What’s the name of the band / who are the band members?
Coopertheband  –
Coopertheband is made up of Cooper Brown, Phoebe Scott, Joseph Kyle, Matt Hammonds, and Will Kwasigroh

How’d you come up with the band name?
I started off just as Cooper, but I never wanted it to be a solo project. I always had a vision to share music as a band. I added “theband” to the name once I was able to get more shows with musicians. For a while, the band was made up of musician friends of mine that I hired for shows. It wasn’t really until early 2015 that I really found official band members. From there, the name had already been established, so we just decided to keep it as Coopertheband.
What genre of music do you primarily consider yourself?
People tend to ask us that, and we have a difficult time answering with a specific genre. If we had to narrow it down to two words, we would probably have to say Indie Rock.

Can you give us some background on the band’s origin?
As mentioned before, I played solo for a few years, but I wanted more for the band. When I moved back to Jackson I slowly met other musicians around town who really seemed to click with me, not only musically but as friends. As time progressed, we really became a family. We call ourselves a “Bramilly” (band, friends, and family) because we believe to make this work we have to be friends first.

Describe each band member in just 2 words…
Cooper: instigator, business-minded
Phoebe: Witty, Fun
Joe: quirky, innocent
Matt: Dad Jokes
Will: Beard, beast

What drew you to music?
I really liked how impactful a song could be. Someone’s life can be changed during a 3 minute song, and I really wanted to be a part of that process.

Are you a signed to a label?
Currently we are not.

Can you tell us more about your single, “Rebels”?
“Rebels” is a song to break the monotony of the day to day routine. We as a band always try to take a break from what we do daily, even if just for a minute. When we were writing this song, Cooper had the main guitar riff in mind, but we couldn’t really find the words immediately. We actually finished the lyrics the day that we were recording the vocals. Talk about crunch time. Haha.

What was the writing/recording process like?
Everyone contributes to the writing process. Cooper and Phoebe mainly do the basic chords/lyrics of the songs, but everyone pitches in ideas for every song. We always want it to be a collaborative effort, and so far it has worked out well for us. When we go to the studio, we always track drums and bass first, then we layer in guitars, keys, strings and vocals. We treat it like we are building a pyramid.

You released a must-see music video for “Rebels”, what was the inspiration behind it?
We really wanted to make our first official music video super fun, and what is more fun than fireworks and glow lights? We’re a bit competitive but also just love hanging out and doing fun things so we wanted to combine our personality as a band into a video that managed to reach a level of epicness… that’s where we decided to take a small game of risk and have it escalate into a full on color war.

Do you plan on releasing more music in 2018?
Oh, absolutely. We have a dropbox folder full of ideas that we want to expound upon, so we shall see what we come up with.

Who are some of your biggest musical influences?
Different members of the band have their favorites, but the main ones would be Switchfoot, Relient K, Copeland, Colony House, Coldplay, Knox Hamilton, Kopecky, Imagine Dragons, Of Monsters and Men, Judah and the Lion, Young the Giant and the Lumineers. The list could really go on and on.

Where do you see yourselves in 5 Years?
We would love to be playing music full time. We have a huge passion for what we are doing, and we would love to be able to tour the country/world to share our music with anyone who needs a word of encouragement, or just simply wants to hear our stuff.

When you’re not doing music, what do you do?
We are just normal people doing normal things. Haha. Cooper, Will and Matt all have full time jobs. Phoebe and Joe are in college. We love to do things as a group, not only in music, but in life. We often get together and hang out, watch movies and go to other shows. One of the most fun things we love to do is play board games (hence where the music video idea came from).

What’s the best advice you have ever been given?
One of the best pieces of advice we have ever received ended up becoming a lyric in one of our songs. “Aim for the stars. If you hit the moon, you’ve still gone far.”

What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?
We would say to fall in love with what you’re doing. If you believe in your product, odds are other people will also. Never be discouraged by the word “No”. We’ve run into that word plenty of times, and instead of it getting us down, we let it motivate us.

When you are at a gig, what are 5 things you cannot forget?
Instruments/Amps
Be nice to people. That’s a huge way to gain new friendships/fans.
Bring petty cash/change for merchandise sales.
Additional batteries for wireless guitar packs/in-ear packs
Bring the router….. Joe…… (backstory: our sound board requires a router to work. He forgot it one show. It was super fun……..)

What quote or saying do you always stick by?
Every time we step on stage we approach it as if this could be someone’s first concert. It could be someone’s last, so we give it our all.

Your straight off tour:
Where do you go?
We go home to go to sleep. Haha
Who do you see? We usually go out and see friends/family.
What do you eat?
There is an amazing pizza place in Jackson that we like to go to.

Where is the go-to place to go in your hometown?
There isn’t much of a go-to place. Haha. The coolest place would have to be the pizza place that was mentioned before, Rock N’ Dough. There is also an outdoor venue called The Amp that we like to go and hang out at. I (Cooper) often enjoy finding places to go swing dancing.

If you had to give your younger self advice, what would it be?
Keep going, man. Things will be tough, but keep on going. It’s going to be worth the struggle.

Where can new fans find you and your music online?
We are plastered literally all over the internet… iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud, and Pandora are the major places you can find out stuff. You can also check us out on facebook, Instagram, Twitter and at cooperthband.com