Interview: FieldHockey

By Neil Shumate, OOTB Publications

By way of Chattanooga, Tennessee, rocker quintet FieldHockey continue to come in strong on the heels of many phenomenal welcoming singles, including: “Mazes,” “Common Trope,” “Taxes On Taxidermy,” “Ecdysis” and “Lost Connections."

Originally forming in 2019 with a punk rock focus, more metal influences were introduced in late 2023 with the addition of co-lead guitarists Michael Avakian and Jake Hixson, creating a post-hardcore powerhouse of music.

The band recently took time for this OOTB Interview to talk song composition, listener goals, collab wishes, pending announcements, new songs coming and more.

I really love “Lost Connections” and “Mazes!” What’s your favorite song to perform live and why that particular song?

We love playing “Ecdysis” live; it just has a raw energy that’s hits very hard and just tends to get the crowd moving!

How does the band formulate and compose songs—do the lyrics come first or the music?

We tend to write the music first before lyrics.

Enon lives in Myrtle Beach and has to travel up for practices; so we tend to have a bevy of tracks ready for him to write to.

For a first time listener, what do you hope people the away from the band and to keep continuing to listen?

That we are relatable. We are humans with dreams and aspirations just like everyone else and we’ve all been through things. Hopefully, someone hears our music and it puts a smile on their face.

What band or musician would you like to collaborate with and why them?

Turnstile. They have the exact same energy we have and all of us love their music.

When did you first become interested in music and what was it that inspired you to become a musician?

We all got interested in music at a very young age.

Just watching all of our favorite musicians growing up—whether it be on stage, on a video, in an interview—gave us that dream of also being a professional musician one day.

What are FieldHockey’s latest, current happenings and plans or goals into the rest of the year?

Currently, we are waiting to make two of the biggest announcements of our lives, when it comes to music.

We landed two very big festivals this year, we can’t say exactly what just yet though!

And, of course, we have a calendar full of shows in our region here in the southeast.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

We are planning to release a few new songs this year, so keep an eye out!

First song will be dropping in March or April!

FieldHockey is

Enon Harris-Vocals

Michael Avakian-Guitar

Jake Hixson-Guitar

Justin White-Bass