BY ROSS CABELL
rsscabell@gmail.com
Hot off of the October release of their first proper full lengh, Kids Raising Kids, Nashville’s Kopecky Family Band will be playing the Double Decker Music and Arts Fest on Saturday.
“The last time we played in Mississippi was at this hilarious med school party,” said Kelsey Kopecky, co-founder of the Kopecky Family Band. The name of their band says it all – they are family, and they are here to have fun.
The band started back in 2007 when Kelsey Kopecky met Gabe Simon at Belmont. There was an immediate connection.
“I remember the first week we got together to write we had a co-write and we got together and wrote six songs in two sittings. It was just so inspiring,” she said.
Kopecky had been in Nashville a couple of years before “the boys,” as she affectionately calls her bandmates, and most of the meet ups to co-write she had were awkward.
“When I met Gabe I felt very vulnerable and able to bring all my ideas to the table. We had our best friends, who happened to play all these instruments, get together on Saturdays and practice and hash through songs,” she said.
Kopecky and Simon recruited friends Steven Holmes on lead guitar, Markus Midkiff on cello, David Krohn on drums and Corey Oxendine on bass.
The group would go on to release an EP in 2008 called Embraces. Two more EPs would follow in 2010.
Kopecky Family Band is family sized. With a sprawling six members, a full sound is captured not only on their new record Kids Raising Kids, but in their live shows as well.
Kopecky said that they started out as a live band playing with friends and they try and bring that same energy into the recording studio.
“Our culture was all of our other friends in different bands getting together and playing 50 minute sets. We would play into the night and get the cops called then go back to campus. All of these bands we continuously played shows with are now out doing it. It was a great place to incubate and get our live show up to par,” she said.
Recording Kids Raising Kids was a change of pace for Kopecky and crew, who would record in the two days off they had from touring, just to go back on the road again. At that point Kopecky said, it was about constantly writing music for the fan base they were building.
Kopecky’s style of writing has always remained the same – to capture what they were feeling or learning at the time.
This is most evident in the acoustic ballad “Change”. But, even to call it a ballad might be an overstatement. The strong vocal harmonies of Kopecky and Simon are accompanied by a gust of wind that carries the song just as much the guitar picking.
The band went from playing in their friend’s basements, to selling out shows, playing festivals like Bonnaroo.
The family band is no stranger to Oxford, having played here before at Proud Larry’s. Kopecky said she was thrilled to play Double Decker.
“I can’t wait. I have so many good friends that went to Oxford, I’m excited to see everybody,” she said.
Kopecky Family Band will be playing Double Decker’s main stage Saturday at 4 p.m.
