Oxford Remedy is a band that seems destined for greater things. Comprised of sisters Kate and Grace McKown and Sydney Aldridge, the band -- all teenagers -- makes the kind of indie-rock that wouldn't have been out place blasting out of car stereos in the mid-90s. While the band members are hard at work at school, they are finding the time to record and release an upcoming EP. We are fortunate to share an exclusive interview with the band about their creative process, book, movie and music recommendations and other things.
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Introduce the band. Describe your sound for new listeners.
We are a band from Kansas City, Missouri, and we mostly play in Lawrence, Kansas. We have an alternative grunge/rock sound with influences from Wolf Alice, Cage the Elephant and Paramore.
How and when did the band come together?
Oxford Remedy started around August 2016. All of us knew each other through School of Rock, a program that teaches music to kids and teens, and three out of the four of us came from a previous band that broke up. Our new drummer just recently joined mid June of this year after a split of our past drummer.
What were the recording sessions like for your two latest singles “Fake” and “Vending Machine”? What did you learn that you’ll take to future projects?
We recorded the singles in both the garage/studio area of our past drummer and recorded just the vocals in a studio in downtown KC. They were pretty fun to record, but we recorded them live, meaning it was difficult to prevent “bleed” from one instrument to another, and made it even more difficult to isolate an instrument and change a specific tone or effect, but it all worked out in the end. We are going to record an EP this fall, at a studio where we’ll play each instrument separately. We’re all super stoked to record many more songs that we’re so proud of and in a more professional setting. Going forward we’ll take more time with each song, and we’ll make sure we’re doing what we as a band feels best.
How does songwriting work in Oxford Remedy? Who brings what to the table?
Our songwriting is very unstructured, and usually starts as someone bringing up a cool riff they wrote earlier, and the other instruments build off of that. We work in riffs and progressions until we feel it sounds the best it can. Some guitar and bass pedals, and a drum fill or two are worked into the mix. Finally, our lead singer, Kate, writes some lyrics to finish it off, occasionally premiering such lyrics at the show! Our songs have started off from anything, whether that’s a guitar riff, bass riff or drum fill, and there really isn’t a ‘primary’ songwriter.
What is the band currently working on? When can fans expect new music?
We are currently working on a 4 or 5 song EP. We have three songs finalized and two more are in the works. Hopefully the EP will be released mid to late fall!
Oxford Remedy's recommendations from the Johnson County Library catalog:
- Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
- Scott Pilgrim vs the World
- After Laughter by Paramore
- Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
- My Love is Cool by Wolf Alice