We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Fox Michaels. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Fox below.

Fox, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

Am I happy? Not really, no! But. I think at this point, I am what I am, an artist and creative. It sort of feels like I don’t have a choice but to be. I’ve truly tried doing other things. I’m really not good at other things that aren’t artistic or creative. I don’t want to seem overly aggrieved about it, we’ve seen enough tortured artist types. I have free will, to an extent. There is a lot to enjoy about pursuing the arts! Knowing this about myself, there’s also a comfort in thinking “It couldn’t be any other way”.

Every day I wonder what stability feels like. I don’t necessarily think that’s just an artist/creative thing these days. I imagine a lot of people feel like the ground keeps shifting beneath their feet even if their job is “regular”, but the infrastructure of creative and artistic industries seems to be crumbling a bit quicker, at least from my vantage point. I’ve tried to not let that stop me even if I’ve been slow out of the gate when it comes to carving out a career in the arts. Also sometimes life doesn’t give you a choice but to take you away from the things you wanted to do. But if I am being true to myself, then that’s what I’m actively pursuing even if it takes me longer to get there than I wanted tot take. Knowing who you are, even if there are consequences that come with that, are important.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hi there, my name is Sam. I’m a musician, actor, artist. My main focus is music though and I release music under the name Fox Michaels as a solo artist. I’m also in a band called Poems. I grew on a lot of Motown classics, British Invasion, 70s singer/songwriters, and all sorts of 90s media. But for the sake of talking about the Fox Michaels project, that is me. I am Fox Michaels. Fox Michaels is me.

My first dream in life was to be a cartoonist. I gave that up for the dream of being a rockstar once I turned 12. Cut my musical teeth mostly in the church band in high school. Spent a lot of my early 20s just trying to scrape by with a roof over my head, no idea how to make it in the music industry. Ended up devoting a few years developing myself as a stage actor (and dabbling in some directing). Thought about pursuing that but instead switched back to music and finally started a rock and roll band worth a damn and had a creative partner who understood the business aspect of it better than I do. That started in 2018. Fox Michaels as a serious project didn’t get going until the end of 2023. My goal is to fill a fairly niche, but important hole in popular culture. I feel like there isn’t enough weirdness or novelty or individual personality in popular music today. I want that to come back a bit more. Fox Michaels is supposed to be that weirdness. But also the foundation of that weirdness being very solid songwriting.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I’m learning is that this lifestyle won’t save me. I grew up dreaming of fame and renown because my life growing up was so incredibly unpleasant, I had to escape the reality that my life was some form of hell. I grew up dreaming I could have it all: A career in the arts, a spouse, and children. For me, I’m not sure how available any of that is now. I haven’t stopped pursuing a life in art. But I have had to learn that even if I did have all of those things, I still would have to address the unhappiness of my childhood. I used to think that achieving some imaginary level of success would make me forget all my pain. Getting older has been just more time driving the point home that the level of success needed to make me “happy” does not exist. I just need to one day find that within myself. I guess that’s harder when things aren’t going well though.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Though strong repute and financial success has been extremely difficult to come by, the most rewarding aspect of my work has been being in such close contact with so many other incredible artists whose work I admire. Some of my best friends in the industry are people I look up to. Impostor Syndrome will always exist, but I keep trying to remind myself that I belong and I am some part of it. I really am a fan of so many people in my orbit and getting to watch them all do their thing has been wonderful in so many ways. I feel like I get to hang out with a lot of my heroes a lot of the time. It’s a nice feeling.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @fox_michaels / @poemsband
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@foxmichaelsmusic
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/foxmichaels

Image Credits

Main photo: @instinctive_groove_ (Instagram)