An Interview with Week Knees

With their latest project Southern Hospitality, Week Knees brings infectious melodies and relatable lyrics that keep listeners coming back. Week Knees captures their different background influences in this project, inspiring the group’s unique perspective. I was able to discuss the group’s newest EP as well as what it means to be a Nashville emo band with vocalist and guitarist Joe Setlak!

Photo Credit: O’Len Davis

Hello! Let’s start by introducing the readers to Week Knees. Who is Week Knees and what are everyone's roles? 

J: Week Knees is an emo band from Nashville, TN. To introduce everyone, we have Joe Setlak (myself) and Austin Lyons on vocals and guitar, William Shepherd on bass, and Addy Graye on drums. 

You call yourselves Nashville Emo, are there any stand out emo songs or bands that have influenced the sound of Week Knees? 

J: We are huge fans of bands like Modern Baseball and The Hotelier, as those are the bands that got us excited about emo music when we were younger. We also have a huge appreciation for earlier second wave emo and hardcore music, and we take a lot of influence from both in our music-both sonically and compositionally. 

Do you feel that being a band from Nashville aka “Music City” has influenced your process as musicians at all? 

J: It’s definitely helped us a lot in terms of finding a scene to be a part of. There are so many awesome bands from Tennessee who have been so helpful in getting us to where we are now, and Nashville has a pretty good infrastructure for shows, and a really passionate scene for DIY music. 

EP Cover: Southern Hospitality by Week Knees

You released an EP this year called Southern Hospitality, talk me through the process of writing this project! 

J: For us, writing tends to start from Austin or I (Joe). We come up with a structure and chords and lyrics and then bring it to the band. After that, we flesh a song out together as a group, with each member writing their own parts and flairs to the existing songs. Even though Austin and I tend to write by ourselves, we want the songs to be a group effort, because we love when the song has a little bit of energy contributed from each member. 

Are there any stand out tracks from Southern Hospitality that you are especially proud or fond of? 

J: Obviously we’re super proud of all the songs on that record, but I think “Knot” was especially cool to record because it’s a lot slower than our other material but simultaneously has the most explosive ending we’ve ever done on a track. Austin’s lyrics for that song also are really incredible and help convey that energy through the song. 

Has Week Knees approach to writing evolved since you’ve written “Piney Island Forever?” 

J: It’s pretty similar, but overall I think we are more collaborative than we used to be. 

Photo Credit: O’Len Davis

How has the approach to playing songs live evolved as your discography has expanded? Do you each have a favorite song to play live?  

J: One thing that we’ve been working on even after the release of Southern Hospitality is our tone. We try to balance each of our instruments to occupy a different range sonically so that we can really have full sounding live shows. We also plan on incorporating samples to help with transitions between songs live. As far as a favorite song goes, I would say either “Machu Raichu” or “Seth Rogenstock”. Both of those songs are super high energy with fast riffs and a lot of screaming so they are a blast to play live.

Do you all typically enjoy writing new material or playing live shows more? 

J: I think that overall, we love playing live, and playing shows is the reason we wrote songs. Recording is a hugely gratifying process and having music out there to listen to is a must, but we write songs to play them live. All of us have been playing live music since we were kids, and it’s something we really live for and it gets us super excited. 

Thank you for your time and I’ll end with this question: If there is one Week Knees song that readers should check out after hearing about you, what would you recommend to a first time listener? 

J: I would say check out “Bud the Weiser. “It’s gotten the biggest response out of any of our songs so far and I think it’s a great showcase of our energy as a whole. 

Southern Hospitality is available on all streaming platforms. Make sure to follow Week Knees to keep up with their latest releases!

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