Knox

Curious and cozy small cities adorn the landscape of the American Midwest. Each one has its own claim to fame (or two). Counting the Wright Brothers among its most notable denizens, Dayton, OH remains renowned as “the birthplace of aviation,” but it’s also responsible for the Cheez-It. Knox proudly calls the area home. It’s where he originally discovered music, fell in love with it, and chose to pursue it under a heavy influence of early two-thousands pop-punk, emo, and alternative. After piling up hundreds of millions of streams, selling out shows, and earning critical acclaim, he returns to this place sonically and emotionally on his second full-length LP , My Midwest Best [Atlantic Records].

Revamping emo and pop-punk with a fresh punch, these 12 tracks uncork a burst of Warped Tour-appropriate energy tailormade for soundtracking a montage from your favorite teen comedy, the best date you’ve ever been on, or a festival set at sundown.

“I decided to honor where I came from,” he affirms. “The sonics naturally dictated the direction. I was writing nostalgic music, and it drew me back. Personally, it made me feel like a 10-year-old living out his dream. This is the album that I could show my fifth grade self and say, ‘You’re going to make it one day’”.

To get specific, Knox grew up adjacent to Dayton in New Carlisle. He spent his formative years in a group of tightknit friends who regularly rode bikes around town, shot hoops at the park, and swam in the public pool during summertime. “If you’ve seen the movie ‘The Sandlot’, that was my childhood,” he smiles.

In sixth grade, he saw Fall Out Boy for the first time, and the experience dramatically amplified his obsession with music. He simultaneously listened to the likes of All-American Rejects, Boys Like Girls, Panic! At The Disco, Hawthorne Heights, and more. In 2019, he relocated to Nashville and launched a career behind-the-scenes as a songwriter.

2022 saw him embrace the spotlight as a solo artist with the viral breakthrough “Sneakers”—which surpassed 49 million Spotify streams and counting. Everything kicked into high gear with the arrival of “Not The 1975” though. It peaked in the Top 15 of the Adult Pop Airplay Chart, gathered 63 million-plus streams, and bulldozed the way for his 2025 debut LP , Going, Going, Gone. Of the latter, Melodic Magazine raved, “The debut is impressive in length and lyrical volume,” and GRAMMY.com promised, “Knox's debut album, Going, Going, Gone, perfectly captures the essence of his artistry.” Marveling at his sold-out Webster Hall show, tmrw recalled, “the crowd down on the floor generated the kind of palpable electricity reserved for artists on the cusp of the proverbial rocket ship.” Moreover, he graced the bills of festivals such as Lollapalooza and Hangout Fest, appeared on tracks with Bilmuri and HARDY , and earned co-signs from Ed Sheeran and Matt Healy.

At the top of 2026, he hit the studio with longtime trusted collaborators Todd Tran and Cam Becker. Together, they channeled the spirit of Knox’s formative inspirations on tape.

“We rocked everything up,” he grins. “We literally asked ourselves, ‘What would Fall Out Boy do to this?’ When I came up with the title My Midwest Best, everything clicked. It fit with what I was trying to do in terms of reconnecting to home. All of these tunes are real parts of me.”

Speaking of, he introduces this era with “After The Afterparty.” On the track, an electric guitar arpeggio snakes around an anxious head-nodding beat. Reaching for the heavens, gang vocals and acoustic guitarboost a hummable refrain, “‘Cause after the after party, I’ll walk myself home, one more drink and stare at the phone, hoping you’ll call, knowing you won’t.”

“I wanted to write an anthemic moment for the show,” he recalls. “The goal was for people to scream it back to us in concert because the words resonate. Lyrically, it’s full-blown heartbreak. Life is good for me. I’ve been with my girlfriend for nearly four years, but I still like to write about heartbreak. We’ve all felt it before. Whatever you’re going through, everything will be okay on the other side.”

Then, there’s “4.3 Forty.” It rushes out of the gate on an upbeat gallop and lands in the embrace of a hard-hitting hook, “You were on the track, running anywhere but towards me, swear you ran a ‘4.3 Forty’.” Finally, it spikes the ball with a handclap-driven bridge.

“You’re opening up to someone, but you’re afraid for this person to open back up,” he notes. “It’s relatable. I’m such a sports head, and I thought it was fun to use the metaphor of the girl doing a 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds after you say, ‘I love you’”.

On “Better Than Me,” even breezy whistling and a sunny chord progression can’t dull the bite of lyrics like, “Am I the fool that you took me for in all-caps and underscored?” He goes on to tease, “If you’re really that so far out of my league…better find someone better than me.”

“I was broken up with because the girl said she could find somebody better,” he reveals. “She was like the people who come back around the second you get a record deal! It’s written for the high school Knox.”

“Sad Song” rolls from the crunch of loose power chords into a clarion call chorus, “Part of me knows that I’ve gotta grow up, but maybe I’m happy singing sad, sad songs.” It culminates with a fretboard-scorching solo.

“I’m grateful to be here,” he continues. “I wake up happier every day than I’ve been before. However, I think I’ll always sing sad songs. It’s how I connect most closely to my audience.”

In the end, Knox is welcoming everyone to scream, sing, and feel along with him.

“This is the record I’ve wanted to make for a long time,” he leaves off. “Right now, I’m the most complete version of myself. I know who I am as an artist and as a person. I’ve never been closer to my family orfriends. That fifth grader would be proud.”