The role of head yell leader at Texas A&M University is not one that has ever been taken lightly. Yet, while this year’s head yell leader, Keller Cox, has both feet firmly planted in his role, his mind is dreaming of bigger things: music.
Ever since he first picked up the guitar in eighth grade, Cox says that he always had a “thing” for music; he was always singing and playing. Although Cox says his comfort zone was leading worship in high school, his dad was persistent in requesting campfire-style concerts, and he began keeping songs on hand to play. Over the years, he says he began to enjoy playing for an audience. However, it was not until college that Cox found his true love: Texas Country Music.
Cox says, although he grew up listening to country music, the subset of “Texas Country” was one that appealed to him on an emotional level.
“Texas Country tells more of a story,” Cox explains. “It’s about heartbreak, and it’s very different from normal, Nashville-style country, different from nationwide country music.”
Discovering this passion led into songwriting of his own. Centering his melodies around personal feelings of what life is, was, and ought to be, Cox says his music is meant to drive his audience to feel the emotion behind the lyrics and allow them to know him on a deeper level.
“It’s never just a generic song,” says Cox. “I put myself out there. There’s an emotion, and I start singing.”
Although he only began writing music in the summer of 2019, Cox says that the overwhelmingly positive response has encouraged him to consider writing and performing for a living.
“With quarantine, there was more time dropped in my lap to dream,” says Cox. “I reached out to the guy who first recorded Parker McCollum to record an EP, and he said yes. That whole experience [in the studio] was a complete learning curve — a complete maturing of my musical ability and the way I listen to music.”
Although the fall has since busied his schedule with additional yell leader responsibilities and classes, Cox says he still finds ways to make time for his music and songwriting.
“I’ll record a melody on my phone and then go back to a guitar and see what it could really look like — because your mind isn’t really confined by six strings,” Cox explains. “I’ve written on the way to class, stopping in uniform to record something on my phone or make a note real quick.”
The yell leader confesses that his duties somewhat restrict him from performing and playing shows, but he is nevertheless determined to promote his craft and execute a plan in the long term.
“I’m going to release my songs spaced out … Oct. 1 [was] my first single, then probably Nov. 1, January, and the rest of the EP at the end of spring,” Cox announced. “I’ll be going back in the studio at least two more times next year, one time in the spring and then one in the fall — for a full album or an EP, whatever needs to be done.”
Fortunately, Cox says he is taking an extra year to complete his schooling, graduating with a construction science degree in May of 2022.
“My goal is to stay present as a yell leader,” Cox says, “but at the same time, it’s exciting to know that there’s something else beyond my time at A&M.”
