When “Clarity” was announced as best dance recording at the Grammy Awards, Louisa Rose Allen, who goes by Foxes, threw her purse into the air and climbed over two rows of seats to jump on her collaborator Zedd. “I was so not expecting it that I had chewing gum in my mouth,” the British singer says. “It was hilarious.”
Foxes, who’s as enthusiastic and cheeky in conversation as she is enigmatically sultry in her music, has her feature on Zedd’s “Clarity,” a dance-pop number she recorded more than a year ago, to thank for much of the hype leading into her debut album, “Glorious.” But the record, which is slated for a May release, reveals an entirely new side of the singer, who has also guested on tracks by Fall Out Boy and Rudimental. “‘Clarity’ definitely put me on the map, and I’m very grateful, but it’s more Zedd’s baby than mine,” she says. “‘Clarity’ is an EDM track. My music has dance elements but it’s a lot more organic. It’s kind of like a big diary.”
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Two tracks, “Youth” and “Let Go for Tonight,” have been released in the United Kingdom. Foxes’ U.S. label, RCA, is pushing the former on pop radio. Foxes will also be touring “a shitload,” she says, including U.K. dates in February and March, an Australian tour with Bastille and then a U.S. run later in the year. In the meantime, RCA’s priority is helping fans get to know Foxes beyond “Clarity.”
“We’re trying to fill out her story more,” RCA head of pop/rock marketing Aaron Borns says. “She’s a pop artist with a little bit of mystery. We want her to be one of the new forces in mainstream pop. It’s a lofty goal, obviously, but with the record as good as it is there’s a tremendous amount of potential.”
Foxes, however, wants to take her time getting there. “The album was finished a couple of months ago. It’s been ready for a while,” she says. “But I want to push ‘Youth,’ and then another single, rather than just put it all out there. Putting out an album fulfills a pretty big goal for me, but I want to seed it a bit first.”