The stages keep getting bigger, the lights brighter and the backing more influential for the Portland band Glitterfox, the brainchild of the married couple Solange Igoa and Andrea Walker.
Months away from the release of their first album, Glitterfox takes the stage at the Project Pabst festival, which returns to Waterfront Park on Saturday and Sunday, July 27 and 28. Glitterfox plays on Sunday, and Igoa and Walker are clearly happy for the opportunity.
“It’s definitely an honor,” said Walker, the guitarist. “We’re all really excited about it. We’re just such a Portland band — management based in Portland, the label (Kill Rock Stars) has a Portland base, all the members live here. We even have a song called ‘Portland.’
“Getting the opportunity to kind of represent Portland is something that’s really special. We don’t take it lightly.”
It’s a big festival, including Billy Idol and T-Pain and Portland band Gossip.
Glitterfox has been playing gigs for some time, as Walker, from Charlotte, North Carolina, and Igoa, from Bakersfield, California, have long been a couple. The band has put out several singles — starting with “Drive” in August 2023 — and the upcoming album “Highway Forever,” due out in September, features seven singles and four live tracks. Also, Igoa and Walker say they’ll be making their first studio album soon.
What are they about? Says publicity: “(Igoa and Walker) have always channeled their personal struggles as well as experiences as queer, neurodivergent individuals into their songwriting.”
The band gained some momentum from an encounter at their New Year’s Eve 2022 show at Star Theater, as the support for Jerry Joseph and The Jackmormons. They met Chris Funk of The Decemberists, who approached them and asked questions about their status.
“He kind of started managing us slowly, courting us,” Igoa said. “He’s giving us pointers, and we were so ready at that point. He listened to what we said. We met him at the New Year’s Eve show and this little voice in my head told him everything — we’re married, been living in a van, we’re just poor kids who got a grant to record this music. We got this small amount of money, trying to make it work.”
Now signed as the band’s manager, and a producer, Funk, who knew the promoter, helped them land in the Project Pabst lineup. (The band is also represented by booking agent Susie Giang.)
Said Walker: “He was just trying to help us, and we became friends, ‘a rock star is interested in us,’ then he pitched us to Susie Giang. When things started picking up, it was, ‘Look guys, I’m pseudo-managing you, let’s make it official. We’ll have a contract and I’ll take a commission.’ It was, ‘Where do we sign?’ He’s been incredible to work with.”
The other band members are bassist Eric Stalker and drummer Blaine Heinonen.
Igoa and Walker were a duo for a long time, going back 12 years, before adding Stalker five years ago and Heinonen two years ago.
So, what’s the origin of the cool name (which sounds like a band meant to be in the Eurovision Song Contest)?
Walker said the band was in Long Beach, California, playing a punk rock show. As they stood in line for the bathroom, Walker and Igoa heard a passerby ask, “Hey you look cool, you in the band together?” One of them popped out with, “Yeah, we’re Glitterfox.”
Glitterfox played at Oregon Country Fair. The band has been touring lately, “playing anywhere that sounds good,” Walker said. Igoa and Walker say they live in a one-bedroom apartment (for now), and return only briefly between gigs.
Married in September 2019, the two live happily ever after, having managed their relationship at the same time as navigating their music career.
“When we’re hanging out, you end up talking about a show. It’s our whole life,” Walker said. “We’ve always been together as a couple and played music together. On one hand, it’s nice. When you go on the road, you’re not leaving somebody behind that you’re missing — except our dog Gilly.
“It’s cool to have this life together, we both love the same thing, we’re moving in the same direction at the same time. It has helped to strengthen us as a couple. We have these shared values. You learn how to work it out. Even if we disagree, you gotta work it out.”
Said Igoa: “I don’t know what the alternative would be like, we’ve been doing it for so long. Working with anyone has its challenges. Some people have to try really hard because they’re working (separately) all the time; we have to do the opposite, we have to get alone time. Alternatively, with finding alone time, we have to figure out how to hang out without talking about work.”
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