Last time we spoke with Justin Khoury, former guitarist/vocalist of
Last time we spoke with Justin Khoury, former guitarist/vocalist of The Northerners in September, his band was putting on their farewell show at The Camel.
But that didn’t stop him from churning out new music. Since the fall, Khoury, along with a few other members of RVA bands, have been working on Don’t Chase Felix, a collective of people just getting together to make songs and bascially jam out.
Andrew Trongone of The Trongone Band, Jody Boyd of Red Amp Audio, John Small of the legendary Pat McGee Band, Sam Reed formerly of the Photosynthesizers and Caroline Mauck of Richmond band Colin and Caroline are all part of this new project.
“Bascially I have a huge backlog of songs that I was writing for The Northerners and I wanted to record them,” Khoury said. “We’re not necessarily a band, it’s kind of a like a recording project mostly.”
And today, the group officially released it’s first single “Holiday”. The folksy tune is upbeat and happy and features vocals from Khoury and Caroline Mauck, Andrew Trongone on the guitar, Jody Boyd on drums and John Small on bass.
Khoury described “Holiday” as having a Beach Boys feel to it, with a banjo.
“It’s quirky, it’s kind of funny,” he said.
Don’t Chase Felix has been recording their music at Red Amp Audio and Khoury said they just wrapped up the single about a month and half ago.
The upcoming video, which will premiere later on, was shot in Loudon County and directed by Patrick Mason.
“Its basically my journey to meet up with Caroline,” he said.
Instead of having one particular sound and the same members on every track like a band, Khoury said he prefered the idea of having a diverse group so he could record across multiple genres including rock, pop and folk and fit the right person with the right song.
“I didnt want to be pigeonholed or anything… I just wanted to do whatever the hell I wanted to, and make the best possible song and get the best possbile arrangement of players for that particular tune rather than you have one set group of people and you gotta make the most out of it,” he said.
A second single, “Come Get me High”, from Sam Reed is expected to be released by the end of February or early March along with a third to follow that the group has recorded.
Khoury said he hopes to put out an EP of the songs the group has been working on sometime later in the year so keep your eyes and ear peeled for that.
“It’s going to sound like a mixtape when we put them all together,” he said.
Khoury added he’s also hoping to perform in the next five to six months once Don’t Chase Felix gets a few more songs under their belt.
