Kopecky’s favorite festival food? “I love anything fried.”
The Kopecky Family Band isn’t a family in any traditional sense of the word. Their name, in fact, came mostly just for kicks.
“It started off as a joke, but now that we do this full time and we’re all together all the time, just like living in our little bus and travelling the country, it’s amazing how much the word ‘family’ really has come to fruition,” says Kelsey Kopecky, founding member of the band.
The group met at Belmont University and formed in 2007, around the same time as fellow Loufest artists and Belmont alums Moon Taxi. Kelsey Kopecky invited a few new students over to her place to hang out, including band co-founder Gabe Simon.
“Like any Nashville get-together, we of course ended up passing the guitar around and playing a song, and right away, I heard Gabe play and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, he gets it,’” she says.
Since their Belmont days, the band has travelled nationwide, releasing its debut album Kids Raising Kids in October 2012, with a rerelease by ATO Records in April 2013. Kopecky describes the music as “adventurous indie pop” with a certain “rock-and-roll element.” Kopecky Family Band’s music was featured in a Tiny Desk Concert by NPR in 2011, with the NPR music staff saying they fell in love with the music as the band’s “sweet, swollen songs kept blooming into something [they] couldn’t resist.”
Fleetwood Mac inspires the group, Kopecky says, and with a comparable male and female leads with dueling harmonies playing off one another, the connection makes sense.
That edge comes through in “My Way,” a song with a soulful start that builds to a poppy chorus that just so happens to be Kopecky’s favorite song to play live. During the bridge, vocalist Gabe and guitarist Corey bust out trombones.
“It’s a kind of really fun, anthemic moment, where all of the sudden this pep band comes out of nowhere and you’re like ‘Ahhhhhh!’” Kopecky says.
The band, which played one of its first shows at St. Louis’ own Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, is looking forward to returning to the city for Loufest this year.
“We’ve always had a love for St. Louis,” Kopecky says. And if their warm reception by fans and the music industry is any indication, St. Louis will love Kopecky Family Band right back at this year’s festival.
The Kopecky Family Band plays Sunday, September 7th from 7:15-8:15 p.m. on the BMI Stage.
