Eric Grubbs
You Need To Be Paying Attention To The Latest Emo/Post-Hardcore Release From Denton’s One-Man Show, Chris Knox.
Welcome to Song of the Day, where we hip you to all the new local releases you should be caring about. By highlighting one new North Texas-sprung tune every week day, our hope is that you’ll find something new to love about the rich and abundant DFW music scene five days a week.
Chris Knox – “Deficit”
RIYL: Paying attention
What else you should know: Denton-based Chris Knox wishes he could pay attention. It’s not that he doesn’t – he openly struggles with it, and he talks about it in his new single, “Deficit.”
Back in 2020, we were blown away by his one-man It Me project, where Knox played all the instruments. The classically-trained vocalist and multi-instrumentalist was not afraid to sing his head off and play with a tremendous amount of passion when he was between shifts as a bus driver for Denton ISD.
Now a teacher for his day job, he has a new album coming out in March called A.D.H.D. If you enjoyed his emo/post-hardcore stylings with It Me, “Deficit” is straight out of that same style. It even has some mosh-inspiring breakdowns, too.
Once again, Knox plays all of the instruments and sings multiple harmonies with his lead vocals. He has an incredibly strong voice, and one that you don’t often find in emo. He can hold onto a note and not have it sharply turn flat.
Knox wrote, recorded and produced A.D.H.D. and he doesn’t shy away from talking about not feeling good enough and thinking he’s inadequate.
“Sometimes I can’t pay attention,” he sings in the opening verse. “The words are lost in my head/Okay you have my attention/What was the last thing you said?”
The chorus instantly clicks with the lines of “I wish I could pay attention/I can’t keep up with this conversation/I wish I could pay attention/I wish I could pay attention/I just fuck everything up.”
It’s very true when you are trying to focus on something when a lot of things are demanding of your time.
Like we said in 2020, we hope Knox can do this as more than a studio project. The quality is there, and we can only hope he’ll play these songs with a band in front of people.