Windsor Rockers Step Into a Defining New Era with Epiphanies
Story by Jen Brignall-Strong
Photography by Henry Nadasdi
Autumn Kings are in the summer of their career. More than a decade after the alt-rock band first took shape between shifts at a local grocery store, Jake Diab and Joe Coccimiglio are doing exactly what they set out to do from the beginning: taking the band as far as they possibly can.
For the Windsor natives, “far” has meant leaving the 519, while carrying their hometown’s signature grit and determination close to heart.
“You always feel like the underdog when you’re from Windsor,” Jake says. “You’ve got the chip on your shoulder. You have to be 10 times scrappier.”
The band was never just a pastime to the pair; it was about building something from the ground up and proving that life’s hardest moments can be overcome through determination, discipline and daring.
“We made a conscious decision before we started the band,” shares Jake. “We’re not going to waste our time if we’re just going to be a band that stays here. We’re trying to do something magnificent with this thing.”
Now, after signing with Hopeless Records in 2024 and spending the past several years touring extensively and sharing stages with some of the idols they used to hear on local radio stations like 89X, the aspirational band has hit their stride, releasing an all-new album that represents the culmination of everything they’ve learned.
The album, Epiphanies, is Autumn Kings at their finest; a polished sound built on a solid foundation of their border city roots combined with the influences of rock icons like Rise Against, Metallica, Shinedown and Avenged Sevenfold.
Writing for the album began in 2022, as the band emerged from what Jake describes as one of the most difficult periods in Autumn Kings’ history.
Before the pandemic, the band had spent five years steadily building momentum through grassroots social media campaigns, touring and performing. Then everything stopped.
“COVID was the hardest part of being a band because that’s when all of our momentum felt like it got taken away from us,” Jake says. “We felt like we were this close to getting the record deal, and then nothing.”
“That was the first time where there were true things out of your control,” adds Joe. “Up until that point, with enough hard work and effort, there wasn’t anything we couldn’t get done.”
The experience left what they describe as “battle scars,” but it also gave them new material to draw from.
“Because of that, we felt we could start writing lyrics from a really honest and human place,” Jake says.
Joe describes the approach even more simply.
“It was like, ‘Let’s just pour our hearts out into an album.’”
The title Epiphanies reflects those moments of realization throughout the record. Jake says many of the songs contain a line or idea intended to stop the listener; a revelation about resilience, time, adversity or getting out of one’s own way.
Musically, the record also represents a convergence of the various eras of Autumn Kings’ sound.
Their earliest work leaned toward in-your-face guitar-driven rock, while later releases introduced more electronic and pop elements. On Epiphanies, the band has successfully merged those two identities together.
“This album is more like evolution versus departure,” Diab says. “We’ve got the best of those digital elements and the best of what we do best, which is a rock band. We are a rock band at the end of the day.”
“Epiphanies is the first time we’ve really landed on a defined sound,” he adds. “We’ve had an epiphany of what kind of band we are.”
That clarity extends beyond the technical aspects of the compilations. It’s in the messaging as well, something that has been engrained in the band’s ethos since the beginning, but has become even more intentional as of late.
Autumn Kings have long championed the idea that heavy music doesn’t have to be depressing. Since their inception, their lyrics have focused on themes of perseverance, self-belief and pushing through difficult periods. While the band does not avoid darker subjects, Jake and Joe are deliberate about creating music that leaves listeners with a sense of hope.
“We want to find the hope and the positivity in our music,” Joe says. “We’re not a dreary band.”
For Jake, artists like AC/DC, Oasis, Shinedown and Nickelback demonstrate that heavy guitars and serious musicianship do not require constant misery.
“There are certain artists where everything is about how dark and depressing everything is. It’s very easy to be relatable by basking in the trauma.”
Autumn Kings would rather acknowledge the struggle and then look for a way through it.
“We want to have optimistic, resilience oriented messages,” adds Joe.
Asked what they ultimately hope listeners feel when they hear Epiphanies, Joe’s answer comes quickly.
“Like Superman.”
That concept of focusing on “realistic positivity” has become particularly tangible when they meet fans after shows.
During a recent stop in Denver, a woman approached the band and told them that their song Power had helped her through a period of PTSD and suicidal thoughts.
“You hear about how you can impact somebody’s life like that and you think, ‘Wow,’” Jake says. “That makes all of the tiredness and the grind so worth it.”
Those moments help put the less glamorous side of the business into perspective.
This past spring, the band embarked on a 42 day tour, with shows on 35 of them. Some days also included early morning interviews or acoustic performances, followed by everything else that comes along with a live show.
“When things suck, which they often can, we just laugh,” Jake says. “You take a perverse pleasure in getting up at four in the morning and doing a morning show and then loading in, sound checking, playing, loading out and then driving three hours.”
Through all of it, the goal is to remain thankful.
“Nobody forced us to be here,” Joe says. “We enjoy doing it, and we try to always show gratitude for it.”
While work is increasingly taking Autumn Kings farther from home, Windsor remains a large part of their identity, and Jake hopes the band’s success can help demonstrate what is possible for artists coming out of the region.
“I’ve always wanted to help put Windsor on the map,” he says. “We have so much talent here. It’s an undiscovered gem.”
For the next generation of Windsor musicians, their advice is straightforward: get good at your craft, play to empty rooms, ask questions and expect the process to take much longer than you think.
“Be willing to endure a lot of crap for a very, very long time,” laughs Jake. “People don’t talk about long periods of time being unknown to the world, and still saying, ‘No, there’s enough reason to keep doing this.’”
Epiphanies is available now on all streaming services including Apple Music, Spotify, and more.
Published in the Anniversary 2026 Edition.
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