Hailey Knox: It All Starts With A Loop
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PHOTOGRAPHY: FILMAWI / STYLING: Cara Hayward / CREATIVE DIRECTION: CHARLOTTE MAYUMI PHIPPS / SET DESIGN: ZOE HAZLETT / MAKE UP: ANNA KATO / HAIR: KAREN ARECHIGA / WORDS: AMBA MENDY
Hailey Knox’s world is full of sound. Her living room is a jungle of instruments, cables, pedals, and groove. There’s a bongo leaning against the wall, a bass on the sofa, a keyboard under the coffee table. It’s chaos, but it’s hers. The way she tells it, her life only really makes sense when she’s creating.
“I become a different person when I’m not making something,” she says. “I have to create. Even if it's just a dumb little loop on my phone.”
Music isn't a job or a hobby. It’s her centre of gravity. She picked up guitar at seven, singing even earlier. Her dad taught her a few chords. Piano followed. Then bass. Then loop pedals. By the time she was in high school, she’d already cycled through instruments like outfits and had been in a duo with her sister. It was always heading somewhere. She just didn’t know where.
“I think I always knew music was going to be number one. It’s really my life. Sometimes I’m like, wait, what else do I do?”
It’s said with a laugh, but it’s real. When Hailey’s not making something, she starts to unravel. Which is why she’s learned to stay in motion, even when the world tries to rush her forward or pull her out of rhythm. “The industry moves fast. It can be overwhelming. I’ve had to teach myself to stay present, take it in, and not just live in the future or the past.”
Right now, the future is calling louder than ever. She's just released her most personal body of work to date and is about to head out on tour. It’s a new kind of vulnerability. Songs that came out of therapy sessions with her boyfriend — who also happens to be her producer and co-writer. “We’ve been together seven years. A lot of the songs come from real conversations. Which is wild, but also kind of beautiful. It’s like therapy, but with 808s.”
One of those songs is “11th Hour,” a standout track with live drums and cinematic scope. “That one started with a synth line I loved. Took me almost a year to figure out what I wanted to say on it. It’s not a traditional structure. Verse, pre, hook, outro. I love a good outro.”
“I like not boxing myself in. Just being free to create however I want.”
That’s the thread across everything Hailey does. Whether she’s looping on her porch or layering harmonies in Logic, there’s a clear sense she’s building her own rules. Not because she’s trying to be different, but because it’s the only way she knows how to be herself. “Sometimes I just throw the loop pedal down and go. That version of a song might not even sound like the original, but it has a whole new energy. That’s exciting to me.”
The loop pedal was a Christmas gift. She’d just seen Ed Sheeran play in New Jersey and left the show wired with possibility. Her mom noticed the spark and bought her one. It changed everything. “It just spiraled from there. It gave me a way to bring the whole song to life on my own. Pick up the guitar. Jump on bass. Stack sounds. Build a world.”
That DIY spirit hasn’t left. Even now, with streaming numbers climbing and fans filling rooms, she’s still figuring out her stage looks in the final hours. Comfort first, then elevation. “I play guitar on stage, so I’m still deciding how high of a heel I can go. But I want it to feel like me.”
As for dream stages? There’s only one. “Madison Square Garden. I grew up in New York. I saw Justin Bieber there. That’s the moment that made me want this.”
“To be on that stage must be a crazy feeling.”
And yes, she’s a Belieber. “Obviously.” Her dream dinner party includes Bieber, Billy Eilish, and Doja Cat. “They just feel so free. Like they’re really themselves. That’s the kind of energy I’m drawn to.”
That same instinct has shaped her taste in music. She’s been deep in Yousef Dayes’ new project. Jazz, grooves, live feeling. “He’s just about the feeling. That’s what I love. Music where the passion is the point.”
Genre isn’t really a thing in Hailey’s world. She started in the singer-songwriter lane, then fell into production and realised she could blend everything she loves. “When I started producing myself, it opened up everything. It’s been a lot of trial and error, but that’s what makes it real.”
She still finds herself toggling between solitude and collaboration. “Some weeks I just want to be home with my ideas. Then I hit a wall and I need outside energy. It’s a back-and-forth.”
That tension is part of what makes her work so relatable. Her songs speak to breakups, makeups, doubt, and discovery. They’re written from a place of lived experience, but they’re made with care for the listener too. “I guess I hope they help someone through something. A breakup, confusion, just something they need to feel less alone in. But I try not to overthink it. I make music for me first. When I love it enough, then I share it.”
“It’s weird sometimes. I still feel like I’m processing all of this.”
It’s a refreshing kind of honesty. She’s not posturing as the polished, glossy version of an artist. She’s in the thick of it. Figuring it out in real time. On stage, she wants to feel that connection with the crowd in a way that’s more than transactional. “I had this idea to bring a camcorder on tour. Just pass it around the crowd for a moment and see what happens. Something real. Something together.”
She lights up talking about shows. The Kendrick and Baby Keem concert she went to a year ago. The D’Angelo cover she loops into her own sets. The weird psychological thrillers she watches to unplug, like Severance and The NeverEnding Story. Even her obsession with ice skating gets a quick mention. “Random, I know. But I wish I could do it. It just looks so cool.”
Ask her if there’s anything she’d recreate if she could invent something from scratch, and she laughs. “I want to say something profound, but I think… a toilet bowl?” She laughs again. “Wait. No. That’s so stupid. I need a better answer.” But honestly, it’s perfect. There’s no need to clean it up. The charm is already there.
Hailey Knox isn’t trying to be everything at once. She’s just fully herself. Music first. Soul-driven. Honest and low-key hilarious. She’s figuring it out with the rest of us, one loop at a time.
“It all starts with the loop. That’s where the feeling is.”
