Originally from New Carlisle, Knox started performing around his hometown after his first ever open mic at Donkey Coffee in Athens, Ohio.
His hobby turned into an obsession that turned into a lifestyle. And it happened fairly quickly.
He’d play restaurants around the fringes of Dayton, then eventually took to his first major step into the music industry with auditions for national talent competitions, like “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent.”
Following those appearances, having not progressed past the audition stage, he decided to drop out of OU to pursue his dream full-time in Nashville, where he currently lives and works.
Toward the end of 2022, with just a few pop singles under his belt, Knox caught the eye of Atlantic Records. The label signed him to his first major record deal.
Knox attributed his early inspirations to contemporary singer-songwriters, like Ed Sheeran and James Arthur. When he became enamored with the band idea, early-Aughts pop-rock like All-American Rejects and Panic! At the Disco started to take the stylistic reins.
In 2023, Knox released his first EP, “How to Lose a Girl in 7 Songs.” The album does, in fact, include seven songs vaguely about how to lose a girl within that time frame.
The EP includes the single “Sneakers,” a Fall Out Boy pastiche and tightly-produced pop song, which garnered significant attention on social media during the pandemic. His TikTok and Instagram Reels in particular have been a pivotal factor in Knox’s growth as an artist, accumulating over two million views with one TikTok video overnight. On top of the social media attention, “Sneakers” has also been streamed over 40.8 million times on Spotify alone.
“Anything to get my music into somebody’s ears that hasn’t heard it, I’ll do it,” he said. “I think that’s just how a lot of artists should approach it. I’m super thankful for social media. It definitely kick started all of this, and still helps it. It’s just a tool, man.”
After finding viral success with “Sneakers,” Knox got his first radio hit with “Not The 1975.” The single charted on Billboard Adult Pop Airplay, Pop Airplay and Alternative Airplay.
“Not The 1975,” ironically sounding very much like the British alt/indie pop band, explores a scenario in which a woman belittles a guy by saying he’ll never be as good as The 1975 — a story inspired by true events:
“I said, ‘Girl, I might not be famous yet, but I’m gonna put you in a song that I write’ / Then she said, ‘I like your confidence but you’re not The 1975.‘”
The song, Knox told ABC Audio, turned into “a super-exaggerated version of what actually happened,” throwing in plenty of references to The 1975 songs, like “Oh Caroline” and “Chocolate,” while maintaining that he actually could pull off the Matty Healy vibe if he wanted to — down to the black-tie and cigarette dangling from his lips in the video.
Knox said he still has the original demo that he recorded the morning after the real story. He plucked the song on his guitar, the dream vessel from his freshman year of college, so he wouldn’t forget it.
Healy did reach out to Knox on Instagram, congratulating him on the song — then jokingly asked for a million dollars, with several exclamation points to bring home the point.
Knox performed last year at Lollapalooza in Chicago on one of the main stages: a long way from New Carlisle. The crowd, some holding up Knox-specific signs, sang along to the trio on stage. The attention, heavily-attributed to his adept use of social media promotion, was strategic and warranted; Knox makes music of and for the moment.
In January, he announced that his debut full-length record, “Going, Going, Gone,” will be released in April, with a headlining tour to follow. The first single “Pick Your Poison” dropped in January.
Morris, before he dropped the last name for professional reasons, was once a backstage runner at the Rose Music Center in Huber Heights. He said it would be a dream to come back and headline that venue, to sell it out.
“At the end of the day, I’m a redheaded kid from New Carlisle. I never had any real intentions of being an artist,” Knox said. “When I moved from Ohio to Nashville, I just wanted to write songs. I thought I could definitely be the guy behind the scenes. But I never thought I could be the person that was selling the music. If 17-year-old me could hear this record, I think he would be so proud of it.”
When asked what’s next, after the milestone of releasing his first full-length album, he says he hopes that one of his songs breaks through, to bring his music to other countries, and to take it as big as it can go.
“I just want to experience other cultures,” Knox said. “I’ve always wanted to travel. I’ve been blessed with this gift that not only am I going to be able to go do that, but I get to go do my favorite thing while doing that. I’ve already done things that I never in a million years would have ever thought I was going to do. And so it’s like, let’s just see what else this thing has to offer.”
Knox’s debut album “Going, Going, Gone” is available to order on vinyl and digital.
Brandon Berry writes about the Dayton and Southwest Ohio music scene. Have a story idea for him? Email branberry100@gmail.com.
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