Digging In

Foxholes — the Des Moines-based five-piece consisting of Trevor Holt, Jessica Villegas, Ben Barndollar, Kyle Folvag and Craig Bowers — is working on a new album of material. In the ebb and flow of a band’s natural life cycle, it seems like a natural time for it to be happening.

Foxholes plays Vaudeville Mews on Thursday, Aug. 28.

Foxholes’ first album, “Can’t Help Myself,” was given almost universal praise as a remarkably mature, self-assured work for a band’s debut effort. Giving heavy nods to the group’s ‘90s garage rock influences, “Can’t Help Myself” never dipped into the realm of homage and felt wholly original and new. Audiences responded positively and, frankly, the band proceeded to play itself flat locally, wringing the album for all it was worth in the capital city.

But now, with new material on the horizon, Foxholes is lowering its profile a bit and getting ready to head back into the studio. The band just recently completed a session with local studio genius Phil Young (Tires, Annalibera) and is getting material ready for a possible winter EP release with a full-length to hopefully follow in the spring.

“This past year I’ve been working on a lot of stuff,” Holt said of the growing catalog of new songs. “I’ve made a point of going home and working on the guitar.”

Though Holt is the fountain from which most of the band’s songs spring forth lyrically, the finished product is always a collaborative effort.

“Trevor usually comes to the band with the beginning of a song,” Folvag said.

“And we just kind of build organically from there,” Villegas concurred.

“Everyone builds off (the same) idea,” Holt agreed. “Sometimes it transforms quite a bit from the original concept because it is so organic.”

So far, the two new tracks the band has worked into its set blend seamlessly with the “Can’t Help Myself” material. This would be a worry if the first album’s output had been in any way tentative or shaky. Still, that doesn’t mean the new album will be “Can’t Help Myself 2: Electric Boogaloo.”

“It’s more developed,” Villegas said of the new material. “Before, we went into recording with these basic (ideas). Now we know that we have more options.”

“The arrangements are more linear,” Folvag added.

“It’s one of those things where it’s like, we write what we write, and we play what we play,” Holt summed up. “And hopefully it’s all getting better.” CV