How Atlanta’s Penelope Road, with retro and Gen-Z flair, sped into stardom
The sound of Atlanta rock band Penelope Road forces you to look back. Listen to the track “Tired of Love,” and you’ll hear a mix of Otis Redding and Christopher Cross. Then, there’s the gospel-tinged soul of “Mercy” or the slow-groove R&B of “So It Goes” that’s reminiscent of Robin Thicke in his prime.
Indeed, Penelope Road’s style isn’t just one thing, nor is it trying to be. Neither is it the type of music one would expect to hear from a group of musicians in their early 20s. Instead, it’s a secret third thing: a contagious sound and style that‘s just as centered in the past as it is in the present. It’s both classic and cool.
After a transformative 2025, which included signing with Warner Records and an extensive summer tour, the five-piece band plans to release their debut album along with touring recent music in 2026. Before any of that, though, they’ll perform three headlining shows at venues across Atlanta this month — a fitting finale for the fast-paced year that made them stars.
“It’s hard to stay grounded,” drummer Anthony Smith told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution during an interview with the band in mid-November. “But we’re all going through it together, and we’re all kind of experiencing it at the same time, so that’s been helpful. We’ve gotten so tight musically, and we’ve all gotten to know each other better from doing this.”
Turning on Penelope Road
Penelope Road includes Smith, Max Moore (guitar, vocals), James Kopp (bass), Koan Roy-Meighoo (guitar) and Charles Eastman (keyboard, vocals). Some met through a rock band program at Decatur High School, while some met through high school chorus at the Paideia School.
Smith, who attended Etowah High School, was the last to join the group, knowing the other members from performing around Atlanta’s music scene. Each bandmate had previously been in separate groups, but they joined forces in 2023.
The band’s name derives from the street where Moore and Kopp lived in the West End. The home served as the band’s rehearsal and recording space for a year.
“All of us kind of had the goal of being in a band at some point,” Kopp said.
One of Penelope Road’s early gigs included a residency at Blue Martini Lounge in Buckhead. There, the act would perform covers of anything from yacht rock to classic rock, Stevie Wonder and Prince — influences for each member of the band.
In 2024, the group released a self-titled debut project. The stellar four-track EP was recorded the “indie band way,” according to Roy-Meighoo. Translation: all the music was self-recorded twice — surrendering to the unencumbered energy of soul-stirring jam sessions.
Around the same time, Penelope Road kicked into a new (virtual) groove: building a social media presence. Moore and Eastman uploaded a video that teased the arrival of “Chance Encounter” (a song that officially dropped this fall with a project of the same name). The video garnered over 60,000 likes on Instagram and reached nearly 200,000 views.
The band followed the momentum by posting popular covers of hit songs. A cover of Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” has over 3 million views. Another, of Hall and Oates’ “Rich Girl,” has 11 million views. That’s when they implemented a routine for social media content that, for them, is just as important as rehearsing.
Once a week (when they’re not touring), Penelope Road films content at Eastman’s Brookhaven home. With their Instagram following reaching nearly 500,000, the act continues to share covers, while also teasing new music, sharing live footage and personality content on their account — aka the Gen-Z way of promoting art.
Penelope Road hit another shift with “Out Tonight.” Last summer, they uploaded themselves performing a stripped-down snippet of the track, which attracted roughly 2 million viewers.
“That definitely was the sign for us that what we were doing was working, and it was nice that we could drive people to want to listen to our original music, even though it was like, at that point, eight months from being out,” Eastman said.
“Out Tonight” (recorded at Diamond Street Studios in Little Five Points) was officially released in May, coinciding with the band signing to Warner Records.
Since then, Penelope Road has dropped two EPs and embarked on a summer tour that included over 90 shows across the country. Next year, they’ll tour behind “Chance Encounter,” performing over 20 shows starting in February.
The group acknowledged that adjusting to life on the road can be arduous, but it helps build chemistry.
“We’re still getting used to what it means to be on a professional band schedule, because we’re on the road for super long stretches,” Roy-Meighoo said. “Being on the road and playing shows is practice in some way, and then in another way, it’s not because you’re always needing to perform.”
‘Creating it from scratch’
Later this month, Penelope Road will perform three Atlanta shows in different locations: Dec. 18 at Eddie’s Attic (which is now sold out), Dec. 19 at Terminal West and Dec. 20 at Variety Playhouse.
Selecting venues with vastly different seating capacities was intentional. The band wanted to create a special experience for the hometown audience and attract different crowds.
While preparing for the shows, Penelope Road is starting to write for their upcoming debut album, which is slated to be released next year.
But they are writing as many songs as they can to see what fits: “People are watching us as it happens,” noted Moore of the band‘s growth online and IRL.
“It’ll also be the first time we sit down with intention,” Eastman added. “Every song will be all five of us having input and creating it from scratch together.”
The uncertainty of creating their debut doesn’t overwhelm the band. Instead, they’re keen on focusing on the camaraderie that helped boost their profile just last year.
“We can show up to a city and we don’t know a single person in the room, but there’s 300-plus of them, and they’re singing the words to a song,” Roy-Meighoo said. “It’s crazy.”
IF YOU GO
Penelope Road in Atlanta
9 p.m. Dec. 18. Sold out. Eddie’s Attic. 515 N. McDonough St., Decatur. 404-377-4976, eddiesattic.com.
8 p.m. Dec. 19. $34.52. Terminal West. 887 West Marietta St. NW, Suite C, Atlanta. 404-876-5566, terminalwestatl.com.
8 p.m. Dec. 20. $38.10. Variety Playhouse. 1099 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta. 404-524-7354, variety-playhouse.com.
About the Author
DeAsia is a music and culture reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She focuses on the intersection of arts, culture and diverse communities, as well as how emerging social trends are being expressed through the lens of the Atlanta aesthetic. DeAsia's work can be seen in Pitchfork, Essence, Teen Vogue, Elle and more.
