Knox Hamilton Trades a Trip to Talk with MAX

During last month's "On The Record" series, I had the pleasure of talking with the four members of Knox Hamilton; Boots Copeland, Cobo Copeland, Drew Buffington, and Brad Pierce.

They joined me on stage to talk about their new music, what it was like growing up as brothers and friends, and even told us the story behind the band’s name.

The Legend of Knox Hamilton

The most Rock-n-Roll dude ever. Most people assume Knox Hamilton is a person — well, technically he is, but he’s not a member of the band. Back when the Copeland brothers were working for their church thrift store, they were rummaging through treasures left behind and came across an old 1970s yearbook. Thumbing the pages, they saw a picture of a guy that they described as the most ‘rock-n-roll looking dude ever.’ In that moment, a man became a legend, and a band was put on the path to becoming a retro indie-pop sensation. Here’s to you, Knox Hamilton, wherever you may be.

Craig Rector @ Music Audience Exchange (MAX): You guys have all been longtime friends. What was it like growing up? When did you know you had this musical superpower and decided to combine forces?

Boots Copeland: Our church - we come from a denomination where music is huge in the church. I was like 5 and I started playing the drums, when Cobo came of age (drum age) he started playing the drums and I moved to bass and we’ve been playing and singing together ever since, trying to write - we wrote some really good crappy songs together.

Craig Rector @ MAX: So how would you describe the Knox Hamilton sound?

Drew Buffington: Four guys that don’t know anything about music.

Boots Copeland: Honestly, we are four guys where like I’ll want to tune my guitar and I’m like hey Brad can you give me an A and he’s like I don’t know what that is or where that is. He can pick out any part of any song ever, he can sing any harmony part. We are kind of different in that aspect, I don’t think a lot of our songs sound the same. That’s because we don't know how to make them sound the same. So for this new record, we wrote to the strength of the song. It was more along the lines of let’s not write for a genre, let’s write for the song is and what sounds good with it.

These guys were so much fun to hang out with. But more than being a group of cool guys, their music is so good — an uplifting blend of retro beats and 80’s style synth, indie pop and incredible vocal harmonies led by the smooth-as-silk falsetto of Boots Copeland. Their music just feels good, but if you’re fan and haven’t seen them live, I highly recommend it!

Trade My Trips

We got to hear their new song 'Trade My Trips; the lead single off their upcoming EP, Beach Boy. After the song was over, they revealed to us that it was their first time playing the song in front of a live audience - what a treat! The song's title, Trade My Trips, initially started out as a phrase that sounded cool but after touring, the words took on a whole new meaning. The song is about the people in their lives that love and support them as they pursue the dream of Knox Hamilton.

Touring Nationally

With over 190,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, new music being released throughout 2018, and a national tour already in the works for this summer, these boys are gaining popularity by the day.

Learn more about Knox Hamilton's growing audience by taking a look at their artist profile generated by the MAX Platform™. MAX's Artist Matching Engine™ is powered by a data model that uses neural networks to map music tastes onto the demographic, psychographic, geographic, and behavioral attributes of music audiences. 

About On The Record

On The Record is a monthly music event series hosted by Music Audience Exchange in Frisco, Texas designed to highlight talented artists and the great music they make. Every month we bring in an artist to the MAX HQ stage to share new music and talk about their careers, songs, and influences.

About MAX

Music Audience Exchange (MAX) was founded in 2014 with a mission to help champion incredible music and the artists who make it through strategic, data-driven partnerships with brands. MAX brings brands into the music promotional space in a way that puts engaging content into the world through a value-exchange model that drives the brand’s objectives and elevates breakthrough bands along the way. If you’d like to learn more about Music Audience Exchange and what a music promotion program would look like for your brand, send us a note.