Knocked Loose is a band that needs no introduction here in Louisville. You know who they are. You know what they sound like. And if you’re from here and you’re reading this, chances are you’ve already seen them live several times.
They were nominated for a Grammy Award. They’ve performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live, as well as at numerous major festivals like Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Download, and Rock Am Ring. Their latest album, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To, hit #1 on the UK Rock & Metal Albums charts, #23 on the US Billboard 200 charts, and their single “Suffocate” (featuring Poppy) reached #5 on Billboard’s US Hard Rock charts. In other words, this is a very successful band! Yet they are still fiercely loyal to Louisville/Oldham County, and when not on tour, members can often be found at local hardcore shows. This is a band that has not forgetten their roots.
And I would also like to point out that I’ve done plenty of interviews over the years, and I’ve had interviewees that have forgotten about, cancelled last minute, and even completely blown off our interview, leaving me hanging for 20-30 minutes without so much as a word. But not once have I ever had anyone personally text me 10 minutes beforehand to ask if everything was still good for the interview, and that they were ready whenever I was. Knocked Loose vocalist Bryan Garris did just that, and I think that speaks volumes about his character.
So let’s get right into it.
LEO Weekly: Congratulations on finally making it to the main stage at Louder Than Life.
Bryan Garris: Thank you. Yeah, I’m so excited. Out of all the shows that we have going on this year, that is one that I’ve been most looking forward to.
I know you all have played it a few times before on the smaller stages, and I’ve always advocated that you all should be on the main stage. So it’s good that you all finally are, but I do think that you all should have been given a headlining spot though.
We’re definitely just excited to be in the conversation. Louisville is a tough city to crack because in the grand scheme of things it’s a small city, but it’s a very big small city, if that makes sense. We’ve got a lot going on here and we have an amazing music scene, and Louder Than Life has obviously grown to be one of the biggest rock festivals in America, if not the biggest. So for a long time we would always joke as a band that we’re the smallest here at home, and it’s because you kind of have to prove yourself to home, you know what I mean? That you care about home. And I think that having us come back to play Louder Than Life on the main stage is kind of like a statement for the band, and it’s a moment to show that home is finally behind us 100%. We did a lot of grinding and growing here, and we always ensure that we put on for our city and where we’re from. But we haven’t played Louder Than Life in a really long time, and that break was kind of perfect because we did a lot of work outside of it. So to be able to come back to it and to be able to be on the main stage, it feels really good, and it feels like the city is really behind us now. There are a lot of events going on in the city around Louder Than Life that are kind of Knocked Loose-themed. Like, they’re projecting our set time on the side of the Galt House, which is amazing. The Louisville Airport, they’re putting a graphic on the screens at the baggage claim that says “Knocked Loose welcomes you to Louisville.”
You’re kidding me! That’s awesome!
Stuff like that is so exciting! Starting a metal band in a garage, I didn’t think that I was going to be a graphic at an International Airport.
Have you been approached about getting a Hometown Heroes “Knocked Loose’s Louisville” banner yet? That’s what I’m waiting for.
So the banner is interesting because we haven’t been approached by them, but we have had somebody that’s a part of our team approach them and be like, “Is this something that you would be interested in?” But I think there was a period of time where they stopped doing it, and I think when we reached out they weren’t doing it. So since they’ve started to come back, I think that a lot of that was around Jack Harlow’s meteoric rise. We’re not vouched for, but I know that he had a hand in Static Major receiving one, and then he obviously received his. So with it coming back the way that it has, we’ve definitely always had it in the back of our heads like, “Man, wouldn’t that be cool?!” And it’s such a milestone that is only recognizable here. I’ve told friends from out of town that’s it in Louisville. You’ve made it if you get one of those. And they’re just like, “What do you mean?” And it’s almost like they have to see it. You gotta drive them through Louisville and they see the Jennifer Lawrence one and the Muhammad Ali and they’re like, “OK, I get it now.”
We did make our own one time that is small. We played Paristown Hall two nights in a row last summer for the release of our most recent album, and we had one made and the Quills downtown location agreed to hang it, so it kind of served as a photo op. Now we have it, but it’s not the real thing, you know?
I know My Morning Jacket just got one like a couple months ago, which is really cool to see, and that one is also in a really interesting location because it’s at the fairgrounds, which is obviously so historic for the city. All of us grew up in Oldham County, outside of the city, and for a long time we joked about like, “Oh, that’s gotta be where they put ours.” But now, I don’t really know if I’d want it to be in Oldham County because I want it to be somewhere that people go. Like, maybe you pass Oldham County if you’re coming in from Cincinnati. But other than that, you’d have to go out of your way to see it. I mean, I wouldn’t be picky, [laughs].
Did you ever imagine when you all were playing Skull Alley for 30 people that Knocked Loose would get to the level you’re at now? Was that ever a goal?
No, absolutely not. I think about that a lot. It feels like every step we take now is just a massive step forward, so we’ve been very lucky enough to keep riding this wave. And it has also lined up with a bunch of really important anniversaries for the band, like two years ago was our 10 year anniversary as a band. Last year marked 10 years of touring, and then this year marked 10 years with our current drummer. So all of these milestones and anniversaries have had me reflecting a lot, and we definitely never expected to do any of these things. Like I was mentioning about the graphic at the Louisville Airport, what’s interesting now is we’re getting to do these things that a metal band shouldn’t be able to do, so it’s very exciting. Being able to perform on Jimmy Kimmel was never something that was in my realm of possibilities. I just assumed the kind of music that we picked; it doesn’t get that kind of recognition. And then when we got that call, it was just like, “Oh, ok!” So now it’s kind of a goal for us. Like, let’s see where we can push it. Let’s see where we can be the extreme band in non-extreme places.
And that falls in line with my next question; Knocked Loose was nominated for a Grammy and has played major popular music festivals, all without compromising your sound or bending to make yourselves more marketable. How would you attest to the popularity of the band when you’re not playing a popular style of music?
I think that it’s a combination of things. Just where media is right now, people are kind of looking for the extreme sides of everything. It’s just like everybody’s kind of leaning into their niche. And we’ve always just been this extreme band that exists in its own niche. So as the tides turned and all of these doors started opening for heavier music, it gave room for all of hardcore, really. We’ve just been lucky enough to be a part of this era of people being interested in it and people wanting to dip their toes in it, and that mixed with TikTok obviously is changing everything. You see a TikTok about a Knocked Loose show and, even if you’re not a heavy music fan, there’s something enticing and exciting about that. I’ve had family members that I’m like; “Don’t check it out, listen to it, or stream it. But if you wanna come see it, you should because it’ll put it in a different perspective for you.” I mean, I had my grandfather come to our Paristown Hall shows. He doesn’t like metal music even a little bit, but he had so much fun.
But I can see where it could also be a little bit intimidating for some people though because your crowds go pretty fucking nuts.
Yeah, definitely. But I think that’s something that pulls people in. It’s going to be a funny comparison, but I feel like it’s like the UFC, you know? If you don’t like UFC, you’re like, why do people like this? But for some reason to a big majority of people, there’s something about watching other people fight that draws you in. And it’s that feeling in your stomach that you get, the uneasy controlled chaos feeling, and I feel like there’s a lot of similarities at a hardcore show where it’s like if you have a spot where you can sit and watch and you don’t have to be forced into it, it’s very entertaining whether you understand the music or not.
Do you feel like your older songs, and even your newer songs, translate over to the larger crowds you’re playing to now, or would you be more comfortable still playing smaller shows?
I think it’s fun for different reasons. It took some time to learn how to navigate those different spaces for the band, and you just learn how to communicate to those crowds. We’ve always liked being the band that doesn’t fit in, and we’ve done a lot of tours where we’re the heaviest band on the tour. We’ve even done tours where we’re the only band on the tour. We did a tour a couple years ago where it was seven rappers and us right in the middle of the show, and it was so much fun. We learned so much from watching those rappers perform and watching how they talked to the crowd, and you bring that into what you’re doing without changing what the band is or what the band stands for. But you just learn how to communicate to different crowds, and playing an arena, you have a different goal, really. If I’m playing a show and I tell everybody to rip each other’s heads off, they’ll do it. But if I’m playing a concert at an arena, my goal is to get the people in the back to just stand up. And learning how to communicate to those different crowds has been really fun because it’s cool to feel like no matter where you put us, we will adapt.
The new album title, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To, has an interesting story behind it. Can you tell our readers that story?
Yeah, absolutely. The main gist of it is that I struggle with flying, and because of what I do, I have to fly a lot. It’s something that I’m always battling, always trying to figure out how to be more comfortable in those situations. So I had a flight that was a total nightmare; raining, super old plane, ashtrays welded shut on your seat, and my seat was actually broken. It just reclined, you couldn’t sit it up. So it’s all these things in my head, and I’m preparing myself for it to be a very stressful situation for me. At the time it was probably the peak of my phobia, and take off is my hardest part, so I would have over the ear headphones on, I would meditate, and I would sit there and run through my cycle to try to level myself and calm myself down. And this plane had a rule, I guess, where you couldn’t wear headphones during takeoff; which I fly a lot, and I’ve still never experienced that other than just that moment. So I’m without my headphones, I couldn’t listen to my meditation, so I’m sitting there leaning back, and my eyes are closed, and we start running down the runway, and it’s the most jarring part of the flight. And the lady next to me goes, “Where are you going?” And I was like, “I’m going to Orlando,” and in my head I’m like why are you talking to me now? I wasn’t offended by it, but I was just like, this is an interesting time to start a conversation while we’re speeding down the runway. And I was like, “I’m going to Florida,” and she was like, “What for?” And I was like “For work,” and she was like, “Oh, I’m going to a family reunion.” And I was like, “Oh, that’s cool.” And we’re just having normal small talk, and before you know it, we were in Florida. The whole flight went by having small talk with this lady, and as it was happening, I was like, this is calming me down. This is distracting me. Maybe she felt something in my body language and she was like, I need to distract this guy, and she just had normal small talk with me, and it really worked. And at one point in the flight, we were talking about flying and she said that she didn’t like it, and I was like, “Yeah, me either.” And she said, “I’m not scared of it, it’s just exhausting.” And I was like, “Yeah, it is exhausting, and I am also scared of it.” And she just casually said, “You won’t go before you’re supposed to.” And it was almost like she just kind of brushed me off. Like, you have nothing to worry about; you won’t go before you’re supposed to. And I instantly grabbed my phone and wrote it in my notes app. Like, it hit me really hard and I don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet, but I want to remember this. And from there it started to grow in my head as a possibility to be the name of our new album.
Do you think that was maybe like a spiritual moment for you?
Maybe, I don’t know. Obviously our music tackles the topic of religion often, especially with our imagery. But despite my own personal quarrel with it, I don’t deny signs, and I definitely took that as a sign. And in this moment of extreme panic and the circumstances on which I was flying and everything combined, it felt like this woman was plucked and put right next to me to calm me down, and it definitely left an impact.
I’m sure it did. It’s a great album title. And especially once you know the story behind it, it really makes a lot of sense.
Thanks. Yeah, I’m glad that it had an impact without all of the context. Because when I brought it up to the band, I was able to give them the full scope, and I was like, “This is something I’m thinking about.” I told the band one night on tour, and by time I got done with the story, they all were just like, “That’s it! That’s what it’s called!” Because at the time I was like, this is something I’m considering. I didn’t approach them as in like, “Hey, here’s what the new record is going to be called.” It’s like, this is what I’m thinking about and they were just like, “No, that’s it. That’s great.” And they were just immediately behind it.
As far as writing another record, do you all have ideas or anything going on right now?
Yeah, we talk a lot about it, and it’s kind of like we’ve grown into this formula of every time something works, how do we expand on that? There were things on the last record that we tried to do to kind of carve out more structure. “Don’t Reach For Me” is a perfect example. That’s an example of Knocked Loose writing a song that’s verse, chorus, verse, chorus. And we were like; it’s probably time to introduce that without it sounding like a pop song, obviously. But to make ourselves feel comfortable with that progression, we tried to juxtapose that with our most chaotic songs. So you have songs like “Thirst,” “Don’t Reach For Me,” and “Suffocate” that are just kind of riff salad and as intense as they can be. No repeating hook, but just this build of tension until the final release. And then when the record came out, those songs were the ones that people kind of leaned to. They were excited about the extreme side of things. So we always take stuff like that and we’re like, “Oh, that’s interesting. So what does that look like next time? If they like crazy, we’ll go crazier.” But no plans as of right now, just kind of fun to talk about. Like, “Oh, the record has been out a year and this has worked for us. So what do we do now? Where do we build on that?”
Do you think there will ever come a time when Knocked Loose takes Gates To Hell out on the road with you and just make one big crazy Louisville package tour?
Oh, I would love to. We talk about it a lot. Our drummer Pacsun, his little brother is in a band called Surfaced, so we always talk about doing a Gates To Hell and Surfaced thing. I love what both those bands are doing. Gates To Hell I’m obviously behind 100%. They’re crushing right now. They just brought out their first full-length album with label support, and this year they were able to tour internationally for the first time ever. They actually leave on Friday, so I’m spending all the time I can this week with Trey [Garris – Bryan’s brother, drummer for Gates To Hell and XweaponX]. Yeah, I would love for one day for that to make sense. You know, we throw them on anytime that we can, like if we’re playing home or something. But yeah, love those guys.
[Note: Gates To Hell is scheduled to play Louder Than Life on Sunday, September 21st at 11:30 a.m. on the Loudmouth Stage].
Speaking of your brother, how did XweaponX come about?
That came from a conversation with the singer of the band; his name is Dave [Baugher]. He’d never been in a band, never played music, never even sang before the band. He’s straight edge, and he said, “I’ve always wanted to start a straight edge band called XweaponX.” And we were like, “Yeah, that is an incredible name.” And I think that I was the one that was like, “OK, we’ll do it.” My brother Trey and Isaac [Hale], the guitar player from Knocked Loose, I was like “You two write it, send it to me, I will write all the lyrics and play bass, and we’ll just create a band for Dave to be in.” We didn’t know what he sounded like until he tracked the first song at Isaac’s house. I was living in California at the time, sending them voice notes of how I wanted the vocals to go, the rhythms and the lyrics. And then they tracked the first demo and Isaac texted the group chat and was just like, “Well, he’s actually good!” And I was like, “Well, that’s a relief because we have an entire demo written and recorded.” And then people really seemed to like it. I mean, it’s fun. It’s like tongue-in-cheek, it’s extreme. The four of us are straight edge and it’s cool to bond over that, but we didn’t expect to get the offers that we’ve gotten. It was just supposed to be a fun local band. Our first show was LDB [Fest 2022] here in Louisville, and then our second show was in Calgary, Western Canada, because we had friends up there like, “We built a fest and we want you to come play,” and we were like, “Sure,” and from there it just snowballed into playing every regional hardcore fest that that we could, even to the point where we just played London a couple months ago, and we played Sound and Fury [Fest] in Los Angeles two months ago, and we get to play Louder Than Life on Thursday.
Yeah. It’s odd that they put you all on the Kentucky Kingdom Amphitheatre stage. I mean, that’s all bench seats and concrete. I don’t see that going over real well. I don’t know if they thought about that beforehand because XweaponX isn’t really a band that you can stand still for.
Yeah, it was definitely a text that we all laughed at. We don’t have management, we don’t have an agent, we don’t have social media, so everybody is always trying to get a hold of XweaponX through Knocked Loose’s management. And they always jokingly, begrudgingly, send the text like, “Can I just forward this e-mail to you so these people will leave me alone?” So when they sent that text that was like, “Hey, they want you all to play Louder Than Life.” We literally laughed and we were like, “Yeah!” I mean, this is so dumb that a band like XweaponX is being recognized on such a major level, such a prestigious level, like Louder Than Life; one of the biggest rock fests in America. So we were like, obviously we’ll do it. And then we started to learn all the information about how they’re branching into Kentucky Kingdom, and our stage is going to be there. I don’t know if for sure it’s going to be the amphitheater stage or if they’re having a stage set up near it that that is going to offer a different experience, because I was told that they know what they’re getting into. Like, they’ve got us and Haywire 617 on that stage, and Haywire is crazier than XweaponX. I mean, their singer front flips off of something anytime they play a show, so they gotta know.
You would probably know this better than anybody: do people talk about the Louisville hardcore scene in other states or even other countries that you’re aware of?
I think they do now. LDB really put Louisville on the map as a place for hardcore to be respected. I’ve gone every single year that it’s been a festival, and I remember in the early years, back when the festival was only pulling like 200 kids, I remember seeing people on the internet making fun of it. Just being like, “Why in the world would I pay to go to Kentucky for a hardcore fest?” And then the festival grew and grew, and I watched people that tweeted about it come to the fest and have the time of their life and tweet about how awesome the fest is. I think that it’s really a place that is underrated, and when people come to Kentucky, they’re like, “Wait a minute, this is amazing!” And LDB obviously has grown to like 3-4 thousand people, and it’s like this massive festival that is recognized all over the world, and I think that it really put Louisville in a different light for people.
What’s been some of the highlights of being in Knocked Loose so far?
Oh, that’s a good one. Off the top of my head, I would say the Grammys. Being able to just be there, being able to invite our families, it was such a special time and it went so smooth. I had my parents stay at the apartment that I had in LA for the entire week and got to pamper them; we just lived like freaking celebrities. Nice dinners, suit shopping, dress shopping, hair and nails done. It was just so much fun, and to be able to share that with my parents, that is definitely something that I’ll never forget. It was cool, it kind of felt like a statement for the entire genre to be recognized on that level.
Absolutely. So what’s the nastiest injury you’ve ever seen at a Knocked Loose show?
Oh, that’s a good one too. It’s always hard to watch people get knocked out, especially when somebody hits their head and has a seizure. That’s always very hard to see, which happened a lot more often when we were playing no barricade shows and people were stage diving and stuff. So that’s probably one of the gnarlier ones. I’ve seen somebody break their leg, just like forward hyper extend their leg. That one was really bad. My brother one time got kicked in the mouth and his tooth went through his lip. He just had a hole under his lip where you could just see his teeth. Yeah, off the top of my head, those are the worst. It’s like a rite of passage.
I’ve been hurt. I’ve broken stuff. Knock on wood; I’ve never been knocked out. Our guitar player Isaac’s been knocked out. It was day one of a tour that we were doing. Day one was Louisville, day two was Chicago, and he fell and hit his head on the ground and was just out, and I was the first one to him. I ran over and picked him up and I dragged him into the other room, and he was bleeding on my shirt. I put him on a couch and I gave him some water and woke him up and was like, “Are you good?” He ended up going to the hospital and getting like two staples in his head, and then they were like, “Alright, you need to take it easy.” And he was like, “Well, I’m playing Chicago tomorrow, so.” I think he left the hospital and met back up with us to get in the van and drive overnight to Chicago.
That’s dedication.
Yeah, you just gotta keep going.
So what do you all have planned for Louder Than Life? Anything special?
We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve. I don’t think anything that I can give away, but we’re definitely taking advantage of the moment. Nothing extreme, just stuff that we’ve done to make it feel a little bit more exciting, make it feel like a different show.
Are you going to break out any old classics?
Oh yeah, definitely! We just had that conversation recently. We’re building the set list. Everything that we play is based off of crowd interaction. So if there’s a song that doesn’t get a pop, then we take it out of the set. When we were talking about this set, we’re like, “Well, this doesn’t get a pop,” and then we’re like, “Yeah, but we’re at home, so it will.” [Laughs]
Knocked Loose plays Louder Than Life on Sunday, September 21st at 5:25 p.m. on Main Stage 1. XweaponX plays Louder Than Life on Thursday, September 18th at 8:15 p.m. on the Kingdom Stage.
For more information, check out knockedloose.com
Many thanks to the Maynard family for helping set up this interview!
This article appears in Sep 1-30, 2025.