KNOX Talks Touring, Song Writing, & New Single!

Hey, Homies! KNOX stopped by the radio station today. I had an excellent conversation with him. You may know Knox from his viral TikTok Hit "Sneakers" or his radio hit "Not The 1975". We talk about touring, songwriting, his new upcoming single & much more. Enjoy - JR 

Remember, It's cool to be YOU!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You never know who was gonna popby the hits hangout. Been following this
guy for just over a year now, so this is pretty cool for me.
Bro Knox, welcome in. Whatis going on? Man? Thank
you for having me, dude.So I want to talk to you about
your single, not the nineteen seventyfive. I want to talk to you
about the show coming up here inDenver, But first I kind of want
to just get to know you alittle bit. Yeah, because I've been

(00:21):
following you from AFAR for about ayear. I see that you're based out
of Nashville. Yes, sir,so music City. How long you been
there? So I've been I've beenin Nashville since twenty nineteen. I moved
out so I'm from Dayton, Ohio. Okay, I moved yeah, very
beginning of twenty nineteen, so I'vebeen there for a good good minute.
Yeah. How are you enjoying MusicCity though, dude, it's the best.

(00:42):
Nashville is my favorite place in theworld, and especially coming from me,
like I'm like, I'm a songwriter, man, and that's like songwriter
central. Bro. No, Bro, I can't get enough of it,
you know. I don't want torub Denver the wrong way. They've been
great to me. I've lived herefor two years now, spent my last
four in Nashville. Really yeah.I'm originally from Portland, Maine. Okay,
so like far East coast Okay,Well, Denver's great too, No,

(01:04):
it is. Everybody here has beenso kind. Yeah. And when
you get the opportunity to work foriHeart, you say no, absolutely,
I got I got family out here, so I've been out here a lot.
Yeah. It's a great place,man. Yeah, so not the
nineteen seventy five. We were justtalking before we went on the air here
about how good the track does soundon hits? Thank you man. How
does it feel to, like,you know, know that your track is

(01:26):
spinning here in Denver? Dude,It's crazy. It's actually a mind blowing
just because when we made the song, it was me and one of my
best friends. And when we madeit, we were like, all right,
let's make a song that is meantto be on the radio. And
and a lot of times you gointo the studio and you have these like
this song is going to do this, and then you put it out and
it doesn't do exactly that. Butthis was the first song ever, we

(01:48):
were like, no, let's makelike we need the next like shut up
and dance walk the movie, Likelet's like do something like that. And
uh yeah, we kind of likeI feel like we just manifested it and
it came. It came true,and so it did exactly what we were
hoping it would do. So it'sawesome, man, And especially, like
I said, being from the middleof nowhere, Ohio, having your music

(02:09):
heard on the other side of thecountry and like, it's it's something that
I'm not sure I'll ever get usedto it. No, I sure hope
you don't, because it's always eveneven as a host, when I get
to talk up these songs and playthem and hear myself and hear the record,
like, it's always so much fun. Yeah, no matter what,
Yeah, it's a blast. Sowhere does where does the idea for this

(02:29):
record come about? So basically,I just I had somebody basically, long
story short, I had somebody tellme that it's cool that you're a musician,
but you're never gonna be Mattie Healy. That was like, come on,
I know that's what they said.And I thought that was the funniest
thing in the world. And sothe very next day, I came up

(02:50):
with you know, it's it's it'sfunny because I came up with the line
and the melody of this. Shesaid, I like your confidence, but
you're not the nineteen seventy five.And I had that idea for like two
months, and I kept saying tomy my buddy, this guy Spencer Jordan,
who I write everything with, Ikept telling him, I said,
whatever this is is a whole song. I was like, this one line
is a whole song. We canmake something around it. And so,

(03:13):
uh yeah, that was exactly whatwe did. We went in with that
one line and just kind of builtthis world around it. It's so rad,
dude. Yeah, I love that. And now it's spinning across the
country on iHeart and we have abig show coming up tomorrow at the Lost
Lake Lodge. Yeah right now.I was on your website earlier and I
was trying to buy tickets for saidshow sold out. I know, dude,

(03:36):
it's crazy. I don't real it'swild, dude, It's really wild.
It's just like I never thought Iwould even be an artist. Yeah,
my whole goal was, yeah,like my whole goal was to be
a songwriter, Like I just wantedto work in music, Like I just
loved music and I wanted to bearound the atmosphere and the energy and so
uh I when I like, Iended up signing as a staff writer for

(03:57):
this company and I was writing songsis my job, which was amazing.
And then I made songs that theywere like, hey, let's put one
of these out, even though theywere all supposed to be pitch songs.
They were all supposed to be forother artists, and I was like,
I was like, man, Idon't know, dude. I was like,
I don't really feel like I'm likean artist. I kind of preferred
to be the guy in the background, kind of just behind the scenes.

(04:20):
Let me just come up and createstuff. Yeah. It was like,
dude, I just like my jobis to be creative and that's it,
you know. And then they werelike, well, let's just put out
one and if it does well,then we'll put out another one. I
was like all right, And thenI put out my first song. It's
called Sneakers. I don't know ifI know that track real well. Yeah,
and so yeah, that one,like it, needless to say,
it did pretty well, and soeverything just kind of snowballed out of control

(04:43):
from there. Well, Sneakers ishow I first found you, really,
and so you're you're you're real dude, I want to get into that,
but Felicia, can you make surewe're rolling on both cameras just to be
sure we're good? Okay? SoI found you on social media and I
was like, oh, he's inNashville, sweet, let me give this
guy a follow, And then youdidn't open verse challenge for sneakers. Yeah,
yeah, I hopped on it.You did what I did. I

(05:05):
want to show it to you whenwe ran way because I little key thought
I killed that was like, Ihope he sees it. Okay, you
know what I mean. I didn'tsee any of them. No, it's
okay. But it was just superfun because before getting into radio, that's
what I was into. I solove to write music and DJ and whatever.
But you know, this is whatthis is another passion of mine.
So dude, that's crazy that that'sawesome. Man. Yeah, I can't

(05:27):
I can't wait to show you.It'll be like I can't wait to see
it now. Now we got thebig show coming up here in Denver.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong. Is this the beginning of your tour?
Yeah, well so it's the thisis technically the second half. So
we just started the second half yesterday. We played in St. Paul,
Minnesota yesterday, But we did.We did nine shows on the East Coast

(05:48):
about a month ago, and thenI took a couple of weeks to kind
of I did some traveling and didlike radio all over the country. I
did West Coast radio and things.Man. Yeah, and so did that
and then got back, had likea week off, and then we just
left for for this back half ofthe tour, and so, yeah,
it's gonna be epic. Dude.Is being on the road Is that grind?
That like different hotel each night?Is that something that you're like just

(06:12):
itching for? I guess yeah.Like I love I love doing the shows.
I mean, dude, the worstpart about it is that I'm not
with my dog. I miss myHer name is Loki. I actually wore
on stage last night. I havea shirt that says Loki and huge letters,
and it's like a bunch of picturesof her or on stage last night.

(06:34):
But yeah, I mean, otherthan that, though, it's it's
so much fun, dude, it'sit's such a blast to be out and
you know, you show up andit's so crazy. I know I said
it once already, but it reallyis so crazy to see you know,
you're on the other side of thecountry and these people come out and spend
their Monday night with you singing thesesongs that you made with your friends and

(06:55):
your friend's bedroom, And like,I think that's the cool thing about it
is that even though I am signedto a label and I have a song
on the radio and get to doa lot of really cool things, at
the end of the day, it'sstill just that, Like it's me and
two three of my best friends justin my my buddy Cam's bedroom where he
has a DIY studio. Like everysong you've heard, including out that not

(07:16):
the nineteen seventy five was made onlike a DIY laptop. Like, yeah,
dude, it's there's some magic init, for sure, No,
there is, dude. What whatkind of show can we expect from you
tomorrow? And and what is itabout being on stage? Like what kind
of presence do you like to bring? What kind of energy is it?
Dude? It's just it's high.It's it's high energy. And it's it's

(07:40):
just My favorite thing about our showsis that it doesn't matter what kind of
music you like, there is somethingin it that you're gonna love. Yeah,
Like, there there's so many there'sso many vibes, and you know,
there's highs and there's lows, andthere's chill and there's pure madness.
I mean there's songs where I swearpeople are gonna like open up the pit
and are oh's like you gotta becareful. There's like a seven year old

(08:03):
girl and hold you gotta you know. So yeah, man, it's it's
just fun. There's a lot ofI think the show for me as an
artist, it's like anytime I makea song ever, it's like I make
the songs for the show. Likeevery every song that we have out is
meant for the life. I lovethat, yeah, because it's like hate
Yeah, because I always think,if this song isn't gonna slap live,

(08:26):
then what is the point for mepersonally? You know? So yeah,
it's fun, dude. So uha lot of screaming lyrics and sweating.
I guess, yes, sweat isa necessity. Well, you're gonna have
a ton of Denver rights screaming backto you. Not the nineteen seventy five

(08:46):
What is that going to be?Like? Man? Like your lyrics?
Yeah, it's dude, Like Isaid, it's wild. It's wild,
and it's so cool just to seehow many people it connects with. Yeah,
and you know, because you canlook at you can look at your
Instagram views and your TikTok views andyour streams all day long. And I
don't think it ever feels real untilyou see the real people in front of

(09:07):
you, right, because like Iremember, you know, for years living
in Nashville as a songwriter, Iwould always be like, dude, I
can't even imagine what it would belike to have a song with a million
streams. And then you write asong with a million streams and you're like,
all right, I'm gonna go aboutmy day because nothing is like any
different. So it doesn't really changeexactly, Like, it doesn't hit you
until you see the physical bodies ofpeople in the room, like they're holding

(09:31):
up signs, wearing shirts, likeyou meet people after and they're like freaking
out. It's just it's the coolestthing in the world. It's well said,
because there's like, you know,one thing to be said about internet
and social media, but getting thatactual person to person human connection. Yeah,
that's I mean, that's why you'rein this for. Yeah, and
I think that's the most important partabout all of it. Like, I

(09:52):
think my favorite thing about my projectis that I did come onto the scene
as somebody who started on TikTok,but I but I very quickly like got
out of that. Like now nowI don't like, I don't feel like
a TikToker, you know what I'msaying. I feel like a musician.
Do you think with that is isthere some sort of like derogatory kind of

(10:13):
thing like, oh, you're justfrom here, or like did you think
like is there like a certain tieryou have to hit for people to be
like no, like this guy's legit, He's not just another x y Z.
Yeah, dude, I just thinkit It all depends on how you
connect with with the people, youknow what I mean. Like, like
I so, for example, likeone of one of my best friends who

(10:33):
who I really look up to,is this guy's name is Johnny Frank.
Have you have you ever heard ofthe band Attack Attack? Okay, so
they're like this old old like youknow, back in twenty ten Warped tour
like rock band whatever. But therewere two singers that were Johnny and then
Caleb Shomo, who is now thelead singer of Bear Tooth. If you
know them another, they're like huge, yeah, yeah, they're like crazy

(10:54):
metal band, right yeah. Butthe other singer, Johnny, who's one
of my one of my really goodfriends, he's in this band called Bill
Murray. Okay, at one word, b I l M you are you
got to check them out after this. You're sure they're insane. But the
thing about them is like they're not. You know, they have I think
Johnny has maybe four hundred thousand monthslisteners, which is like good. Yeah,

(11:18):
And but he doesn't have a lotof TikTok followers. He's like never
really had a TikTok go crazy.He doesn't have a lot of Instagram followers.
But every show he ever played,so I got to tour with them.
Every show that he played, theset would end, he would step
off the stage in the front.He would stand there and meet every single
person that was at the show andlike and so because of that, even
though he doesn't have big numbers orwhatever, he can go to any city

(11:41):
in the country right now and sella thousand tickets and like, so dope,
I think that's like, so it'sso cool. Yeah, and so
I I like, I feel likeI learned so much from being on the
road with him on how to justconnect with the people. And then it
doesn't matter if you're going viral ornot. As long as you know the
people that love you love you andyou love them, they're gonna stick around

(12:01):
forever. So absolutely, bro,and I hope that your fans stick around
for a long, long day two. You're definitely a talented dude. Looking
forward to your show. Here themall, Hi, Lost Lake Lounge.
Tell me before we wrap this up. I know you get a new record
on the way, Yeah, comingsoon. Change your mind, Yes,
tell me a little bit about thistrack, bro, I am so excited

(12:22):
for this song. So this isuh, you know, the these days
this year, like Noah Kan andZach Bryan and people like that are I
think they're making songwriting cool again.You know. It's interesting like being on
the air and you're talking up youryou know, Dua's and Ari's and then
it's like Noah Kan Yeah, thenit's like like it's like post Ma alone

(12:45):
and it's there's like these different Idon't know, it's like a different avenue,
but it's super fun. Yeah,it's super cool. And it's just
like I mean, like stick Seasonis like, dude, that is a
songwriter. Song Once called Me Forever, Now you Still Can't Call Me Back
is crazy lyrics, like yeah,like, I mean that's wild, and
so I just I love that stuff, man, and I love like I

(13:05):
said, I am a songwriter atheart, and so I I love that
stuff so much. And so ChangeYour Mind was the song that I was
like, I'm gonna take my stabat like this kind of vibe, but
then obviously keep it a knock songand you know, throw the electric guitars
and the big moments in it.But I'm just really proud of the songwriting,
dude. I think the songwriting isreally creative and like almost artsy in

(13:28):
a way. And so I don'tknow, I just think it's one of
those that I was like, thisis kind of in right now. The
stomp clap vibe is in right now, and I think I think we could
take a really good swing at it. So yeah, that's prettybody. This
is my attempt at just being noaccom basically is what's happening, and that's
not a bad lead to take,right exactly, dude, And I already

(13:52):
have on authority from my PD thatwhen the track does drop, I'm gonna
feature it. Dude. Thank youso dude, that's wild beg you so.
I can't wait. So any finalwords for the Male High City Dude,
I would just say, for allof you that live here, thank
you so much for listening to mymusic. If you're coming to the show
tomorrow, I can't wait to seeyou there. And if I'm not seeing

(14:13):
you at the show, I willsee you next time when we sell out
Red Rocks. Well for Knox,I'm jr. And remember it's cool to
be you. Peace. Amazing dude, of course, Bro. That was
awesome. Man,