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When Colony House Was Younger

When Colony House Was Younger

  • Caleb Chapman Reflects on Band’s Past and Looks to the Future
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“I don’t want to be stuck in my ways — I want to die having my mind changed,” Colony House’s Caleb Champan said. He’s in a reflective mood these days, especially after rerecording the band’s debut album, When I Was Younger, which turns 10 on July 22.

To celebrate the album’s anniversary, the guys wanted to do something big to acknowledge the project that kicked off their careers.

“We talked about this for a long time because it’s a 10-year anniversary, not 20, not 25, not 50,” Chapman said. “We don’t want to make ourselves feel older than we are by celebrating the times gone by. We feel like Colony House has a lot left to say. I feel like we have a lot of new things we want to say, and I don’t want to spend too much time on the old things we have said.”

But there is something special about When I Was Younger, so Caleb and bandmates Will Chapman, Scott Mills and Parke Cottrell knew they had to go all in. Fans who have stuck with them over the last decade still talk about the impact of the debut project, and the band wanted to honor and respect their dedication.

To that end, the deluxe version will feature nine new tracks, including orchestral versions of songs and a few reimagined ones, as well as two never-released B-sides. As the band stepped back into that time in their life, Caleb felt like he was right back in his 21-year-old life, which came with a lot of unexpected emotions.

“Something that I’ve uncovered while recording some of these new versions and finishing up some B-sides that never got finished is that there’s something beautiful about this album that we haven’t done since then — and I hope I never have to do it again,” he said. “That’s hard for people to understand because we don’t talk about it much, but this album was born out of a heavy time in me and my brother’s life.”

Caleb and Will began working on the album six years before it was released, after their little sister, Maria, died.

“That was 16 years ago now, but we started writing these songs from that,” Chapman explained. “This album is a collection of years and years. “You only get that debut album once. It’s not just a quick turnaround, trying to keep momentum going. You’re given two years or whatever to observe what’s happening around you and then put that into your best 12 songs. But for our first album, it was 20 years of what our life was.”

This context makes revisiting these songs an especially moving experience for the band. They knew it would be a bit of an emotional process, but they weren’t fully prepared for what would come to the surface.

Caleb Chapman

“It’s been a bit odd emotionally,” Chapman said, “but it also has been a really wonderful process going back and falling in love with something I’m just really proud of still to this day.”

He still has a lot of love for the tracks, even if it hits his emotions hard. For example, one track that hit differently during the re-recording process is “Lose Control.”

“It’s one of those that I can’t really listen to around people because it wrecks me still,” Chapman said. “It’s a really honest song about what 21-year-old Caleb was feeling. It’s a tough listen, but for all the best reasons.”

As hard as it may be to hear his own emotions, though, Chapman knows that the band’s vulnerability and honesty is why, four albums later, they’re still here today.

“Colony House has never had this ‘aha moment’ where it just happened, where we went from your favorite underground indie rock band to ‘the Thing,’” Chapman said. “We’ve only been able to count on the fans that have stuck around, and it feels less like a fan culture and more like friends talking about songs.”

Colony House’s DIY ethos has fueled the guys’ journey over the last decade.

“It’s always felt ragtag, like we’re the Sandlot band, not the baseball team,” Chapman joked. “The other team has matching jerseys, but we can still hang and play ball.”

That mentality has come in handy over the years, helping them create unique fan experiences, such as their drive-in concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Colony House has relied on a lot of creativity to stay relevant in a rapidly changing music industry. When the band dropped their debut album, things were simpler.

“When we put out our first album 10 years ago, Spotify wasn’t a thing,” he said. “If you wanted to hear ‘Silhouettes,’ our first song, before it came out, you got a 30-second preview on iTunes. Then, if you wanted to listen to the song, you had to buy it for 99 cents. That’s definitely not how music consumption works now.”

Now, bands have to rely on social media to promote their work, hoping an algorithm will be on their side that day.

“Instagram and Twitter were still so new when we were starting out,” he said. “The people you followed, you actually saw their posts. And if they followed you, they actually saw your posts. I remember when Facebook changed that, I thought, ‘Wait a second — I spent all this time trying to get people to even pay attention, but now I have to pay if I want them all to listen to me?’”

It’s a frustration many artists have voiced. And while the social media-focused way we consume has the potential to help an undiscovered artist find fame, more often it can be a headache for artists who just want to make good music that connects with their fans.

“It has definitely made for a distracted listener and a distracted viewer,” Chapman said of social media. “There’s a reason why you scroll through Netflix and end up not watching or committing to anything, because you’re just like eating goldfish crackers the whole time you’re waiting for dinner, and then by the time dinner comes, you realize, ‘Ah, I’m good. I had like a thousand little snacks.’

“Maybe that’s the frustrating part,” he continued. “I always find myself in this juxtaposition of hating it, but also being grateful that I have an opportunity to send my stuff out into the world and people can hear it. It felt more simple 10 years ago.”

But the hustle and grind hasn’t been all bad. It’s allowed Colony House to fight for who they want to be as artists. Along the way, they’ve even found their own definition of success, realizing it doesn’t always look like you think it should.

For Chapman, success is more about the creative process than commercial milestones.

(L-R) Scott Mills, Caleb Chapman, Parke Cottrell and Will Chapman

“The real thing I’ve learned isn’t to set your sights for the venue you want to play or the records you want to sell,” he said. “Making goals is good and important, but ultimately protect the creative flame inside of you. If you can keep that creative fire burning, then that’s the number one objective.”

Colony House is already stoking the fire for its next project. And Chapman is cautiously optimistic.

“We have a pretty strong idea for what we want to do next with Colony House,” he shared. “We’re collecting songs and trying to figure out what that means, whether it’s a new album or something else. Good things are coming.”

And while he’s not ready to reveal too much, he can’t help but share there are more than a few projects in the pipeline.

“We’ve got some fun and cool surprises coming in the fall. We’re releasing something from Cannonballers that’s a cool little trinket. We’ve got some little surprises while we figure out what we’re doing with these new songs.”

And, as always, he’s still looking for new ways to change things up to keep new and long-time fans excited.

“I want to be an old dude who’s still learning,” he said. “At least for me, those are the hardest people to be around — people who just say, ‘This is the way it is.’ On one hand, I respect conviction to a certain point. You’ve got your thing, I respect that.

“But I don’t want to be the person that just complains about things changing,” he continued. “I do complain about them, but I also want to try to see the good in it too. I don’t want to justify something that maybe isn’t good. And that’s just the delicate dance we have to do.”

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