Soaking up the spotlight: Shay Star (second from left) of ShayStar.com interviews Foxtrot & The Get Down band members (from left) bassist Ken Bianco, vocalist/guitarist Colin Budny, drummer Ryan Fox and background vocalist Erica Ruiz after the group’s set at the TLA on Nov. 19.
As the former catcher of the Archbishop Ryan baseball team, Colin Budny knows a thing or two about being a leader. But playing the Theatre of the Living Arts as the frontman of a rising local band still offers plenty of Pinch me, this can’t be real moments.
Needless to say, life has changed quite a bit for Budny this year. The 2010 Ryan grad was taking classes at West Chester University earlier this year, finishing up his degree in communications. However, his real passion was developing on the side in a band called Foxtrot & The Get Down. Unbeknownst to Budny, his hobby of playing music was about to turn into so much more.
“We all drove from rowhomes in Northeast Philly to the TLA, where we’ve seen all of our favorite artists play, to play in front of a Philly crowd,” Budny said backstage after Foxtrot’s Nov. 19 set at the famous music venue on South Street. “You get on that stage, and it’s just an ‘Oh my God’ moment. As Philly kids, we can’t ask for anything more.”
Budny’s foray into music started at age 8 with drum lessons. A year later, he picked up one of his father’s guitars and “just kind of fell into it.” Colin’s dad, John Budny, did a bit of touring as a blues musician in the ’80s, and the two would listen to blues stations on the radio together in the car.
These experiences helped influence Foxtrot’s sound, which Budny describes as “bluesy, soulful rock.” The band formed back in 2011 with Budny on vocals, guitar and sometimes harmonica and college roommate — and former Ryan classmate — Ryan Fox on drums. They played open mic nights at small venues and coffeehouses around campus, and later brought in bassist Ken Bianco after he moved onto their floor. Budny, who was playing baseball for West Chester at the same time, gave up his favorite sport to focus more on music.
It’s a good thing he did.
Like most bands just starting out, Budny says Foxtrot was “all over the place” at the outset, and after recording for the first time in 2012, the band took some time off from the studio.
“We were still playing shows,” Budny said. “But we had to figure out what our sound would be.”
The group crossed paths with producer Dave Pettit, who has worked with bands such as Motion City Soundtrack and A$AP Rocky, and bunkered down at Range Recording Studios in Ardmore for about nine months. What resulted was Sold the Soul, the band’s seven-song debut EP, which was released in August.
“Dave crafted our sound and took it to another level,” Budny said. “He took a minimalist approach, taking out what was unnecessary and focusing solely on our vision.”
Now, Foxtrot is starting to blow up. In addition to the show at the TLA, the band has played Webster Hall in New York City, as well as additional shows in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Their song Sweet Songs has received local airplay on Radio 104.5, as well as on a station in New York. Budny, who writes the lyrics and collaborates with Fox, Bianco and Erica Ruiz (background vocals) in composing the music, says things are going so well that it unofficially appears the band’s next stop will be a move to Nashville to work on its next album, which will feature 16 songs that are already written. Foxtrot has management, and while they aren’t represented by a label yet, things are heading in that direction. (“We don’t have the ink to paper yet, but we see ourselves signing soon,” Budny says.)
“When you get an idea, you get that spark and you just can’t stop it,” said Budny, a Parkwood resident. “Once we got on the radio, I knew something special was going to happen. To all of us, it reinforced what we’ve been doing. We knew it was going in the right direction, but to hear yourself on the radio and seeing other people hear it and sing it back to you at a show … that’s everything to us. We couldn’t ask for anything more. It’s become more than what we thought it would be. It’s bigger.”
Budny cites artists such as Otis Redding and Philly’s own G-Love as major influences, and there’s a hint of The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson in his howling, searing vocals. The crunch of his guitar playing is reminiscent of George Thorogood and Jack White, and the energy he brings to the stage infuses immediate life into the crowd.
And while they are far from a finished product — the venue’s marquee formatted the group’s name incorrectly, while Foxtrot themselves ran too long on stage and didn’t finish their set before retreating into their tiny green room for interviews — they are on their way.
“Everything I do is with a passion,” Budny said. “That’s why you always see me beating my chest and running around on stage. If it wasn’t progressing, I’d hang it up and go get a job with my degree. It just goes to show you that if you want to do something, you can. The world is yours if you’re willing to put in the work. Music is taking me places I couldn’t have even imagined.”
Budny said his upbringing represents who he is. Coming from the blue-collar streets of Northeast Philly taught him how to lead and be the hardest worker at everything he did. Now, the fruits of his labor are paying immense dividends.
“While we have opportunities now that may take us away from Philly, I can’t thank everyone enough,” Budny said. “Northeast Philadelphia is such a beautiful place, and I love the sense of pride and tradition you get in being from there. We’re excited to see other places, but the Northeast is always home.”
Of course, there promises to be plenty more “pinch me” moments along the way.
“If this feeling ever gets normal, I’m done,” Budny said. “It needs to feel like this all the time. There’s something new always brewing, and it’s anything and everything I could have asked for. You see the progression and fan base grow. We went from playing shows for 10 people to watching people in the crowd singing the songs back to us wearing T-shirts with the band logo on them. The fact that they even know who we are is amazing. It’s nuts. I mean, are you kidding me?” ••
To hear Sold the Soul, go to soundcloud.com/foxtrot-philly
Budny, who graduated from Archbishop Ryan in 2010, and his bandmates are preparing for a likely move to Nashville next year to record Foxtrot’s first full-length album. Budny said the band is close to signing with a record label.
That hometown sound: Parkwood’s Colin Budny, the frontman of Foxtrot & The Get Down, performs at the Theatre of the Living Arts last month. The band’s seven-song debut EP, Sold the Soul, was released at the end of August and has received radio airplay. Fellow band members include drummer Ryan Fox and bassist Ken Bianco with Erica Ruiz on backup vocals. PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHASE VALDISERRI
