Interview: Lyrics and Life Lessons with The Knee-Hi’s

Afterglow chats with up-and-coming Chicago-based band The Knee-Hi’s about their genre-defying sound, current singles and upcoming album, and their advice for following your dreams.

Written by Beril Saygin

Photo courtesy of The Knee-Hi’s

The Knee-Hi’s is made up of vocalist Ashley Goeken, bassist Devyn Crimson, drummer Chris Luck, and guitarist Alice Strider. As the self-described “newest cats on the Chicago scene,” The Knee-Hi’s packs a punch by combining what they call an “explosive energy of power pop and the romanticism of doo wop.” They recently sat down with Afterglow to discuss how a friend group of musical newbies blossomed into the band of their dreams.

Afterglow: How did you all meet, and why did you decide to form The Knee-Hi’s?

Alice: The day that we became a band is the day we picked up our instruments. We didn't pick up our instruments, practice for a few years, learn music, become good musicians. We picked up our instruments (and said), “Let's just (form) a band together. What do you know how to play? Nothing. Okay, let's just pick two songs to learn.” Then we started playing (these songs) at shows, and it was like a never-ending stairway. It just blossomed from there.

How long ago was that?

Alice: December 2019. It's still very new. The same day that we made the band, we also made an Instagram. We were so honest with our fans from the beginning: “We don't know what we're doing; we just started being musicians a month ago, so bear with us. Everybody that followed us was on this journey with us. You're learning with us, you're part of this, you're watching the beginning of everything.” I feel like it was so fun to be at the same level as anybody listening to us.

What or who is the inspiration for your unique look and sound?

Ash: I think we’re all individually very inspired by the artists that we loved growing up and the artists that made us fall in love with music, and it was just this really beautiful culmination, when we all came together, of each artist that we all loved and kind of fed off each other. … Personally, I've always been hugely inspired by Chicago greats like Muddy Waters and the incredible blues and classic rock scene that we had here.

Chris: I really loved the dreaminess of doowop and a lot of artists from the ‘50s, like The Penguins and The Flamingos.

Alice: I think I attached first really to punk music, so stuff coming out of CBGB: the Ramones, Blondie, Television, The Boys. … Now I just love to find obscure punk music. I love girl bands, especially from back then — The B Girls and Nikki and the Corvettes are amazing. I feel like (that) was always something that I related to … because the thing I love about punk is that anyone can play it. It's sloppy. It's simple. It uses the same four chords, and it's really all about how you feel and the energy. It's about being in a crowd and just experiencing it with the people playing it. It's not something that's really intricate, which I kind of loved. It's just something bare bones.

Dev: I've always been super interested in the theatrical side of rock and roll, so I love groups like Alice Cooper and all the theatrical elements that they added into their stage performances. I also like The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Those are a few of my inspirations, but Suzi Quatro was (also) a huge inspiration for me to pick up the bass.

What do you hope to make people feel when they listen to your music?

All: They want to dance! Hopeful! Just feel good again!

Ash: I want them to feel free. I want them to be able to disappear from the world for a couple moments.

Alice: I want my fans to feel goosebumps. I love when I find a song and it gives me goosebumps … and I would feel so honored if I were ever to create a song that is able to do that for any single person.

Chris: I want people to feel romanced. 

Dev: I just want them to feel inspired — to feel like they can chase their dreams.

Tell me about your current released singles and your process for creating music.

Dev: We come up with ideas on our own and bring them to the table, go at it at a practice, and throw our ideas into the pot.

Alice: I didn't sit down and write “Darlin’ darlin.’” I love to freestyle, like stupid rhymes, fun rhymes, catchy rhymes. I do a lot of kids stuff too, because I’m a nanny. So I was freestyling one day, and then this tune just came into my head. We’d been playing “Earth Angel.” This (was) in the beginning of us as musicians, so I didn't know that many chords. I just took chords from a song that we were already playing and just came up with a completely new melody for it, because that's all I could do at this point. So we did that, and it just worked out, and then I had to call you guys (because) this was something I felt was so catchy!

Chris: “Action” is interesting, because it was actually written before the pandemic. My friends have said that it seems like a pandemic anthem: wanting the nightlife. I think that’s so crazy, because it was written before we even could imagine being separated from this nightlife.

What can we expect from y’all in the future?

All band members: Lots! More music videos for sure. We want to have as many music videos as possible. We're a very theatrical group.

Ash: Every song on the album could have its own music video, even if we’re just sitting on a couch mouthing the words. We are filming our music video for “Action” next week, and we have something exciting coming up that we can’t share just yet. Other than that, we’re hoping to finish the album early summertime. Expect the unexpected. It's not what has already been heard from us.

Is there anything else that you'd like to tell people about your band, your music, or anything at all?

Chris: One interesting thing about us is that we are very corny, very DIY, which I love. We do everything that we possibly can in-house. 

Alice: Chris is absolutely fantastic. I don't want her to downplay herself because she deserves all the praise. She does so much artwork for the band: design work, album covers, single pictures, posters for shows and upcoming events, and the whole website, like she is hand-drawing everything. Dev is a wicked master on editing music videos. She does editing and theatrics, costume design, and she does my makeup for everything. Ash is like our manager. She is the word woman and handles all the important stuff: finance, business, press releases.

Ash: Alice is also an in-house artist. She does t-shirt designs by hand, and she's the best at writing catchy music. We got a crew here.

Chris: Another thing that we would just want everyone to know is if we could do it, you can do it. Everyone should just chase whatever they're passionate about and not care what anybody else says, ever. You're pretty much the  only person that's ever going to give you the green light or red light.

Do you like everybody? Probably not. So why do you expect everybody to like you? Life is f-cking short and if you wait around, and you just wait for someone to accept what you're doing, it's gonna take forever. So just do it right when you want to. If you want to pick up an instrument, just pick up an instrument. Nobody needs to be asked about it. You just do it, live it, love it.

You can find The Knee-Hi’s on Spotify, SoundCloud, and Instagram.

This interview has been minimally edited for clarity and length.