Fox Apts. is a band from California comprised of lead singer Dave Kajganich, guitarist and bassist Jerry Popiel, and drummer Tom Stickley. Christened “Fox Apts.” in 2019, the band is named for a hypothetical apartment building whose stories and tenants will change from album to album, but whose odd craftsmanship, uncanny spaces, and hidden passageways are built in.

Their debut album, Omen, was written in a very real (and demonstrably haunted) room with an old stone fireplace and oddly superior acoustics. The band headed to North Carolina to record the record at The Fidelitorium under the smiling eye of legendary producer Mitch Easter. The band wanted Omen to be stitched through with an appreciation for the darker threads of American roots music—murder ballads and apocalypse songs, with their flash floods and ghost kids and killers on the road—but with a decidedly ‘80s sonic palette from some of the band’s long-standing alt-rock influences. It is a mix that creates moments across the album that feel sampled from the soundtracks of psychological horror films from decades past.

Auspicious guests from both the alt rock and roots worlds wander in and out of the songs—including Pete Holsapple, Matt Douglas, Jeffrey Dean Foster, Chris Stamey, and Rex McGee. The album unfolds like a book of cautionary tales. In the world of Omen you’re never completely safe, even at home.

Omen sees release on April. It follows an EP, titled Two for Midnight, One for Noon, with three songs from the album is out now, including the song “Founders’ Blues,” featured in a secret deleted scene from the film BONES AND ALL, directed by Luca Guadagnino.

Instagram | Facebook | Bandcamp

Photo by Roger May