Eight Foot Manchild – An Xperience Interview

RRX: We got Dylan Foley on the line. Dylan is an eight-foot manchild, apparently.

DF: That is correct.

RRX: What do you guys eat?

DF: What do we eat?

(Both Laugh)

RRX: I figured I’d give you a call … a friend of mine, Mike from Jupiter Queen … he’s a great salesman for you because he really pushes how awesome your band is. But I’ve been familiar with the band for a little while, and I agree.

DF: Oh, that’s awesome.

RRX: So you guys are a Boston band?

DF: We are based out of the Greater Boston area, yeah. Some of us in Boston, some of us on the other side of the river, kind of scattered to the four winds, but yeah, we’re generally Boston-based.

RRX: There are a lot of really cool bands that have come out of Boston. Who do you think is, like, the most Boston of all the bands?

DF: Oh, jeez! I mean, is Dropkick Murphys too obvious a choice?

RRX: It’s a choice that makes a lot of sense, though.

DF: Yeah, sure. I mean, there’s also the band that has the name of the city.

RRX: I know, but if they didn’t do it, somebody else was gonna. I was actually talking to Rick Barton of the original Dropkick Murphys lineup. And he told me a story about … if it wasn’t for the Bosstones, the Dropkick Murphys never would have been what they became. The Bosstones took them under their wing. They paid for them to go on a European tour and everything.

DF: That’s awesome.

RRX: But the Bosstones are no more, right?

DF: I believe that they had their final show either last New Year’s or maybe two years ago. I don’t remember.

RRX: So that means there’s a vacancy, huh?

DF: We’re ready to step up and take up the mantle and represent Medford at least.

RRX: Exactly. So how long have you guys been around?

DF: Well, that’s a complicated question. The short answer is, this version of this band got together just before the pandemic started. But there has been a band called Eight Foot Manchild in existence off and on for various stretches of time, with long breaks in between, since about 2005.

RRX: Oh, wow.

DF: Yeah, but the band that started way back then has no resemblance to the band today except that I am the one consistent member. I originally started as a free improv trio, just playing like weird ambient soundscape music, and then evolved into a band that did a lot of weird cover songs of like mashups of TV theme songs and things. That was off-and-on for a number of years, and then this version, the doom brass version, is, I think, the final form. We emerged in early 2020, and of course, the pandemic hit right after that, so we were doing things long-distance for a while there, and then started doing practices and shows in earnest in late 2021.

RRX: Yeah, a lot happened for people making music during the pandemic. Either it was like my band that ended up doing nothing because of it …

DF: A lot of bands broke up during that time.

RRX: … or the opposite, and you got some stuff accomplished.

DF: Yeah, it was a very productive time for me, music-wise. I spent a long time writing music, putting things together, and making plans. It was sort of a blessing in disguise, I guess, on that front.

RRX: You mentioned doom brass, and I didn’t know that term even existed or if you guys invented it. I was trying to figure out what genre you were, and that makes sense.

DF: Yeah, we invented the term; we like to call ourselves the world’s first and therefore best doom brass band. Obviously, we’re aware that we’re not the first band to use horns in the context of heavy music; that’s been around since before there was such a thing as heavy metal. If you go all the way back to King Crimson, “21st Century Schizoid Man,” then you know that goes back even before Black Sabbath. So the concept has been around since before there was even such a term as heavy metal. But we like to think that we’re forging a new path in that, and in a few years from now, all bands will have horns regardless of genre.

RRX: Right? It’s a breath of fresh air sometimes when you’ve got a horn section up there and you’re not just doing straight-up ska music.

DF: We still get mistaken for a ska band from a distance, not just because of the horns but because of the way we dress and the way we carry ourselves. I don’t think anyone would be surprised if we got up there and just went like … pick it up, pick it up, pick it up, pick it up! But we like to pleasantly surprise people. Not that we’re opposed to playing with a ska band. We actually just did our first show on a bill with some ska bands, and it was an absolute blast.

One of the dreams that this band was founded on was … I really wanted to be able to play a huge variety of different shows. I wanted this project to feel at home playing on a whole bunch of different types of bills. And so far, it’s been successful. We’ve shared bills with everything from full-on, just nasty, grimy-ass sludge metal bands, screaming with shrieking harsh vocals and walls of feedback type bands, all the way through ska, folk punk, and street brass, like New Orleans-style street brass bands. We felt at home during all of it; we’re never quite too out of place. Surf rock bands we played with, prog, and funk bands. We kind of have our hands in a lot of different pots, and I really like it. I think it’s great.

RRX: I think so, too. As a part of the job, I don’t pay to get into concerts. I do spend a lot of money at the bar and buy merch, but … I think about the concertgoers’ experience because these people paid money to get in here. There are definitely some concerts where I’m like … why couldn’t they just break it up and throw a band in there that’s a little bit different? But then you guys come out on stage and they’re like, Oh, thank God, something different.

DF: Yeah, once you see the sousaphone get on stage, you know that some wild sh** is about to go down!

RRX: Eight Foot Manchild reminds me of two things. One is our editor, Liam, here at Xperience, who is actually just about 8 ft tall and could be considered a manchild (but aren’t we all?).

DF: Really?

RRX: Yeah. It also reminds me of Sasquatch. Have you met an 8-foot-tall person, and do you believe in Sasquatch?

DF: No, and sure, why not?

RRX: Right? I’ve very much been into the UFO thing. I’ve actually videotaped one, so I know they’re real. But the Bigfoot thing, I was kind of like … I don’t know. But then … what’s his name from Blink 182? The UFO guy, Tom DeLonge, recently came out and was talking about the fact that the government has files on Bigfoot, and I mean … he was right the last time. Well, we’ll see.

DF: Yes, if that does happen, I’ll go ahead and write a song about it because why not?

RRX: Well, maybe start writing it now! Get ahead of the curve.

DF: Exactly, put it out like the next day, like holy sh**, that was quick!

RRX: Was there anything that you’d like to say to people out there to entice them to check your band out and to go to shows when you’re in town?

DF: Yeah, if you’ve never heard horns and heavy riffs together in one place, you’re gonna realize something that a lot of people have told us, which is: Oh wow, this is something that I never knew I needed, and now I need more of it.

RRX: So yeah, if you’re horny, check out Eight Foot Manchild!

DF: We’ll take care of you.