Two recent Penn State graduates with ears for musical masterpieces have spent the last year creating music without much help from anyone else, and their talent exudes from each song they write and create themselves.
Mike D’Avella and Shawn Fox started their band Knowhere about a year ago and have already had immense success.
It all started when D’Avella was out in Los Angeles in the summer of 2017 and interned at Interscope Records. Being out in Hollywood, the entertainment capital, D’Avella was feeling inspired to put his musical genius and passion to use. D’Avella had a band back at Penn State called The New Feel, but knew the only one as serious as he was about a future in songwriting was Fox.
“I wanted to turn this little project into a band,” says D’Avella. He also recruited a couple of his friends at Interscope to create the beats for a few of their songs, including “The Window” and “The Beach.”
The group collaboratively came up with their name, one with multiple meanings and sentiments behind it.
“We chose the name because it was a double entendre that you could choose to look at either glass half empty or glass half full,” says D’Avella. “In life, you have the choice to feel like you’re nowhere, all alone and far from where you want to be, or now here, like you’ve just arrived at your goal and conquered the heck out of it like we hope to do with all of the music we put out!” D’Avella says they realized that ‘Knowhere’ with the ‘K’ was a “mysterious Marvel universe,” and the hint of mystery appealed to the band, as they were keeping this music gig on the side in the beginning.
It’s safe to say, their music has become far more than just a “side project.” The duo just dropped their EP (extended play record), “Greetings From Knowhere,” and it’s definitely worth a listen. “The first mix tape,” as D’Avella referred to it. All of their music can be streamed on Spotfiy, iTunes, Apple Music, YouTube, etc.
Their biggest song to date already has over 16,000 streams on Spotify. “The Vibe” came out at the end of May, and is drawing in a lot of attention. “The Vibe” was written in sunny Los Angeles this past spring, while D’Avella studied there with the Penn State Hollywood Program. He interned for Atlantic Records, a place that serves as endless inspo for an aspiring musician and writer. Over spring break, Fox flew out to L.A., and the pair wrote “The Vibe.” The ambiance of the song really captures the essence of L.A. and the Hollywood Hills. “Obviously, there’s a lot of clichés in the song, but I think that they work so well together, that they painted a great picture behind what we were feeling for what ‘The Vibe’ was.”
Photo courtesy of Mike D’Avella
D’Avella and Fox are both incredible songwriters with bright futures. D’Avella told VALLEY how much he admires his friend and partner.
“Shawn is crazy sometimes. When I say crazy I mean brilliant,” says D’Avella. “Whenever he has a song idea, he’ll rush over to any of the dorms, either Pollock or Schreyer dorms that have the pianos in the basement and sound proof practice rooms, and he’ll go and take his phone and have an idea of a song. And he’ll sing and play for maybe 20 seconds, and he’ll send it to me and it’s just a voice memo for an idea for a song.”
Knowhere has had great success in the short time they’ve been creating music. VALLEY thinks this duo is up-and-coming and one to watch. You can stream their music on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music and YouTube. Keep an eye out for the second leg of their album coming out soon!
Check out their EP “Greetings from Knowhere” on Spotify here:
