. I’m kind of weird with lyrics, I don’t tend to write them until the day of recording. We write all the music first and we do the track, and then I sit down and think to myself, “through the process of writing that song, how was I feeling and who was bothering me, and what was bothering me?” It’s kind of a personal place, and I’d feel weird if I was singing lyrics I didn’t mean, and that I didn’t feel. It’s definitely an emotionally rooted thing.

For a band that is fairly new, how does it feel to have just less than 3 million streams on ‘You’ on Spotify?

It’s surreal. I remember when we hit 1 million on it, and we were just like – “what?”. We only hit 1 million at the start of the year, and it’s nearly at 3 now, and I just don’t understand it. Like, wow. We wrote that song in 10 minutes, in a rehearsal room in someone’s garage in Langley. It’s crazy, but we love it.

On Monday night, the band posted on their Instagram, “anyone who takes advantage and doesn’t get consent won’t be [at our shows] again.” Do you feel it’s the musician’s responsibility to stand against harassment at gigs?

Definitely. I saw it on stage. I stopped during a song and said, “don’t do that.” We do our best, and it’s hard to see what’s going on. If you see it then you stop it. I don’t like stopping songs but if it’s necessary… You have to make people realise what they’re doing isn’t acceptable and if you see it again, you’ve got to get them to leave, right?

Do you feel more artists should take more a role in standing against harassment at their own gigs?

Definitely. I feel like were influenced because we’ve seen bands do it before. It’s so respectable. It gives you a lot of respect for a band when they care and they consider the crowds feelings.

What is the big plan for BLOXX in the future?

An album. We’re at the position now where we’ve got an idea of what we want to do. We’ve got an EP that we’re really proud of coming out in January, and we think it’s the best thing we’ve ever done. We’ll be doing a bigger tour next year with bigger shows. We’ve got a big single coming out in January. It’s a step sideways. We want to get big. We want an album. We want to put out a big top 40 debut.

Tom Poole

Header Image Credit: Charlotte Patmore