Keifer Thompson

Professional musician

Thompson Square

There’s never been a married couple duo in the music business quite like Thompson Square.

The country music group features Keifer Thompson and his wife, Shawna. Their music has taken the country genre by storm – including a music video for their hit single “Are you Gonna Kiss me or Not” that has more than 20 million plays on YouTube. Their third album is set to drop in 2018, with a full tour in the works throughout the U.S.

But that kind of success wasn’t something that Keifer Thompson ever thought was in his future when he was a student at Missouri Southern State University. In fact, though he has always loved music, he never pursued it as a career choice until later in his studies at MSSU.

“I always wanted to do music, but I also wanted to be one of the first people in my family to go to and finish college,” he said. “Missouri Southern was close to home with parents and family, and I was familiar with the music scene in Joplin – so going to school there seemed like a good idea what with all the cool stuff going on around there.

“I loved going and seeing all the cool indie bands in town. They inspired me to get out of my shell and want to do music for myself. I also had friends in bands who were playing at venues around town, and the more they played the more I knew I had to do it. I wanted to do it. Going to school there definitely helped me take that next step to Nashville.”

Though he and his wife have found success at the highest level within the music industry, Keifer’s studies at Missouri Southern focused more specifically on psychology. It’s still a field that he finds fascinating. fascinated by. In fact, he was on the road toward becoming an industrial or clinical psychologist prior to getting a call from a record label in Nashville.

“One of my fondest memories of my time at Missouri Southern is when my best friend, Blake Webster – who was also a psych major – and I would get out of class and go to one of our cars to listen to new music and indie music,” Keifer said. “He was in a band called The Websters, and I looked up to him a lot. I was always on the sidelines watching and thinking it was fun.”

Webster was one of the first people to push him to perform his music in front of a crowd. His encouragement was such that it helped Keifer get noticed by some influential people in the music industry. And when he looks back at it, he realizes how important it was for him to get out of his shell and get involved with things at college.

“That’s one of the things I didn’t do as much as I should have, and I wish I would have gotten more involved with campus activities and the social aspect of that,” he said. “So to anyone attending school there, get as involved as possible. Whether it’s sports or music or anything, just get involved. Hindsight is always 20/20, and you don’t want to look back on your life and see a person who shied away from things that you could really benefit from.

“And I still love that area – it feels good and feels like home and I absolutely love it. I’m honored to be a part of MSSU and I’m very proud of my time there.”