Getting up to speed with Foxtrot and the Getdown

For a group of guys wrapping up their college years, the guys in Foxtrot and the Getdown seem to have their act together. The trio is hardly a household name, but with four Philly shows in the next month, an upcoming debut EP and radio play in Philly and New York, is working on to correct that.

The group got together in 2011 at West Chester University. Guitarist/lead vocalist Colin Budny and drummer Ryan Fox, both Northeast Philadelphia natives and high school friends, played open mic nights at coffeehouses around the campus, before meeting Ken Bianco, who later joined in on bass. “We would’ve taken anyone [on bass],” Budny jokes.

Together, the three make bluesy rock that recalls George Thorogood and the Destroyers or fellow G. Love and Special Sauce.

“We didn’t sound like this originally,” Budny recalls, noting the influence of the band members’ different musical interests, ranging from blues to reggae to Fox’s “background in Phish and jam bands.” Bits and pieces of those genres remain, but the group now focuses heavily on the blues.

“[Originally,] we were trying to emulate those influences and trying to be something, instead of just flowing with whatever we could come up with on our own,” says Fox.

Budny says the trio finally found its sound by playing lots of live shows and paying attention to what get the crowd moving.

He also credits producer Dave Pettit, who record the band’s upcoming EP, Sold the Soul, due out later this month.

The process wasn’t easy, but it was a lot better than the band’s early days of recording in a warehouse in Kensington. “That was Dave #1,” Fox laughs. (This band knows a few Daves.)

Foxtrot recorded their earliest demos in a living room with Dave #1. Someone may or may not have gotten shot in the apartment above them. A house down the street went up in flames. Needless to say, working with Pettit, who has produced A$AP Rocky and Motion City Soundtrack, has been a boost in the quality and the environment of their recording.

Budny recalls that only two of the songs Foxtrot came into the studio with made it from start to finish with Pettit: “Let It Go” and “Sweet Songs,” which has recently earned some airtime on Radio 104.5’s New Music Discovery Show on Sunday nights. “Jessie from 104.5 is one of the only people in Philly looking out for Philly artists,” says Budny.

A New York-area station requested some audio files, too. Foxtrot’s future looks promising.

“It’s kinda scary,” says Bianco. “We just got done college, and we have student loans to pay back, but everything’s been going so good that I think we’ll have to take at least a year or two to figure it out.”

While their small gigs and recording time have probably cost the guys more money than they’ve earned, Budny says he wouldn’t want it any other way. “Set me up in a corner, and I’ll play there.”

Fri., Aug. 8, 8:30 p.m., $10, with Abandon Kansas, Ten Cent Days and Motor Heart Man, The Balcony at the Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., 215-922-6888, thetroc.com.