After spending hours and hours sifting through hundreds of incredible submissions from bands and musicians from across New England, we are beyond stoked to congratulate and welcome Copilot to the stage next weekend!
Our goal for this contest was to spot an unsigned act to take the final slot on our 10th annual Levitate lineup and give them the opportunity to take their careers to the next level. New England natives Maggie Quealy, Ry McDonald, Jake Machell, Austin Beveridge, Dylan Allwine, and Jack Snow form pop-rock band Copilot, and they'll be getting you moving and grooving on the Soul Stage on Sunday, July 9th at 1:00pm to kick off an epic day of music. We're beyond excited to have Copilot get the party started for a day filled with iconic acts – Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Ziggy Marley, Shakey Graves, and Brandi Carlisle, just to name a few.
TELL US ABOUT COPILOT!
Copilot is made up of Maggie Quealy, Ry McDonald, Jake Machell, Austin Beveridge, Dylan Allwine, and Jack Snow. We grew up in different areas of New England (Wrentham, MA / Wolfeboro, NH / St. Johnsbury VT) and met each other through a strange combination of High School and College mutual friends and musical ventures. We've been lucky to call Boston home for the last few years.
HOW, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY - WHY, DID YOU START PLAYING MUSIC TOGETHER?
We honestly started playing together because we were such huge fans of each other. We started out in other bands, but we played a lot of the same shows/circuits. Eventually the different groups all cross pollinated/merged to form Copilot.
WHAT DOES THIS OPPORTUNITY TO GET ON STAGE MEAN TO YOU GUYS?
This is a huuuuuge step for us!! We are so excited and grateful for the opportunity, it feels like we have been knocking on the door of a show like this for a long time! To have it happen it as we are about to release our debut album (out July 7th) feels timely/amazing, and makes us look like we're way better planners than we actually are. So thank you for that.
With the new album we really want to push out some fun rock n roll pop vibes. We took inspiration from bands like Fleetwood Mac, Kings of Leon, Bahamas Alabama Shakes, but also Adele and various pop acts. We love playing live and bringing the crowd into a the story of song. Having the audience feel as close to the music as possible so every one can experience a moment together is our favorite part of performing. We hope to inspire some fun sing alongs and a crowd that is shaking n breaking it down as a unit.
We love this absolute WAGON of a festival, it has had some of our favorite acts over the years like, Lake Street Dive, Vulfpeck, Jack Johnson, and our friends groups like Coral Moons, The Q-Tip Bandits etc. To be able to hit the stage the same day as Brandi Carlisle is bananas. We are so excited to share the music from our debut album, that again is out July 7th, and take this big career step with the amazing fans, friends and people at Levitate this year! It's going to be something we remember forever! Thank you all!
