The Drum Media, May 25th 2005

A FOX IN NEW YORK
By Christie Eliezer

Home for Australian singer songwriter Philip Foxman in the last 20 years has been New York’s West Village. It’s an area of stately brownstone buildings and cobblestone roads. Many has been the time that Foxman has stepped out of his apartment into a Woody Allen movie, a Cher video, or a scene from Sex & The City and The Sopranos.
Here, the one time bassist and songwriter with ‘70s glam-popsters Supernaut has recreated himself. The Americans know him as a roots singer songwriter who plays around New York with a band that includes the editor of Guitar World, who also writes plays (he’s working on a play called Circle Of Faith, inspired after this son of two Holocaust survivors visited Auswitz concentration camp), poetry and screenplays.
Like Ben Lee, another NY resident who now calls Sydney his second home ("Ben’s my favourite Australian songwriter, he’ll take Australian music to a whole different place and be a very respected writer in the future"), Foxman now spends his time between the Big Apple and Bondi.
Initially, he began returning to Sydney because his mother was in poor health. After her death, he found being in Sydney an essential part of the healing process. Heaven In Your Eyes, a song on his new album Up Antenna, grapples with the loss of both his parents. Being in Sydney also allows him to digest how New York culture has changed drastically since September 11, and his place in a new breed of musicians, artists and film makers who try to reflect that.
Says Foxman, "The album was recorded during a difficult part of my life, when I had to do a lot of soul searching." Interestingly, the lyrical themes of Up Antenna — especially the first single
You’ll Never Find about recreating one’s live — have struck a chord with a soul searching audience along the American East Coast. In Australia, the album is out on 456 Records/MGM, and You’ll Never Find is getting radio airplay. Foxman’s Australian band includes his childhood friend David R. Fester on drums, one time Scandal bassist Michael Smith (Foxman sold him his guitar and recently wanted to buy it back; Smith said no but joined his band!), mandolin and guitar player Gordon Wallace, and multi-instrumentalist Carl Malden.
Foxman’s last album West 4th And Charles fused countrified -rock tunes with dark story telling. Up Antenna took a different tack. He’d give his simple pop melodies to a composer who’d create elaborate soundscapes. Bad Day, for instance, blends violins and mandolins with hip-hop grooves behind a poignant tale of middle aged single women who’ve discovered Internet dating. Arms Around the Sun puts electronica behind a pop folk tune. Elsewhere, the music is inspired by Manhattan jazz clubs, the clever arrangements of Dave Matthews Band and David Grey, and his rediscovering early Dylan and Lennon.
It’s a long way for Foxman from Supernaut. After a burst of pop fame followed by a slow decline (despite fab tracks like Spies), they finally imploded in a dodgy East London rehearsal room. Its singer Gary Twinn is now playing in California, guitarist Chris Burnham makes movies and Joe Burnham writes soundtracks.
Foxman formed Illustrated Man in London, with Models keyboard player Roger Mason and Rob Dean of Japan. They had a minor hit in Britain with Head Over Heels.
While working on their first album at AIR Studios, Foxman remembers meeting Paul McCartney (there making his Give My Regards To Broad Street), challenging him to a pool game and being soundly thrashed.
After that New York beckoned. In his early days, he’d sell ad space on the back of parachutes and wear a short-hair wig to keep his job as a waiter. But the city never lost its allure. "As a writer and a musician, you learn to open yourself to more influences, and represent the times you live in. New York has such an influence on the world that you gravitate to it to capture a universal nature."