Meet Sarah Vitort and Scott Gilmore of Fox and Bones and Portland’s Folk Festival

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Vitort and Scott Gilmore.

Sarah and Scott, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Scott and I were both the lead singers in rock bands in Portland, Oregon. We met in January of 2016 at a show I was playing. Scott enjoyed my set and asked if I’d ever be interested in writing together, and the rest was history. A few days later, he sent me a song idea with some piano and an opening verse, and I responded with a second verse. We got together a few days later and finished our very first song, “Bones”.

Fox and Bones was initially supposed to be a side project for both of us, an outlet for some of our more gentle and heartfelt songwriting away from the rock bands. However, it caught fire and quickly became our primary project, taking us on multiple tours through the US and Europe.

In 2017, we dreamed up the idea for Portland’s Folk Festival while we were lamenting about the fact that our busy schedules kept us from seeing our friends’ bands play. We decided to throw a small one-day event featuring our favorite folk acts from the Northwest with the intention of bringing the community together. The event quickly sold out and we realized that we weren’t the only ones craving this kind of community. In three years, the festival has tripled in size and is now held at the historic and prestigious Crystal Ballroom. The 2020 festival expanded to two days and included 19 bands, multiple sponsors from the local music scene, and ten artisan craft vendors.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I laughed a little at this question because the obvious answer is no, it has not been a smooth road. We are a couple as well as business partners and we’ve had to learn a lot about compromise, collaboration, and not taking things personally (I still struggle with that one). We’ve played to a lot of empty rooms, we’ve burned out from playing shows every night in a new city for months on end. We’ve cried over bad shows and empty bank accounts. We’ve threatened idly to give up a few times. But ultimately, this dream is worth it. It’s not always pretty, but when we look back at the end of the day, there is nothing else we’d rather be doing, and definitely no one we’d rather be doing it with, and for that we are incredibly grateful!

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Fox and Bones and Portland’s Folk Festival – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
In those early days of being a band, we knew that success wasn’t a straight line that we could follow. There is no real model for success as an independent musician, and we knew, based on failures with our previous bands, that we were going to have to think outside the box and forge our own path. We also knew we’d need to fully commit, no fall back plan, no side jobs – we had to jump in with both feet. Fox and Bones was born of a desire to make all our dreams come true, and we infuse that optimism into our music in the hopes that we will inspire others to do the same.

We never dreamed that running our own festival would bring us so many opportunities and be such a keystone to our success as a band. The festival promotes collaboration, celebration and community over competition. It calls artists and fans together; you can often see band members mingling with fans and watching the bands that for us, that’s what it’s all about. As a result, we’ve benefited from making tons of new friends and networking with industry folks that may never have given us a second look otherwise. We love the festival because it provides value to others rather than us always asking things of others, as is part of being an independent artist.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We are very excited and optimistic for the future! Our upcoming single “Already Here”, due out in late February with a single release show at the Doug Fir Lounge, is the first single we will be releasing through a record label. With the label behind us, we are excited to see how we can expand and grow, and we will be releasing our third full-length album in late fall. We are also looking forward to two US tours and two European tours this year, and we’ve already started planning for the 2021 Portland’s Folk Festival!

Contact Info:

• Address: 2115 NW Larkspur St.
  Camas, WA 98607
• Website: http://www.foxandbones.com/
• Phone: 3606078183
• Email: pr@foxandbonesmusic.com

Image Credit:
Amandala Photography, Tara Sloane, JP Downer, Chris Bigalke/Showdeer, Daniel Jenke – Punkadelic Pics

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