Daily Inspiration: Meet Feroxx

Today we’d like to introduce you to Feroxx. 

Hi Feroxx, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I have had music in me and around me my entire life. If there was a choir, you name it, I was in it. Church choir. School choir. Community choir. All the choirs. At age 12 I began piano lessons, and within 6 months was sight-reading Rachmaninov. I became easily bored with practice and would improvise in the middle of classic pieces by putting my own spin on it. My piano instructor was not amused. I didn’t have the discipline or drive to continue down the path of rigorous practice. It began to extinguish the magic and became formulaic, and I wasn’t willing to let the mystery of music be stolen from me, even then as a girl. At age 21, I discovered my ability to rap, and I wrote my first lyrics to a Mike Oldfield song from his album ‘Songs of a Distant Earth’. If you know Oldfield, you know it is not even remotely close to hip hop. Looking back, I realize that was the beginning of my love for genre fusion. 

Over the course of my 20s, I partied heavily, rebelled entirely, and eventually found myself fully gripped by a severe addiction to alcohol. This battle with alcohol abuse would land me in the ER on numerous occasions, threaten my relationships, and eventually nearly took my life. Music was gone. And, at the end, so was I; almost entirely dead on the inside. On November 10, 2018, I made the decision to embark upon the long, painful journey of sobriety. My husband took me to see a late-night showing of ‘A Star Is Born’, starring Lady Gaga. This became our Day 1, and marked the beginning of the hardest work of my life. 

Almost immediately, music began to resurface. At three months sober, I felt the pull to pick up the pen and begin writing again. It was at that time that I wrote my very first single, ‘Empty Box of Matches’. Over the course of the first year of sobriety, I chronicled it in real-time, pen to paper, as I healed and wrote it out to capture my journey. The sound that was coming out of me was unlike anything I had done or explored before. And I just sorta intuitively followed the pull of it. Initially, I wasn’t pursuing anything but survival; music was quite literally my lifeline and the tool I used to process the wreckage that lay before me. I would write a song and then immediately head into the studio. This quickly became a predictable life rhythm, recording a new song religiously each month. One thing led to another, and soon I found myself hired with a job managing the recording studio which I had initially come to as a place of refuge and healing. My name, Feroxx, came to me when I was just over a year sober. It means fierce and war-like in Latin – I added an ‘x’. I continued to record and began releasing my music under the name Feroxx. A year into it, I began producing my music with my husband, hand-crafting and writing all of our own music to weave my lyrics throughout. It is, by far, my proudest accomplishment. Sharing that with him has sewn our marriage together in ways I never knew possible, and when I listen to our music I love knowing it is the sound of us merged. 

Over the last two years, I have recorded 25 songs, released 14 of them (as singles that make up two EP’s), conceptualized countless photos as visual art to accompany my music, and put out 2 full-length music videos. We have done all of this without any financial assistance from family, outside investors, or fundraising. Most recently, we purchased a bus and are in the process of renovating it to transition into full-time life on the road. My next summit to tackle is performing on stage…and the bus is all a part of that wild plan. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Well, I think I touched on a lot of it as I recounted my story in my previous response: Addiction. And the clawing out of it. Finances. Supporting our family and making ends meet in this challenging economic climate while still funding music has felt impossible at times. Juggling a full-time job, raising a child, tending to our home while consistently creating music often feels selfish – like it’s this thing I’m insisting upon putting on an already full and tapped-out plate. Never seeming to have enough resources to keep funding the dream while also advancing. These are all substantial challenges. We can never see far beyond the moment we are standing in – there are no guarantees of the financial investment ever translating into a return. But somehow we are doing it. And I am madly determined. I think this is all part of the art of becoming. I recognize it is imperative to my legacy and my commitment to living with intention. But, of course, everything about it is entirely and enormously uncertain. Absolutely nothing about it has been a smooth road. 

The only thing smooth thing about it is the music itself. That part is easy. Every time I write a song, I hold my breath thinking it might be the last one before I hit a permanent wall of writer’s block. Or maybe I won’t be able to continue to innovate and create music that doesn’t sound like what I’ve already done, ya know? I’ve been writing consistently, month in and month out, for 2.5 years now, and none of that has yet to happen. The words are always there. The music is always there. It is always waiting for me, just beneath the surface and within my reach. I’d say I don’t want to jinx myself, but then I’d probably just end up writing a song about it. Un-Jinxed. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
By day, I manage Colorado Sound Recording Studios as the Studio Office Manager. Not a day goes by that I’m not grateful for the ways in which my job dovetails with my work as an artist and producer. I am immersed in the industry day in and day out; both as an artist/creative and as a business professional. 

As an artist, I am known for exceptional lyricism. Recently, one of our clients at the studio referred to me as the ‘Bob Dylan of Modern Pop’. At first, it struck me as absurd. But, honestly, I am first and foremost a writer. And I do think my lyrics are deep, intellectual, and meaningful. I write and create with purpose. I am known for larger than life vision and determination in finding a way to execute my vision with excellence. I am fiercely dedicated to living life intentionally. Oh! And unwavering tenacity – I feel that’s something that most people would say I’m known for. 

I am known for straddling between light and dark – and it’s evident in how I weave the landscape of my music. 

I am most proud of how much I have accomplished in 3 years, since Day 1 of sobriety. I didn’t just get sober and stop there. I got sober and started my own revolution. I don’t solely view sobriety as a gift; I also view it as a huge responsibility. I’ve got to make the most of this precious second chance at life. Sobriety has allowed me to get insanely clear on who I am and what I came here to do. And I’m doing it. I write all of my own music, and heavily co-produce each song. I am proud of that. I’ve come into my own and reached a point where I don’t allow what others think of me or believe about me deter or define me in any way. When I look in the mirror, I like who I see. And I think that’s more rare than what we want to believe. I say what I want to say, and I no longer run it through these filters that are attached to other people’s names. I used to obsess over what so and so (and there was like a list of dozens and dozens of so and so’s) would think if I said such and such. Nah. I don’t play that game anymore. I say what I want to say, what I need to say. I approach each song like, ‘look, this is what I have to say right now’. And I don’t hold back. 

My sound is somewhat unique. People have a difficult time comparing me to other artists or placing me in a category. My style and production is distinct, and my music is branded with an original signature – sonically and visually. In an industry where so many artists are striving to sound like someone else, I stand out. Like the black sheep, I’ve sort of always been. And it resonates with those it needs to reach. I feel like I also bring a different sense of awareness and craftsmanship to my music than what is typically found in ‘pop’. The music sounds good, sure, but if you actually listen you’ll realize I’m saying something. That’s important to me. I make music that is honest and raw…and human. 

Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
What kind of impossible question is this? And how much time do you have? Lol. Man. I am fortunate to have a childhood filled with numerous happy memories. I didn’t want to overthink this question, lol. So immediately what comes to mind is skipping stones with my dad. He would take me on long hikes, which I would call our ‘adventures’. We would pack snacks and head out along the paths of the South Platte and Chatfield…and sometimes through the foothills of Littleton. Rarely did we ever talk much during those walks. I would just walk behind him, completely drawn in by the beautiful nature around me. There was always this sense of magic about those walks…almost Narnia-like…walking out of the routine of life and entering into entirely new worlds. I can still recall specific trees, sets of train tracks, and a massive decline of steep hill made of large rocks. We would usually eventually find water, and my dad taught me how to scout perfectly flat and round rocks along the water’s edge. There he’d back up and then run forward, like an Olympic athlete, to skip those rocks across the water. Often the sun was just beginning to set, and I’d watch those stones just effortlessly bounce along the black, glassy surface…until they were out of sight. Those are times I’ll never forget, and they are times that I think helped forge my insatiable draw to now, as a grown woman, answer the call of the wild. 

Contact Info:

• Email: iamferoxx@gmail.com
• Website: www.iamferoxx.com
• Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/iamferoxx
• Facebook: https://www.Facebook.com/iamferoxx
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCTLo81XwFVQVCGsFoaP7DtA
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/F5iSqt57TnLeQpQN6

Image Credits
Shane Lambert
Justin Hardman