Wisconsin rockers PHOX will be visiting Bowling Green for the first time Thursday night when they
headline Live Wire in the Clazel.
Still, fans may very well line the stage singing along to their songs.
"That’s maybe the most shocking thing about being in the band," said Matteo Roberts, who plays
keyboards, guitar and sings with the sextet. "We go to cities we’ve never been before and you catch
a handful of kids in the front row singing all the words. … That’s really eye-opening to me to know
that people are really interested, and really care. It’s really cool."
Those loyal fans are  big reason why PHOX is being pegged as a band to watch. Right now they are in the
midst of a tour that has them doing shows in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston and the noted venue
the Iron Horse in Northampton, Massachusetts within the week before they hit Bowling Green.
Thursday’s multi-act show at the Clazel begins at 8 p.m. and also features Field Report with local
support from Jojo Stella. Tickets are $10 and $13.
Along with Roberts, the band includes Monica Martin, lead vocals, Zach Johnston, banjo and guitar,
Robert’s older brother Davey Roberts, drums,  Jason Krunnfusz, bass, and Matthew Holmen, lead guitar and
trumpet.
They all grew up in the small farming town of Baraboo, Wisconsin, north of Madison. Roberts said they all
knew each other, or of each other. That’s the size place it was. They all experienced music in different
ways. Learning by lessons and listening. Falling in love with a myriad of styles.
They played in different bands, and all they all split from Baraboo.
Roberts went to major in music voice and piano at the University of Wisconsin. Krunnfusz played in a hard
rock scream band. Holmen played pop rock in the vein of Coldplay.
Then, "all our individual efforts came tumbling down," Roberts said. He left music school and,
like the rest, ended back up in Baraboo.
They ran into each other at a coffee shop and reconnected.
In 2011 they moved to Madison together. "That’s when the band really started to take shape,"
Roberts remembered. By 2012 they were playing shows. By 2013 they were on stage at Lollapalooza and
Apple’s iTunes Festival in London.
Roberts said that the band’s varied approach to music is its strength. "Monica is in command of the
lyrics, and she’ll write the melodies," he said.
She’ll bring these in, and the others build the harmonic structure underneath. Everyone fills in a part.

This democratic process creates a balance among the instruments, with different instrumental threads
running through the songs. Roberts said there’s a certain "push and pull" as the arrangements
come together.
Those like Roberts with more training "obsess" over the right chords and other technical
details, while others such as Johnston who have little musical training often take a wider look. He
looks at the structure, Roberts said, "and knows how to balance out the parts."
"Because of that process, we can let our different influences shine in the song."
While Martin is the front woman – "she is the image of the group," Roberts said – she, like the
other members, "sees the advantages of truly collaborating."
"She is the face, but we all need each other and we’re definitely a group," he said. "We
all came into this band with the idea that none of us can do this on our own. We all excel when we’re
bouncing ideas off each other."
What emerges from is a mix of pop rock and alternative folk that’s appealingly off-kilter, in equal parts
bouncy and wistful like melancholy with a smile on its face.
"We’ve never really tried to design a sound," Roberts said. "It’s always just sitting
around trying to play what we want to play, playing what comes natural. It’s more like being in a
playground for a while and seeing what comes out. That’s our sound."