Avec Sans

Avec Sans is comprised of London-based duo Jack St James and Alice Fox who after repeatedly finding each other at the same gigs, decided to start a collaboration. After period of time behind closed doors, in late May 2012 St James and Fox emerged online as Avec Sans and rapidly began gathering momentum. Within an hour of putting a track online, they’d already been picked up by Crack In The Road who’d apparently chanced upon their Bandcamp in what must have been minutes after they set it up. A couple of hours after that, they were already getting gig offers on the strength of the one track.

St James is Trinidadian and now lives in London. Whilst growing up, his family had a nomadic lifestyle, living in countries including Zaire, Gabon, Congo, Cameroon, Oman and France before setting up home in the south of England. Fox is a Mancunian who gave up a potential career in crime-fighting to make music; her first line of work was in a Manchester gun crime unit. After a few months on the job, Fox discovered that her predecessor left the job (alive) but in the boot of a car after witnessing a shooting. Gun crime was not for her.

Both St James and Fox have both been involved in making music since they were teenagers. Growing up, St James says he didn’t feel much of a connection with the soca and calypso music of Trinidad, the music he found exciting was the punk his brother’s friend brought back from California. After becoming disillusioned with the punk scene, he discovered electro, garage and DnB. It was electronic music that he says first opened his mind to what was possible, he says his reaction to it was to think, “holy fuck, this sounds amazing” and shortly after, he started producing electronic music himself. As a teenager St James was first in a series of punk bands and then in an electro act.

The only records around in the house when Fox was growing up were by The Carpenters and Simon and Garfunkel, she says “my parents went through a “burn all your records” phase and those must have been the only ones they couldn’t bear to destroy. They saw music as a subversive force”. As a result of the lack of music in her home and it consequently feeling taboo, Fox felt drawn to it. Later, when her friends were listening to boy bands, she was listening to Eels and Radiohead. At school, some of Fox’s male peers were in a band and whilst still underage were playing the Manchester venues. Fox says “I’d go along to all of the gigs, but wasn’t happy being one of the hangers on, I was desperate to be part of the band. I remember the first time I eventually played at the Roadhouse myself; I felt like I’d really made it”. From her teens onwards Fox fronted various indie bands and sessioned as a vocalist with other bands around Europe.