Awsten Knight (Born January 17, 1992), is an American singer-songwriter, author and fashion designer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman of the American rock band Waterparks.
About
Known for his kaleidoscopic hair and a personality that shines as bright as a neon sign, Awsten is all about pushing creative boundaries. Whether he was belting out heart wrenching lyrics that leave you crying in the mosh-pit or cracking jokes in interviews, Awsten had a unique ability to connect with fans on a level that feels like catching up with an old friend. Awsten was the embodiment of authenticity, embracing his quirks and vulnerabilities, sharing his most intimate thoughts and writing his experiences into songs.
Fans eagerly await every new era as they embark on a rollercoaster of self-discovery, love, and heartbreak with Awsten. His music isn’t just a soundtrack, it's a colorful journey through life's highs and lows, leaving you eagerly anticipating each exciting new chapter.
Hair Color and Album Cycles
Awsten has a knack for making fans lose their minds, whether it's through leaking songs and demos or his ever-evolving hair color antics. Awsten has spoken on numerous occasions regarding how his hair color, personal style, and surroundings can have a creative effect on his art, so he has chosen to change his hair with each album era. Let's take a colorful trip through his album journey:
When Awsten first founded Waterparks in 2011, his hair was mostly its natural brown, with some blonde highlights. This hairstyle lasted through to June 2014, when Awsten took his first plunge into a full head of hair dye by going bright pink. The pink faded to blonde through the end of 2014, and then in early December, he dyed his hair blue for the first time. Blue graced both Cluster (2016) and Double Dare (2016) eras, with Awsten switching between the blue and letting it fade to blonde and going back to blue throughout 2015, 2016, and most of 2017.
Beginning with Waterpark’s second full-length album Entertainment (2018), Awsten began a trend where he would dye his hair a new color with every album release. Starting in November 2017, Awsten mainly had bright purple hair that he occasionally let fade to a silvery blonde. During this era, he collaborated with hair dye brand Manic Panic to create a signature purple color “Knight Bright Purple.” In March 2019, Awsten dyed his hair red with the intention of changing to a new album era, the now-scrapped Friendly Reminder. This was short lived however as Awsten deleted the album in a whirlwind announcement and changed his hair back to purple by the end of the month. . On April 3rd, Awsten changed it to a combo of light blue and pink, dubbed by his fans as his “cotton candy hair,” citing a need for a “different headspace.” Come mid April, he changed it again to an all-over light pink while finalizing the songs & themes for their next album.
Beginning in late April-early May 2019, Awsten dyed his hair a shocking bright green to match the electric vibe of their third studio album Fandom (2019).. This hair was kept consistently green for the Fandom era, although he did let his hair grow out throughout the Covid-19 mandated lockdown for most of 2020. On September 18th, 2020, he then cut it off during an Instagram live while leaking the song “Lowkey as Hell” to fans. After a short period of having natural brown, Awsten dyed his hair primary colors, Red, Blue and Yellow for the album Greatest Hits (2021). All throughout 2021 and through early 2022 Awsten dyed his hair different patterns in the same color palette. The first, debuted in the Lowkey As Hell music video and kept through January 2021 was a heart pattern. For the album cover for Greatest Hits he transformed it into a patchwork zig-zag, and by the end of February it was leopard print. For his photoshoot with VMAN Magazine in May 2021, he had it split-dyed with “NUMB” dyed into the back. This lasted through August 2021, when he dyed it mainly pink with multi-colored exclamation points along the back. And then finally in October 2021, this changed to smiley face patterns. This would be his final multi-colored pattern for Greatest Hits.
On May 6, 2022, Awsten posted a photo of himself to his Twitter with the caption ‘ONE MORE FUCKING TIME’ unveiling the newest era, Red, for the album Intellectual Property (2023), leaving the fanbase in shambles. Awsten’s last color, vibrant red had a distinct difference from the previous red during the "Friendly Reminder" era which held a more pink hue. The magic of Awsten's hair lies in the details – this new red gracefully transitioned to a sunset-like shade of orange as it faded, which kept us all on our toes.
Some more info:
- Currently lives in Los Angeles
- He played bass in most studio recordings of every Waterparks song released after Cluster.
- Awsten can sing and play bass guitar, guitar (acoustic & electric), drums, and piano.
- He wrote most of the songs for the band on his own (there are some exclusions, such as Crave, which was written by Geoff).
- He has Heterochromia; his left eye is blue/grey and the right is green. Awsten and fans often refer to this as Heterophobia.
- Awsten has synesthesia, meaning he could categorize music and sounds as certain color. This is the reason for the album colour, lights at shows, era aesthetics, and Awsten's many hairs colors
- Awsten released a book on November 12, 2019, titled "You'd Be Paranoid Too (If Everyone Was Out To Get You)."
- He and his friend Travis Riddle hosted the podcast "Awsten + Travis' Slumber Party", where they read fanfiction related to Waterparks and its members. The show has gone through many guests and three seasons so far. There is also a Patreon for the podcast which has bonus episodes and video recordings of the episodes.
- Used to date Grace Rountree, who is now dating Otto Wood. He also dated actress Ciara Hanna for a while until their breakup in late 2017. Many Waterparks songs are assumedly about her, including Worst (a demo of which was leaked by Awsten on Twitter shortly after the breakup.
- Awsten occasionally interacts with fans on social media platforms, most notably Twitter. He tends to talk in all caps on social media and only breaks the pattern for serious posts.
- He has a couple of alter egos, Lil Kidz Bop and Felony Steve, whose names he's released music under.
- Awsten is also known as Kyle Fletchers from a forced interview he did at Warped Tour.
- He once worked at a haunted house called “Phobia” in high school.
- He is 1'1 according to his book
- He does not like photos of "scene Awsten" to be made fun of, contrary to very hurtful misinformation spread, he did NOT suffer from an eating disorder then. In his book explaining how it was in his freshman year, 13/14. In all pics online he is about 16+