Conversation with Max Knoth from The Skinny Limbs

If you enjoy long drives along the coast with all your friends packed into one car, then you need to add The Skinny Limbs to your playlist. Composed of three brothers (Max, Jake, and Nate Knoth) and their longtime friend (Mitch Garcia), The Skinny Limbs turn indie rock into the perfect lake day soundtrack.

What is the history behind your band name?

I just thought it was just a cool combo of words. When you Google those three words it’ll just be a page of all of our band’s stuff, which is nice because if we were named something like “The Wall”, then a bunch of different stuff would come up. It’s a nice word combination that stuck in my head and I felt it would stick in other people’s heads as well. 

How did you know that you wanted to pursue music?

It’s been a huge part of my life and my brothers’ lives since we were little kids. I started piano lessons when I was in second grade and I hated it back then. They made me do it for a few years but I had a lot more fun with it once I could play stuff that I actually wanted to play. Then, I branched out to guitar and bass which was a lot of fun. Me and my brothers each took an instrument like I learned drums when I was younger, my brother Jake was on bass, and my other brother Nate was on guitar. We would just jam together a lot growing up. We’d play a lot of Rush and Tom Petty covers so there was a natural chemistry over the years. And the other guy in the band, Mitch, who plays synth, he’s one of our old buddies that we’ve known for 15 years. In May 2017 I was messing around on Logic Pro, which is our recording program, and my brother Jake was like “maybe we should just put a few of these songs out and see how it goes''. It’s been a very natural progression. A couple of our buddies hooked us up with our first show and it was a lot of fun so we were like “let’s keep this rolling” and we’ve been going ever since that. 

Who are some of your musical inspirations?

Definitely huge inspirations would be The Beach Boys, Tom Petty, and The Police for some classic bands. Some more recent bands are Turnover, Real Estate, and more surf rock/indie rock bands. Bad Suns is another one. 

Are there any specific songs that made you fall in love with music or give you goosebumps? 

A super recent one is in Turnover’s most recent album, it’s called “Plant Sugar”. It’s a really weird, driving song and it’s got weird melodies in the chorus. It’s a head bobber but not a rager of a song. It doesn’t make you dance all out but it got me pumped to write music that’s sort of similar. I enjoy telling people what our inspirations are because a lot of people are like, “Oh I never would have guessed, I can’t hear it in your music.” Inspirations don’t always come out clearly in our music because of how we interpret it and spit it out into our own music.

Photo by Veronica Anderson

What events or things inspire you to create music?

There were a couple Hippocampus shows back in 2016 when I was starting college and hadn’t started making music yet, but, after seeing a show either in Grand Rapids or Detroit it was just like “wow I love their music and stage presence. I kinda want to do something like that.” Hippocampus and other bands like that have a specific stage presence and you just know you’re going to get a specific experience when you see one of their shows. 

Who is your dream artist to collaborate with?

My brother and my girlfriend got me into this artist but have you heard of BENEE? She has a lot of features in her latest album, like Gus Dapperton and Kenny Beats. The songs where she collaborates with people are my favorite ones. I think she would be such a cool artist to work with.

Are there any other sounds or genres that you would like to explore in the future?

Yeah! A couple of the most recent songs that I’ve been demoing out, but haven’t released yet, have a little bit more of a 2000’s alternative feel rather than the more indie sound that we’ve been rolling with. It’s more straightforward--not as many crazy, jumpy rhythms that are energetic. It’s more somber and straightforward.

Is it easier to play with your own family since most of your bandmates are your brothers?

I would say it’s easier in some ways and harder in others. At certain band meetings and decision-making processes, there’s a little bit more headbutting than there would be if we were just buddies. There’s definitely some tension between me and my brothers and our buddy in the band is just kind of like “Guys, I think there’s some brotherly angst going on. Just chill out for a second, we’re all good”. But there’s also a lot of chemistry that’s innate because of the fact that we’ve been playing for so long together since we were kids. We have natural cues on stage or in practice; we’re just on the same wavelength. 

What is the ideal setting to listen to your music?

I hear a lot from people that they listen to our music with their windows rolled down while driving to the beach. We live in Grand Rapids, in the middle of Michigan, and it’s about 30-40 minutes away from Lakeshore so a lot of my friends say things like, “Oh your song came on my Spotify shuffle while we were going to the beach the other day and it was so perfect”. But there are also a few songs that are more like “you’re bottled up in your room in the middle of winter just studying” or something.

Are there any songs that are particularly special to you?

There’s this song that we haven’t put out yet but are in the process of releasing. Our EP is called “Jade” and the lead single is something I think a lot of people can resonate with. We’re talking about being “jaded”; being tired of your everyday, mundane routine. It’s about things getting boring and trying to spice up life by trying a new experience everyday. That song really resonates with me. One of our older ones, it’s not necessarily the lyrics but I really love playing it live, “Rosebud” gets people dancing and I find myself dancing on stage a lot. Musically I love that one a lot.

Where do you see yourself a year from now?

I just want to play more shows and meet more friends. I’m so excited and I think that every artist will agree with me on this one; we’re all really excited to get out and make friends at shows. I just want to engage with more people through our music and make people's lives better. Not everyone is going to come up to us after a show or DM us but there are people out there that are smiling and their day is made because of our music and I’m hoping for more of that.

What is your wildest dream right now?

Music wise, I think playing a festival like Boneroo or Lollapalooza would be insane. That would feel crazy, like a dream. 

What does your music creation process look like from beginning to end?

Usually, it begins with me messing around with a certain riff or chord progression on the guitar. Or sometimes it’ll be at band practice like I’ll play something that I’ve been thinking about and then we build off each other and get a little jam going. We’ll record it on voice notes and then record it in Logic and put all the parts together. Usually, I finish the song instrumentally first before I start throwing vocals on it. Vocals and lyrics are the hardest things to get nailed down for me, I’m sure it’s the opposite for some people. That’s the last step that I use to lock in the song.

What advice would you give to new young artists who are just starting out?

I would say that they should just get out there, make friends, and be outgoing at shows. I made that mistake earlier on in the pandemic, just not being outgoing because I was scared of introducing myself to a bigger artist or people who were playing shows. I would say be outgoing, be yourself, be genuine, make friends, and be a smiling face for people.

What do you do when you get into a creative slump?

It’s tough because I try to just breakthrough, and that only works sometimes. When I’m sitting at my computer and trying to demo something out and it’s just not working out I’ll try and force it but most of the time you just have to sit back and listen to new music, get some new inspiration. Watch a movie that inspires you, just engage with some new art. During the height of the pandemic, it was really tough for me because I was like “Oh I have all this time to work on music and do a bunch of projects!” but a lot of days I just didn’t have the energy to do that. I had to tell myself that I shouldn’t feel bad about that because you can’t really help it, don’t be too hard on yourself. 

The Skinny Limbs released their EP “Jade” on August 27th, so make sure to check it out! Also, keep an eye out for upcoming music videos and tour dates at their website which you can find here.