Justin Cox is a Winters-based singer-songwriter and guitarist — and also a keyboards player[1] — best known as a founding member, vocalist and principal songwriter of the indie/folk trio The Polyorchids.[2] He and his bandmates grew up listening to punk music and plugged into the scene in neighboring Sacramento, while writing material that leaned toward lyrics-forward, "punk adjacent" songwriting.[2]
At a glance
- Based in Winters, in the Greater Sacramento region.[2]
- Founding member and lead songwriter of The Polyorchids (formed 2015), alongside Tony Clark and his brother Travis Cox.[2]
- Long musical history with the same circle of friends: the band Mr. Nobody (since high school) and Stenna and the Poison Apples (with a 2008 EP).[2]
- Self-taught vocalist and frontman; cites songwriters such as Bright Eyes, Kevin Devine, Manchester Orchestra and Jackson Browne as influences.[2][1]
- Worked for UC Davis' Wildlife Health Center; relocated to Orcas Island for that job by 2018 while continuing to return to the area.[2]
- By June 2020 had launched a Jackson Browne podcast called "After The Deluge."[3]
Origin and local status
Cox is from Winters, a town in the Greater Sacramento region, and the bands he has played in have been explicitly described as "Winters-based."[2] He and his collaborators grew up listening to punk music and tapped into the community in neighboring Sacramento, and although they lived in Winters they specifically wanted to play in Sacramento.[2] These details establish Cox as a local artist by origin, not a touring act passing through.
His path moved through other cities before returning home: the formation of The Polyorchids came together when Cox moved back to Winters after stints in Chicago and San Francisco, around the same time his brother Travis returned from Vallejo and Tony Clark from Maine.[2]
Musical history and bands
Cox's musical relationships trace back to high school, when he, Tony Clark and Travis Cox first played together under the name Mr. Nobody.[2] After each went off to college and returned, they formed a band called Stenna and the Poison Apples, which left behind an EP circa 2008 but, aside from a few local shows, did little else before folding when Cox headed to grad school.[2] By his own account, the group never took that project seriously, never booked a tour, and never even played a show in Sacramento.[2]
The Polyorchids formed in 2015 out of a deliberate desire to do things differently — in particular, to book a tour, something the members had watched other bands do but never attempted.[2] Cox and Clark had written a backlog of "songwriter-centric folk songs" that they reworked and amped up into louder, electric material suited to playing in Sacramento, while keeping the songs versatile in their scaled-down form.[2] Cox has described the band's identity as occupying a middle ground — the "loud band" in Winters and the "catchy band you can hum along to" in Sacramento.[2]
In 2015, the newly formed Polyorchids booked a little over a week of shows up and down the California coast.[2]
Songwriting and recordings
Cox is a self-taught singer who has said it took him roughly two years to even become aware he could not yet sing in key, slowly developing his own voice — described in Submerge as having a clear timbre and slight nasal texture akin to the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle.[2] According to KDRT, Cox also plays keyboards in addition to guitar, and fronts the band as vocalist.[1] He and Clark trade lead vocals across The Polyorchids' songs, with material marked by frank, sincere lyrics.[2]
Recordings attributed to the band's lineage include the Popgun EP (2016), which simply executed fully written songs, and a self-titled full-length whose process was looser, with Cox and Clark bringing in small ideas fleshed out as a group.[2] The self-titled LP (released April 13, 2018) contains ten tracks: "The Lark," "Predisposed," "Dumpster Heap," "45," "Skeletons," "Down in the Desert," "Back off, Warchild," "Low Class Love Song," "Preachers in Private Jets," and "Readiness for Radio."[4] It was recorded, mixed and mastered by Pat Hills at Earthtone Sacramento, with extra instruments and vocals contributed by Pat Hills, Jake Deane and Mike Santana.[4]
The opening track, "The Lark," recounts the band's first tour show at the Shanachie Pub in Willits and was heavily inspired by Courtney Barnett's observational writing style.[2] "Skeletons" is a harmony number with Clark, and "Down in the Desert" is a tribute Cox wrote to an uncle, a makeup artist in Arizona who had recently died.[2]
Beyond the Popgun EP and the self-titled LP, the band's Bandcamp discography also includes a third EP titled "On the Water Alone" and a release called "Raspberries Demos."[5]
Notable shows
To release their self-titled debut LP, The Polyorchids played two release shows in April 2018: Friday, April 13 at the Palms Playhouse in Winters (with The Big Poppies opening), and the following day at the Colony in Sacramento, with Sun Valley Gun Club, Jesus and the Dinosaurs, and The Car Crash Hearts in support.[2]
In the lead-up to the LP release, the band played a show on December 14, 2017 at the Blue Lamp (1400 Alhambra Blvd, Sacramento) on a bill with Alarms, Shotgun Sawyer, and Vinnie Guidera and the Dead Birds.[6] They also played an all-ages show on January 19, 2018 at Cafe Colonial (3520 Stockton Blvd, Sacramento) with Pisscat.[6]
Podcast
By June 2020, Cox had launched a podcast called "After The Deluge," focused on the work of Jackson Browne. According to a KDRT feature from that time, each episode reviews and analyses a specific Jackson Browne album with an array of guests.[3]
A note on the byline
Justin Cox is also a music writer whose byline appears on numerous Submerge Magazine articles (interviews and reviews of acts such as Jon Pardi, Robin Bacior, Shovels & Rope, Shook Twins, Lara Price and Jackie Greene). This page covers him as a Sacramento-region musician; his role as a journalist is noted only for context and is not the basis for his inclusion.