Indie Singer Songwriter Hailey Knox Releases New Mixtape

Indie singer and songwriter, Hailey Knox is traveling the U.S. this season to headline her tour, while introducing fans to an intriguing, new sound.

The rising artist recently released her mixtape, Hardwire Mixtape, which offers a variety of different beats and sounds — almost as if each song was from a different genre.

In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Knox shares just what all went into her latest musical offering, including the song "Hardwired," which was most recently featured on an episode of Grey's Anatomy and features lyrics many can resonate with.

"The song just talks about how being nice, sometimes people can take advantage of you if you're too nice and if you don't speak up, people can take advantage of you," Knox explained to PopCulture.com, adding how the track also expresses her indie-soul side.

The inspiration for her lyrics lie deep, but it all started from her bedroom. The 20-year-old New York City born singer recalls spending many nights in her bedroom playing around with different musical ideas, and that's how "Hardwired" was created.

"The song started randomly in my bedroom," Knox said. "I had my guitar and was just messing around with chords, not really trying to write but just had this weird 'hardwired' idea that popped out of nowhere."

The length of each song on her mixtape ranges anywhere from 30 seconds to three minutes — just another touch to her already authentic sound.

The young artist got her start with the help of a few producers she worked with early in her career. They helped guide her on how to write songs and boosted her touring opportunity. A few songs from her first EP have been added to her recent mixtape. In fact, each song is a story from her life the past 3 years.

"I didn't really go in thinking, 'Let's make an album or a mixtape,'" she said. I think it was just songs from a span of 3 years to a few months back and there all from different times in my life."

"Some of the songs on the mixtape are from that time, to me sitting in my bedroom at 3 in the morning sitting on GarageBand producing interlude, a minute to less than a minute songs," Knox continued.

Although three in the morning seems either late or early to some, she managed to get a lot done at that hour of the night. Another time of day she was able to jot notes or lyrics down was on the train heading to and from the city, which took around an hour and a half each way.

"It's a good time to start typing random ideas down and get thoughts going on different song ideas," she chuckled.

Knox grew up around music. Both of her parents have an itch for the beat and because of that, it's more than likely where she got it from. Early on, she said her mother would turn music on first thing in the morning and that is how she would wake up.

"I learned guitar from my dad," she said. "He taught me when I was 7 [years old]. "My parents always had music playing."

"With starting guitar, dad would play and I would sing along at a young age and we had Voice Memos from the O.G. iPhone — he had the first iPhone — and there's old stuff of me singing 'Blackbird' by The Beatles," she continued.

She laughed about the fact that 'Blackbird' wasn't even a word she could pronounce at the time because she was so little, but that didn't stop her.

While growing up around music and with a passion to create new rhythm, she started entering talent shows and utilizing social media outlets like YouTube and Facebook to stream her music. After using successful platforms to help expose her talent, she decided to keep following her dreams. Knox is now on the road with the rest of her band, sharing her talents with fans across the board, as well as, giving other talented artist an opportunity to shine as her opening acts.

"Travel is just getting use to van life — we have to lug our stuff in and out of the hotel every night — but playing the shows every night has been so cool and then I have different openers in every city. I've gotten to meet a lot of new artist that are amazing every night. It's been very cool," she shared.

So what's next for Knox? A lot of new music!

"I have so much stuff I'm just sitting on, I just want to release everything at once!" She said eagerly. "I just have a lot of new music stored in my phone that I'm just like, 'Ahh! We've got to release this soon."

You can check out more on Knox's and her tour dates at her official website.