In a world where hidden agendas and not-so-great motives are a music industry norm, Knox Hamilton aims to be different. With summery indie pop synth lines and danceable grooves, their sunny sound has lent to success in the indie scene. Touring their newest release, the Beach Boy EP, I had the pleasure of catching up with with indie rockers at their show in Atlanta.
Melodic (Bella): So, how did you guys get started in music?
Coby: Me and Boots are brothers, I don’t know if you guys knew that. My dad had a Pentecostal church, ever since we were born. We had like 20 people in the church so my mom, Boots, and I were the only music we had. We’ve been playing music since we were 5 years old. I feel like we should be a lot better than we are since we’ve been playing so long!
Melodic (Bella): When did you realize that music was something you wanted to do as a career?
Coby: Me and Boots always just knew it. When did you know you wanted to be a musician?
Boots: Uh… in utero! Nah, I’m just kidding. Right out of high school, I wasn’t really good at anything else, and I was pretty mediocre at music so I figured I would start a band.
Melodic (Bella): Y’all are from Arkansas. How is music there and what was it like starting a band?
Coby: Oh, dude, you don’t want to know. There’s not a music scene. There’s a few good bands, but no music scene to speak of.
Boots: Rap is super huge in all the clubs, and we have an arena that every humongous person comes to, but indie, alternative– there’s nothing.
Coby: Twentyone Pilots is the only alternative band that’s come through in a long time.
Melodic (Bella): This is one of my favorite things to ask artists: who do you make music for?
Boots: People who want to be happy. Like, people who are down and need a good boost. I hope people can listen to our music and feel uplifted. We’re usually in a good place when we write our songs, and we want to give people a little sunshine in their day.
Melodic (Bella): The Beach Boy EP came out recently… how was the whole experience of writing it, and what were your influences?
Coby: Beach Boy is like, 2 or 3 years old? 5! 5 years old. So that was already written. Rerecording it was cool… kinda giving it a more modern vibe. But, Mission Control was the one we were super happy with because we couldn’t get it where we wanted it but we loved it so much. You know, something you love so much and you get super frustrated because it just isn’t happening, so when it finally came together it was just so rewarding.
Melodic (Bella): What’s next for you guys?
Boots: Right now we’ll just tour on this EP for a little while and see what comes… whether we want to stay independent and finish out the album, or see what this one does, see if there’s some success behind it, and go from there.
Melodic (Bella): What’s the vision… where do you see yourself in five years?
Coby: First, you know, you want a record deal, but we know that’s not really where it’s at now. We want to write cool songs, and even with this tour, you want to hang with your friends and have fun and stuff. I don’t think any of us want to become millionaires doing this, we just have a lot of fun and want to keep doing that. I don’t want to sell us short, we’d love to play arenas, but when you enjoy the songs you’re writing, who cares what anyone thinks because we love it.
Speed Round:
Melodic (Bella): Current favorite artist?
Coby: Leon Bridges
Boots: The Neighbourhood
Melodic (Bella): Favorite city to play in?
Coby: Atlanta!!
Boots: LA… I just love the city itself
Melodic (Bella): Digital or analog?
Coby: Analog… analog is greater than it all.
Boots: Digital.
Check out Knox Hamilton’s website for tour information, and keep up with them on Instagram and Twitter.
Listen to their discography on Spotify or Apple Music.
