The Safety of Life at Sea formed in 2011 in Sydney. Foxy’s Farm follows their self-titled debut released in 2013. Initial recording sessions for Foxy’s Farm took place in April 2013 in a friend’s barn in picturesque St Albans, NSW. The guiding approach to production was to try to capture the band playing live and all together in the same room – the plan was to then overdub at a later stage with any finishing touches, in the style of the classic albums they love, such as the Beatles’ Let it Be, or the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. The majority of the 10 songs are written by pianist Kris Schubert, with the remainder by the guitarists - two (Take You Home and Electric Jellyfish) by Dom White, and Something More by Stephen Helman (who also handled the majority of the audio engineering). Tony Bibby plays drums and additional percussion, and Lian Wong plays bass, sings harmonies and provided a surprise flute solo for the otherwise hard-edged So Dog Tired. In 2014, Kris and Lian moved over the mountains to a bush property outside Bathurst, throwing a major spanner in the works for the still unfinished album. The project was put on hold while they built themselves a music studio. Over a year later (and now living in the studio) work on Foxy’s Farm resumed as a collaboration between Kris in his country studio, and Stephen at his home studio in inner Sydney. The music scene of Bathurst proved itself to be vibrant, diverse and extremely useful for someone with an album that needs finishing. Local duo Abby Smith and Sophie Jones added their outstanding harmonies, connecting songs such as So In Control and Talking Her Into It perfectly with the era of gospel/soul that inspired their writing. Established jazz musician Glen Wholohan lent his clarinet to New Orleans alongside up-and-coming trombonist Tim Porter and Sydney songwriter Bill Hunt on saxophone. Foxy’s Farm contains a broad variety of songs, drawn into a cohesive whole by the consistent underlying live feel of the rhythm section and the vocal performances. Part blues, part soul and part funk, the album shows its influences proudly, while still always being primarily about the groove of the live band in the room.