J.K. McKnight - To define myself in this world, I would state I'm a blue-eyed, 5'10, 145 lb Kentucky kid with 
 Irish / American pride, who feels passionately about the craft of writing and power of song. I was born in 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, February 18th, 1981, the son of an idea-blessed advertising and marketing mind, but moved 
 to Louisville when I was three. There, tucked inside the slow rolling hills and quick urban bustling of the 
 bluegrass state, my passion for music awoke. I heard the beach boy's "good vibrations," on the radio, and life 
 changed. The escapism, pop melody, universal theme, and beautiful harmony quivered me with excitement and 
 wonder, looking out the window of my parent's car, staring at the other side. I wanted more, became fixated. 
 By 9 I took up drums, guitar at 10, memorizing every scale to every Gun's N' Roses song and failing miserably. 
 Fast, intricate leads, and endless, solo caricatures didn't fit my style and I became frustrated, disillusioned, quit. 
 Then came 1992, "the year punk broke," and life changed again. The honest, stripped-down bands of the 
 Northwest / Seattle music scene were like nothing I have ever experienced. For the first time, I felt power in 
 music, a depth of feeling unmatched by any stimulant or intoxicant. I picked up the guitar and this time it stayed. 
  
 By and throughout High School I was writing music and playing in punk bands w/ hardcore overtones, and lived 
 for the thrill of hard hits and loud screams. But things were not good at home or personally, traumatizing events 
 occurred, and I soon drifted into a long period of isolation w/ little self-expression. Fate turned my senior year, 
 hen, longing for an outlet, I was accepted into an exclusive creative writing course; for the second time in my 
 life I discovered a bold and compelling new calling, deep inside my scrappy, notebook scribbles: writing. 
 Combined with a passion for song, it took less than a year (and hundreds of poems and short stories later) that 
 my psychological jigsaw fit the two pieces together and unearthed an uplifting and life changing realization: 
 I wanted to be a songwriter. In January 2001, after exhausting all the writing-related and music business 
 courses at the university, I dropped out of school, nurtured a basement studio and downtown office space, 
 went to work. After writing and rehearsing ceaselessly, I paused briefly to carry out the next move: founding 
 a three-person collective known as "The Vixen Red." 
  
 Fronting a rock band for the first time was invigorating, what I had dreamed it would be, but writing all the 
 music + lyrics, creating all the artwork, designing all the merchandise, pressing the stickers, building the 
 website, booking the shows, promoting the shows, marketing the band, organizing the street team, scripting 
 newsletters, developing fan networks, showcasing at festivals, founding my own festival 
 ("Forecastle 2002 / 2003") networking w/ local + regional bands, building an online presence, spending 
 thousands on recording budgets and pressing the industry to listen was tiring, and I couldn't carry the 
 weight alone. The vision I drafted and executed was not being supported and life in the band became 
 intolerable. I searched inward for answers, and what came out was an old, beat-up acoustic guitar, which 
 had sat in the corner for years, neglected. As soon as I picked in up in the spring of 2003, I had written my 
 first solo record, in a matter of weeks.  
  
 Since times of trial I continue to believe in the words, music, art, and imagery that surrounds the vixen 
 red (I am writing this in the middle of recording "Sunrise and Nightfall in the Equestrian Sea") while believing 
 equally in my potential as a solo artist. I have come to understand that both projects are really one in the 
 same, 2 halves of a whole, with all songs bearing from my schizophrenic, obsessive-compulsive mind. From 
 the pop / bluegrass / country inspired "Cry Goodbye," to the dark, Sabbath-obsessed, metal anthem "Revolver," 
 my spectrum of musical and lyrical capabilities continue to expand and grow, while clenching tight to distinct 
 values and worldviews. As long as I have myself I will continue on a solo path, with a scouring eye endlessly 
 searching for future minds of the vixen red, while incessantly focused on selling more records, booking larger 
 tours, developing a stronger web presence, and remaining grounded in my impassioned desire to write and 
 write more. - JK McKnight 

  Visit JK's web sites at www.jkmcknight.com and www.thevixenred.com


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