If you haven’t heard of Foxes In Fiction, well then you’re in for a treat. Warren Hildebrand, Oakville local, now living in Toronto is the solo artist of this magic. Nestled in Chinatown and attending OCAD University, the handsome fox still makes time for his music, having shows almost every weekend in local pubs around our beautiful city. I’ve witnessed a few of his shows and some of our Pink Mafia Crew (Kay Laser Vandertramp) has as well. We’ve come to the decision…“He’s magical.” Warren has a new album out called “Swung From The Branches”, which is being given out at his shows on cassette tapes. I know, cassette tapes. Amazing.
Thursday March 4th, Foxes In Fiction played a gig at Sneaky Dee’s. His set was 10:15 – 10:45pm and the boy killed it. The album has the sexiest cover art, which just made me love the boy even more. I’ve got to have a little chitchat with the lovely guy, and this is what he had to say:
Q. How did Foxes In Fiction all start?
A. I had been playing and recording music using software like Microsoft Voice Recorder since I was about 10 years old, but I started using the name Foxes in Fiction for the music I was making when I was about 14 or 15. Basically the whole thing came out of me not knowing many musicians in high school or having the confidence to start a band, so I began making songs in my bedroom by myself. I found the name on a link from the ‘Foxes’ page on Wikipedia and thought it sounded cool.
Q. An album usually has 9, maybe 12 songs. You created one with 19. Why so many?
A. The whole thing was written and recorded specifically to fit the 62-minute cassette tapes that I bought during the Christmas break and Side A was kind of recorded as one big stream-of-consciousness ambient thing over the course of 2 or 3 nights in my apartment, so it just happened when I broke the whole thing down it ended up being a lot of separate tracks, even though it’s only 30 minutes. A lot of them are just short transitional instrumental songs, anyways. I don’t think I ever even wanted to make an actual “album” in the first place, I wanted to make something the same pacing as J Dillas’ Donuts or a Lil Wayne mixtape or something, haha.
Q. With his new album out, you’re getting so much recognition from many other blog sites. How does all attention feel? Are you loving it?
A. It’s really weird and I’m not really used to it, since before Swung from The Branches not many people outside my friends, family and some people from Toronto really took too much notice to anything I’d been creating, but at the same time it’s a pretty neat idea that people actually dig what I’m doing. Ask my Mom, she’d probably give a better answer.
Q. Out of all the songs on your album, what’s your favourite to play live and why?
A. Snow Angels and 15 Ativan are always really fun to play. Both of my parents really like them which is a rarity and I get to use a lot of neat pedals. I’ve also practiced them enough that I don’t feel like I’m going to have a panic attack before I begin them. For all the songs it’s weird using that much electronic equipment on stage and having to rely on it so much, a big challenge is finding a way to add a more ‘human’ element to it and not make it seem like I’m just standing there…
Q. Could you ever see yourself not being solo and adding in other band members?’
A. Definitely. Well, yes and no. I used to be in a band called Paper Saw from Hamilton which was rad. It was a great experience to play live and get used to band dynamics, but at the same time it was limiting, I never played any of my own songs or sang or even really knew how to be assertive in a band setting like that. I was pretty mentally unstable at the time. I think Foxes in Fiction is always going to kind of be a personal thing for me to use ideas that wouldn’t really fly in a band. That being said, I have plans to get a solid band together under a different name sometime this summer.
Q. I find it very neat how you’re giving out your album on cassette tapes. Kickin’ it old school. Love it. Where did the idea come from? Why not use CDs?
A. I’ve always had a weird interest in cassettes tapes. The first music I ever owned was on tape. Even though they’re not as convenient CDs they’re much more interactive than something like a CD which you can just skip tracks with or rip to iTunes. You’ve gotta take your time. It’s also really fun to make the artwork and inserts for them. I realized a while ago that you can fold 4×6 prints into a perject J-card, it’s amazing. There’s just something special and collectible about tapes that a CD don’t really have. I have this plan to start a tape label out of my apartment this summer called Orchid Tapes. This album is actually the ‘first’ release under the name.
Q. It has come to my attention, that one of your songs Jimi Bleachball is being plagiarized. Click Me. Do you have any comments towards that?
A. Oh man, I actually just finished making a huge post about that on my blog. Click Me. The whole thing is kind of messed up. I got an email from some guy who explained the whole thing. Apparently some dude on 4chan posted two of my songs there under the name A.E. and they went kinda viral. People were saying they were a secret side project of Bradford Cox or something. The blog I Guess I’m Floating caught wind of it and made a post about it and everything. I think everything’s been sort of cleared up though.
Q. March 26th you’re having your album release party at Bread and Circus in Kensington Market. Any new songs off the album that will be played there?
A. Yessss, I’m gonna have another album on a CD recorded for then that I’m going to be giving away for free with the tapes, so I’ll probably play a few of those and some old stuff.

Foxes In Fiction, Feb 5th at Imperial Pub. Photo by: Rachel Renda
Look out for upcoming shows:
March 10, 2010 – Funktion Art Gallery (Toronto)
March 12, 2010 –Art Crawl @ Mex-I-Can (Hamilton)
March 26, 2010 – Bread and Circus Album Release Party (Toronto)
You can check out updates on Warren and his music on his blog.
Note: Warren is letting you download is full album for FREE!
Trust me, it’s worth the download. Click Me
Foxes in Fiction – Swung From The Branches
Total time: 1:03:35
1. Operating Room
2. Basement Window
3. Thank You, Sunday Morning
4. Sleeping Building Unsuspecting
5. Coffee Cups That Won’t Break Down
6. Ninth Floor View
7. Cream Screen
8. 8 / 29 / 91
9. Mialectric (Side B transition)
10. Bronte Balloons
11. New Panic Cure
12. Jimi Bleachball
13. Please Note
14. Snow Angels
15. 15 Ativan (Song for Erika)
16. To Go Home
17. Memory Pools
18. Insomnia Keys
19. Visiting Hours











































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