“We’re not famous but, we like to pretend we are.”

v  Halley Theroux

   Three guys who last year were wearing Leander blue and chanting the Lion fight song are now singing a different tune.  They now make music completely their own.  Marcello Martinez, Justin Hampton and Nathan Massey all attended LHS from 2004-2008.  These former Lions are truly the definition of best friends forever.  But what really bonds them is the local band they started and named, Knock on Wood. Their story is a tribute to the everyday garage band trying to break out or just doing what they love.

   This local band started out as a project and then slowly became something more.  They set out with the goal to play a cover of the ever popular, Are you gonna be my girl by Jet for a Valentine’s Day dinner hosted by their church.  It was this performance that made them realize how well they harmonized and how much passion they all felt for sharing their music.  Soon after they put together a set list of songs and recruited the help and musical stylings of guitarist and friend Chris Lee.  Lee, no longer in the band, had a lot of input in the music and direction of the band in the early day

   Knock on Wood is a quirky and eccentric group.  They describe their sound quite colorfully. “If Blink 182 and Incubus had a baby and that baby hung out with Smashing Pumpkins, married Nirvana and enjoyed classic rock….that’s what we sound like,” said Martinez.     “Anything we’ve ever heard has influenced us in some way,” said Massey. A few influences on an extremely long list are The Strokes, The Who, and Led Zeppelin.

   The peculiar name for their band started because the three best friends kept joking repeatedly “knock on wood” while rooting against the Patriots during last year’s super bowl. 

   Martinez is the lead vocalist and guitarist for the band.  He helps write a lot of their songs and uses inspiration from his own life for the lyrics.  Marcello is 18, he was born, raised and still resides in Texas and he hopes that music will always be a priority in his life.

   Hampton is an 18 year old, “mildly O.C.D”, (his words not mine), a sports fanatic who hopes to go to Texas State University.  Although Justin has a passion for music he hopes to go another direction with his life in the distant future and become a sports writer or announcer. 

   Massey is a 19 year old, Leander Alumni whose instrument of choice is the drums.  Massey is religiously minded and is extremely involved in his community church.

   The band recently recorded their songs and is anxiously awaiting the finished copy, so they can share it with the world.  While they wait, they have been working on some new material and are trying to line up gigs as well.  For more information contact the band or read updates at their MySpace page, www.myspace.com/knockonwoodmusic .