Fire Track: Pet Fox – “Avoidant”

Fire Track · Exploding in Sound Records

Pet Fox’s “Avoidant” Captures the Loop We All Know Too Well

The Boston trio’s new single from their forthcoming album Balance channels the spiral of overthinking into something uncommonly precise. Recorded live in seven days with producer Alex Farrar at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, NC.

Pet Fox have been quietly building one of indie rock’s most focused catalogs, blending textured guitars and understated hooks with an emotional directness that never tips into the sentimental. “Avoidant,” the latest single from their forthcoming fourth album Balance (out October 23 via Exploding in Sound Records), is as clean a statement of intent as the band has made: a beautiful, restless song about the mental loops that form when we choose silence over an uncomfortable conversation.

Vocalist and guitarist Theo Hartlett, bassist Morgan Luzzi, and drummer Jesse Weiss, a trio whose musical partnership traces back to childhood (Hartlett and Luzzi first met on a youth soccer team), recorded Balance primarily live in the studio with producer Alex Farrar (Wednesday, MJ Lenderman, Squirrel Flower) over seven days at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville. The result is their most expansive and confident work yet, and “Avoidant” is among its highlights: the kind of song whose chemistry feels effortless even as it excavates something genuinely uncomfortable.

Citing Pinback, Autolux, and Alex G as touchstones, Pet Fox occupy a distinctive corner of indie rock, and Balance refines that space while opening new ground. The album, written and demoed between autumn 2023 and spring 2024 in the band’s Boston rehearsal space, marks their first fully studio-produced record, with Farrar bringing an outside perspective that sharpened the band’s identity without diluting it. “Avoidant” is the kind of song that rewards the patience the band poured into making it.

Release Shows

Balance is out October 23, 2026 via Exploding in Sound Records. Pre-order available now.