Being Washed Up Feels Good

Rising Arkansas band making waves

“We’re super excited with the response to our music so far,” Copeland says. “And for now, my mom loves it.” Little Rockbased indie-pop group Knox Hamilton will perform at the Slaughter Pen Jam in Bentonville — in the field next to the Bucky Ball at Crystal Bridges — on Sept. 30 before heading out on a fall/winter tour.
“We’re super excited with the response to our music so far,” Copeland says. “And for now, my mom loves it.” Little Rockbased indie-pop group Knox Hamilton will perform at the Slaughter Pen Jam in Bentonville — in the field next to the Bucky Ball at Crystal Bridges — on Sept. 30 before heading out on a fall/winter tour.

It's been just over a month since Little Rock band Knox Hamilton released their innovative music video for the song "Washed Up Together" -- a move that has been getting them a lot of attention. As of this writing, the video has 930,102 views, perhaps due in no small part to pop star Katy Perry tweeting about the video the day after its release to her nearly 93 million followers.

"To have an icon like that recognize your work, it was definitely one of those moments I screenshotted and sent to my entire contact list," says Boots Copeland, lead singer, bass and guitar player.

With a small budget for the video and 20 different ideas to choose from, the band decided on director Titanic Sinclair's (That Poppy's "Lowlife," and BØRNS' "10,000 Emerald Pools" and acoustic "Electric Love") treatment of seeing people have their faces smooshed inside vacuum-sealed plastic. Copeland says they knew it was the choice that would receive the most attention.

"You kind of laugh to yourself [when you're in there] because you know you look utterly ridiculous with your face being smashed by plastic," Copeland recalls. He says he was in the plastic for more than an hour, singing the song 10 times through. The video "is freaky. People will at least watch this. They'll watch this again and again."

Maybe not Ms. Perry, though. Despite calling the video brilliant, her tweet says the video "is already giving her anxiety."

Popping up on Spotify alternative- and indie-pop playlists alongside names like BØRNS, The Mowgli's and Glass Animals hasn't hurt the band's popularity either as they continue gaining listeners and followers.

"We're kind of on the alternative side of pop, but we're not afraid of the pop genre being put on us at all," Copeland says. In his songwriting, Copeland says he gets his inspiration from life experiences with his family and the music he grew up listening to -- which seems to be making a comeback.

"I grew up listening to a lot of '70s and '80s pop. Most of our genre, I feel like people are doing that now. [For instance,] Fleet Foxes sound like to me the Neil Young kind of folksy/pop thing. Stuff like Phil Collins with the fake drums and big synthesizer [is becoming popular again, too]. I've always just loved really good pop -- tasteful pop."

Their music may be pop, but their name came from rock 'n' roll. Well -- what they perceived to be a rock 'n' roll dude, anyway. When Copeland and his brother Cobo (on drums) used to volunteer at a Little Rock thrift store, they came across a Park View High School yearbook from 1972. When they saw a guy named Knox Hamilton with his long permed hair and rocker look standing out among the other photos, they knew they had found their band's name.

"You just knew as soon as you saw him, this dude was so rock 'n' roll," Copeland says. It turns out Hamilton's mother is influential in the Little Rock arts scene, according to Copeland, and she has ended up at a few of the band's shows. "It was pretty emotional to meet her. We haven't met Knox yet, but [now] we keep up with her on a pretty regular basis."

The Katy Perry-approved band is headlining Nebo Jam this weekend in Dardanelle (in Yell County) and will perform at the Slaughter Pen Jam -- Arkansas's biggest mountain bike festival -- in Bentonville on Sept. 30. After that, they'll be gearing up for a tour that will take them through the winter, which you can expect will boost their continually growing notoriety.

"I always loved stuff you can dance to -- stuff that gives you the emotion of happy to be here," Copeland says. "The motive for [our] music is to have a good time. I'm happy Knox Hamilton has done that for some people."

NAN What's Up on 09/23/2016

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