UCN Interview at CRS 2013 – The Coleman Brothers: “Songwriting is about bringing emotions to life in a song.”

11 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on UCN Interview at CRS 2013 – The Coleman Brothers: “Songwriting is about bringing emotions to life in a song.”

Texas duo The Coleman Brothers recently released their new single, ‘Lonely in the Lone Star State,’ to country radio so CRS 2013 was the perfect time to catch up with them. We chatted about their #1 success in Europe, songwriting, and keeping up with country music charts.

 

UCN: Welcome to CRS. You guys have just released ‘Lonely in the Lone Star State’?
Denny Coleman: Yes, three weeks ago.

UCN: Tell me about the writing and where the idea came from.
DC: It’s a true story. You know beautiful girl, insecure guy. She came down from Arkansas to Texas and she just couldn’t handle the insecurities, so she went back. But it made for a good song. [smiles] We just sat together one day and wrote it.

UCN: How easy is it for you to write a personal song? Does it feel natural?
Greg Coleman: It’s really, it’s a release.

UCN: Do you think about ‘I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings.’ Is there anything you protect?
DC: Well, just names.

UCN: Of course.
DC: Well I guess, being a songwriter, I guess you’re trying to bring something out from inside and bring it to life in the song. That’s what most of my songs are, our whole album is like that really.
GC: You got this thing inside of you where it won’t go away until you put it on paper. And then you’re fine after that.

UCN: Is it then done and over with? There’s one thing Jack Ingram says that I really like exploring with songwriters. He says that sometimes he finds himself writing the same song over and over, not literally but the same idea, and he says it feels like sometimes if only he could write it well enough, then the idea is gone and then he can move on.
GC: Yes, I think that’s true. When you write it, you can then move on to whatever happens next in your life.
DC: And we not only draw on our experience with the songs we write, but we talk to people every day. They share the experience of their lives with us, and sometimes we try to bring that out for them to. And then they’ll hear a song and they can go ‘yes, that was my story.’

UCN: I’ve talked about that with somebody just now where she got sent an outside song, and it was one of those songs where she said ‘not only can I imagine myself singing this, I could’ve written it.’ It was her story. And I think for music fans it’s the same sometimes where you can go ‘this is a part of my life, I have lived this.’
DC: Yes, it really is.

UCN: What has the reaction been to the new single?
GC: We’ve had a great reaction! We’ve really been playing the song live for almost 4 years now, so the fans know it. But it’s never been released to radio.
DC: And as far as radio, it came in at #72 on the Music Row chart. It didn’t have to go through the steps that it normally would do before it gets to the charts. It came in at #72 then jumped #58 and now is at #44, in three weeks. And you know that’s new territory for us so we’re just really excited about this.

UCN: I also want to mention the previous single because I really like the sound of that one, ‘Ghost Town.’ That was an outside song?
DC: Yes, it was.

UCN: How did you find that one?
DC: Well David Erik, who wrote the song, visited our Reverbnation page and sent me a message. He wanted me to go over to his site and listen to his songs. He told me had this one song called ‘Ghost Town’ that he would like for me to hear. So I told him ‘send me the demo.’ He did, and I asked him who sang this demo, and he goes ‘Chris Young.’ So I said ‘why are you sending this to me?!’ [laughs] He says ‘I like the way you write your own music and the feelings you put in your music, and I want you to take the song and I want you to make your own.’ So, we demoed it for him, to show what we wanted to get out of the song. Really when you listen to the kickoff of the song, someone sent us a message saying that it sounds like ‘The Immortal’ by Evanescence. That’s not what we were going for obviously. When you’re writing, and you’re writing in certain minors, the minor chords can bring out certain emotions in the songs. So that’s what you’re trying to capture, the dark, desolate, emotional. Because in the song, you don’t know whether the lady left him or whether she died. All that you know is that it’s just dark and desolate, like a ghost town. That’s what we tried to get out of the song. I think it worked.

UCN: The sound you’ve created, how did that come about? Is it the sound you grew up with, the music you personally like?
GC: You know, people have asked that before and I really don’t know the answer. It just comes natural. We don’t write songs for a specific genre. They just come out that way and it’s not done on purpose really.
DC: Well it’s like with me, I can be lying in bed, and the music is still going in my head, it just keeps coming. It won’t go away until I do something with it. But as far as genres, we grew up listening to all kinds of music, so everything has some sort of effect with what we do, with what we write, whether it’s something from way back in the early days, or something we might’ve heard just two weeks ago. Even just sitting here talking to you, the experience at CRS…
GC: Yes, sitting here talking to you under the stairs, there’s a story right there.

UCN: Another thing I definitely wanted to talk about is that you guys are doing really well in Europe.
DC: Yes, ma’am.

UCN: How did that first start? Was it an organic thing where somebody over there found your music and pushed it around?
DC: Yes, I think that’s what it was. You know, you can put your stuff on Airplay Access and a lot of European stations pick it up from there. Also, before we were releasing singles we have some songs on Jango.com, so I guess our name is out there a little bit. Then we jumped to #1 on the Hot Discs chart over there and we held that for five weeks. And we didn’t even know about it until it was in the fifth week!

UCN: Yes, it’s really hard to keep up with, there’s about 100,000 charts.
GC: I sometimes look us up on Google in the morning, and sometimes there are 30 hits of stuff. Just about every morning there will be something new that wasn’t there before.
DC: Also, we consider ourselves more country than anything else so we always only look at country charts. But all of a sudden we saw our name in the pop country chart. So we were like ‘are we pop country now?’ [laughs]

UCN: Plus, I don’t think artists really do genres, I think it’s the media that decides where you fit.
GC: Yes, it is. We just play Coleman Brothers music. But it’s really cool to see our name in the charts, especially when it’s right beside Brad Paisley. [smiles]

UCN: Have you guys played in Europe yet?
GC: Not yet, but we are trying to go overseas. We’re going to be playing in Australia, they’re working a deal over there.

UCN: That’s not just overseas, that’s over many seas, that’s like seriously overseas! [smiles] GC: Yes! And Spain and Germany in Europe to. I’m learning German right now. [smiles]

UCN: In the last two years the German market has blown up, it’s all happening in Germany for whatever reason. So, it’s a good time to go.
DC: I was hosting an exchange student from there, and she was staying with us for nine months. I was talking with her and she was telling me how things were going in Germany right now with country music and it’s been going well.

UCN: There’s always been a market there, but the last few years it’s really boomed. So that’s exciting that you’re going to get to go over there.
DC: Yes, it will be great to play other countries, starting with Canada and Australia
GC: Yes, but only if they have Copenhagen… [smiles]

UCN: You might need to bring your own supply for that. [smiles] There are tobacco stores in Europe but I don’t know if they would have what you want.
DC: Well, we know they have pizza so that’s one thing. [smiles]

UCN: And beer. [smiles] GC: Yes, beer, pizza, all I need. [smiles]

UCN: Yes, see? Let’s get you guys a ticket, you’re ready to go. [smiles] DC: Yes! [laughs]

UCN: This is really interesting, thank you for your time.
DC: Yes, this was fun. Thank you!
GC: Thank you!

 

To keep up with the latest Coleman Brothers news, please visit thecolemanbrothers.com

 

Liv Carter

Liv Carter

Liv is a career coach for creatives, and the people who work with them.
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
Liv Carter

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