Cooper Brown never wanted to be a solo artist. From taking drum lessons in high school to watching friends practice chords and repeating it on a borrowed guitar, he knew that music was his career path – but with the help of some friends.

Brown studied music and songwriting at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee before moving back to his hometown of Jackson in 2014. Although he was playing shows on his own, through networking he met Phoebe Scott, Will Kwasigroh, Matt Hammonds, and Joseph Kyle.

Scott remembers playing at a dive bar in Jackson. She was 15 years old at the time, so when Brown flagged her down after her set and asked her to join his band, she had to get her parent’s permission. With a yes from mom and a cautious dad who attended the first few practice sessions, Scott was just one of the puzzle pieces that made Coopertheband.

“After a few practices and time spent getting to know each other, we quickly became more than a band,” Brown said. “We became very close friends and family, each of us believing in the band as a viable career option and what it could become.”

The name Coopertheband stuck for a few reasons. Besides wanting to steer clear of a full-on solo career, Brown said the single word represents the closeness they are to one another. Despite joking about the band name, Scott agrees that the name represents all of them.

“The rest of band likes the say that Cooper is just a narcissist so we’re just “theband”, but really Cooper is just a seasoned professional and the actual backbone of the band. He earned his spot at the front of the name, and the front of the band,” she said.

The band’s latest release, Kingdoms, began as a concept album based on the life of David from the Bible, which is a follow up to their last release, Kings. As they were going through the writing process and comparing David’s life experiences to their own, the concept of the songs became more of an exploration of the human experience. While they all connected with David and thought his story was important, they began to write their way through their own experiences – marriage, death, relationships – and it became more about what they wanted to say versus what David had already said.

Songs like “Home” and “Collarbones” took a single day to write while songs like “Undignified” and “Abigail” bordered on months. Despite the ups and downs, their Crowdfunding campaign succeeded and gave them the opportunity to write, record, produce and release Kingdoms.

After achieving that kind of substantial progress, Coopertheband are motivated to continue together through this journey that they’ve begun and spread their word to anyone who needs it.

“One of our main goals in writing the songs was to help others find joy and hope even in the midst of pain or suffering,” Brown said. “Our hope is that you can feel some sort of joy or hope after listening to this album.  And if so, share it with your friends so hopefully they can too.”