Itch
Gig Seeker Pro

Itch

| Established. Jan 01, 2012 | INDIE

| INDIE
Established on Jan, 2012
Band Pop Alternative

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Itch - The Deep End"

If you can make it through The Deep End from front to back without cracking a smile, you may well be dead inside. Though echoes of the King Blues—the politically conscious U.K. ska-folk-punkers who vocalist Itch fronted for eight years—are present, at heart this is a big, shiny, smart and uplifting pop hip-hop record. Forged in collaboration with über-producer John Feldmann (Story Of The Year, the Used), the collection is filled with undeniable euphoria, best captured in its towering choruses and assisted by the many guests who are only too happy to contribute to the excitement.

One of the most impressive things about The Deep End is that every track takes a stylistic left turn from that which preceded it, at no point repeating the same formula but managing to maintain a cohesive flow throughout. Itch’s articulate and engaging lyrics and his energized rapping style play a massive part in this. Whether he’s focusing on the personal or political, blending the two, or even goofing around you cannot deny the sincerity he brings.

The race to provide 2014’s definitive summer anthem may already be over with “Laugh” (featuring Matisyahu), which incites a massive "laugh-along" that is irresistible—although Taking Back Sunday’s Adam Lazzara helps make “Homeless Romantic” a close runner-up for the title. On the lighter side of things there’s also the soulful skank of “Another Man,” which sees Itch bickering with vocalist Megan Joy in a manner that is as amusing as it is hooky, and the shimmering chorus of opener “Life Is Poetry” takes so much pleasure in erupting out of nowhere off the back of a dirty Rage Against The Machine-esque riff. The record is not without its darker—albeit every bit as catchy—moments. The dubstep-tinged “Like I’m Drugs” (featuring Dani Artaud of Mr Downstairs) is far more brooding, the same applying to the agitated title track, while “Not My Revolution” (featuring BC Jean) and “Children Of The Revolution” are the most poignant tracks.

Having walked away from the King Blues at the peak of their popularity due to not wanting to see their achievements become diminished, it was already clear that Itch is a man of integrity. That he could have played it safe and made a record with far more in common with that band but chose instead to strike out in his own direction, embracing pop with both arms without compromising his style or beliefs only supports this. That he has made a great record should silence anyone who thinks otherwise. - Alternative Press


"Itch - The Deep End"

Jonny "Itch" Fox isn't one to sit still. In the many years he's been releasing music, his sound has grown from acoustic songwriter to the rich tapestry of beats, riffs, loops, and hooks heard here on his debut solo album. Blessed with an innate ear for a tune as well as an insatiable curiosity for pastures new, this expertly pivots between thunder and nuance. But what really nudges The Deep End into the higher clouds is the skill with which Itch blends words and sounds - or punk and poetry if you like. "Today I woke up in yesterday's clothes" he sings on the irresistible Laugh, while on Not My Revolution he speaks of being "homeless in the alleyway as a shadow approaches". Finding joy in the mundane and meaning in the trivial, the similes dazzle like magic while dancing to the beat of Itch's thrillingly restless creative force. - Kerrang! Magazine


Discography

Still working on that hot first release.

Photos

Bio

The strongest wisdom can come from the strangest places. “Do or do not… there is no try,” said Yoda; essentially, the first step to success is throwing yourself in at the deep end.

 Jonny ‘iTCH’ Fox understands this. Hence ‘The Deep End’: not so much a culmination of his career to date as his next destination in an unstoppable journey.

Over four albums and more than seven years with The King Blues – a band both acclaimed by critics and respected on the streets – iTCH acted as bandleader and majority shareholder in a group that, as exciting as it was, was inevitably unstable. But while this band may now be gone, the legacy they created rings loud: everything that England is in 2014, the mess, the trouble and those little beams of hope was predicted in the years previous by a band who went from playing squats in Camden Town to headlining one of the city’s most prestigious venues in the same district to 3,000 party people desperate for a voice.

 ITCH grew up on the streets of London and wears his local pride like a bandana wrapped around his face. In the past his songs <were> London – grimy and gritty and irresistible in a way that’s inexplicable – but now, even though he’s retained that strong sense of place, his sights have been set in a different direction. Where once he found joy hiding in the shadows (this is a man after all who wrote and romanticised the line “The smell of kebab meat and sausage in batter will always remind me of you”) ‘The Deep End’ deals with universal issues without losing his pin-sharp focus and eye for detail.

The ingenuity and ideas that pepper ‘The Deep End’ confirm that iTCH is still very much a student of the game, even if he is top of the class. The one abiding thread, in among the day-glo guitars, clever beats and thrumming bass, is that this is very much an album made by someone who’s put the hours into learning the craft.

 

“I’ve been going back to those classic songwriting books, watching every documentary I can find and writing every single day. I see myself entirely as a student and having no time limit in terms of what I can learn and how I can improve. That’s what I see myself doing over time, and the only way to do that is take on new challenges.”

 It’s this open-minded approach that helps give the album’s tracks their vitality.  “I really like being under pressure and being the underdog because it makes me work a hell of a lot harder, and that’s when I produce my best stuff. Towards the end days of the band I gave them my all but I wasn’t as passionate about what I was doing as I am now. So when you learn and do new things it makes you grow creatively and artistically and also as a person. I’m in the position where I need to go and prove myself, but starting from the bottom. It’s motivational, and I really enjoy being in that place. I’m not hiding anything.

 “I never have a backup plan – I have a vision of what I want to do and just believe it and live it so much that eventually it becomes a reality, no matter how long it takes. I just believe in throwing myself in head-first.”

Right into ‘The Deep End’.

Band Members