Interview: Wes Knorr (Knorrwood) By: Rob Smittix

Interview: Wes Knorr (Knorrwood)
By: Rob Smittix

RRX: Wes, just so I get this right, how do I like spell your last name?

WK: Just like it is in the band name, K N O R R.

RRX: Oh, well, that explains the band name now doesn’t it?

WK: Yeah, right? (Laughs)

RRX: Awesome. I’ve been checking out your stuff. When I first got the the information about doing this interview, I was like… Okay, how do you interview a tribute act? But then I dig deeper and I see that this isn’t just a Led Zeppelin thing that you do this is mixed in with the Lord of the Rings. How does that happen?

WK: You know? It’s kind of serendipitous in a way. We started Knorrwood as an original act, I think around 2023 or so and it was just something fun. Me and my youngest brother were playing some gigs and we decided to cut a record. And then we go to release the record… we hadn’t really toured a bunch under this band name and we got a pretty sweet hometown theater gig. We were concerned we weren’t going be able to sell it very well just based on the original aspect, so we spun together this idea of doing some sort of a unique experience. We started realizing, we kind of modelled our sound after our two biggest influences, which are Led Zeppelin and Lord of the Rings storytelling and cinematic music. So, we decided to match the two together and put a show together, again… just really for the album release show and it ended up being a smashing success. The response was off the charts and we were like okay… maybe we gotta keep pushing this thing and that’s kind of why we’re at where we are now. But the really cool and rewarding factor for myself personally, is that we also do weave some of our original tunes into it. So, it’s a three-way blend, heavily Zeppelin and Lord of the Rings stuff but we do feature some of our original material in there as well and it all pieces together very nicely.

RRX: No, I mean… I’m serious, I wasn’t really too thrilled about just interviewing a tribute band but when I saw what you were doing, I was getting more excited by the minute waiting for your phone call to come through. I was talking to one of the guys that works here. And I’m like… where do you come up with an idea like that? And he was like, well… “Ramble On” is about the Lord of the Rings, and I’m like… shut up, no it’s not. And then we listened to it and I’m like how did I miss that?

WK: It’s just one of many songs. From what I remember hearing or reading at some point, Robert Plant happened to be reading the books right around the time they were starting to kind of get Zeppelin together. He was drawing a lot of inspiration from the original Tolkien books, it’s really interesting. Not to go too much off the path here but the show itself is not just a blend of the music, we also literally tell the story of Lord of the Rings throughout the two-hour journey of the show, using narration that kind of comes and goes between songs. A lot of it is used to set up whatever song is about to follow and it’s just, really stunning how many of the lyrics from Zeppelin songs resonate so directly with these various points. And the deeper we go into it the more we’re realizing the parallel is just so in sync it’s crazy.

RRX: Now I’m really excited for the show, May 9th at The Park Theater (Glens Falls). You said that you and your younger brother, got this whole thing started. What are your roles in the group?

WK: So at at its core, Knorrwood is just a guitar and drum duo but there’s nothing ordinary about either way that we approach our instruments. My brother Joey, the drummer, he has a traditional kit but he uses some sample pads and this other really cool Japanese instrument called the wave drum. It’s basically a synthesizer drum pad that kind of operates like a sample pad that a lot of people are used to seeing but the difference is that it’s pressure sensitive, so you can play it more like a literal hand drum; you can apply all sorts of cool sounds to it. A lot of them traditional, from conga to tabla and then also really exotic unique synthesizer sounds. That’s what he usually has going on in his court and of course the way he approaches the kit is more like a world percussion rock blend in a way.
And then my role as the guitar player is also very non-traditional. My acoustic guitar is about as far away as you can get from a traditional acoustic guitar, mainly in terms of all the electronics that it’s configured with. I actually have 4 different pickups running out of it. Two of them blend the acoustic, one is an electric pickup and then I also have a synthesizer hooked up as well. I have robotic tuners installed on the guitar because almost all of our tunes are in strange open tuning formation. We’re constantly bouncing from one tuning to the next so that helps me move along from one to the next and that whole open tuning concept is definitely hugely inspired by Jimmy Page from Zeppelin. He was no stranger to experimenting with alternate tunings and that’s kind of where that comes into play. But yeah, again it’s just guitar and drums but we kind of do everything a little bit differently than you might be used to seeing.

RRX: What I’ve checked out and what I’ve listened to, I love the sound. I love everything about what you’re doing and I just think it’s the coolest concept and you rolled with it. Like I said, I missed the link between Zeppelin and Lord of the Rings but I got schooled today by not only you but one of my coworkers here. I was like… oh yeah, there’s definitely a connection there.

WK: One of the other rewarding things is… number one people just realizing that. But because of that really indirect crossover, most people like you might not think that there’s any connection between the two. We get a mix of audiences that come out to shows. A lot of times it’s a split down the middle, you get the 50/50 people that are literally there just because they saw Zeppelin and the other half are there because they saw Lord of the Rings. And then at the end of the show, they’re like… holy s***, I didn’t realize how well the two were connected. And better yet for me personally, sometimes people saying, I never knew anything about Lord of the Rings and now I can’t wait to go read the books or watch the movies because they’re feeling inspired by the show that we’re doing. It’s really cool and rewarding in a lot of ways.

RRX: What you’re doing is really cool and unique for sure.

WK: It’s interesting our conversation started with you being unsure about talking to a tribute band and the further we go into this, we’re kind of relabeling it as an ode. We’re calling it a rock and roll storytelling ode to Led Zeppelin and Lord of the Rings because it really feels like something much more to us. There’s a lot of personal blood, sweat, and tears in it, certainly nothing against folks out there making a living as a tribute band. There’s definitely a place for it and a value for it.

RRX: Yeah, absolutely, those shows make money.

WK: Oh, no doubt about it.

RRX: They’re huge. My thing is… I’m fans of many of them and even friends with a few like the guys in Toys In The Attic (for example). But I just don’t know what to ask them.

WK: Right, right, no, I get that. How would you make that interesting.

RRX: You can’t talk about where you were when you wrote the song. Nobody cares about where you grew up, that sort of thing. But Knorrwood has got a a real twist. As soon as I really saw what you guys were doing, I’m like… nah man, this is interesting, this is different. And you’re coming to town!

WK: We’re really excited about it. It’s our first time coming up to New York with the show. Last year again was the first year doing it, we ran like an additional 6 or 8 shows and it was the same kind of response. So we put in some homework over the offseason, linked up with a great booking agent and they’re sending us all over the place, particularly later in the year, but this little New York run will be a nice way to warm it up.

RRX: I’m certainly looking forward to it.

WK: I guess one other interesting thing I forgot to mention this when you’re asking about my brother and I at the core of Knorrwood… I also do play a theremin, which is a very unique instrument. You probably know about it and definitely also inspired from Jimmy Page. So that does surface quite a few times throughout the show, that’s always a fun crowd, crowd pleasing moment of sorts.

RRX: Always wanted to mess with one. They look like so much fun.

WK: Well, you’ll have your chance next weekend.

RRX: Don’t tease me with a good time!

Knorrwood “Over the Shire & Far Away” – A Tribute to the Lord of the Rings & Led Zeppelin May 9th, 2026 at The Park Theatre Glens Falls FOR TICKETS CLICK HERE!