The CO
You may have heard one of their songs on TV or seen them collaborate with Tyler Ward, but however you found out about The CO, you should be glad you did. Not only are they a great band, but the music they make is also a reflection of them. From being involved in their communities to getting involved internationally, the band tries to do what they can to make a difference with whatever resources they have. As of right now, you can find some music on iTunes, but also grab a free 17 song sampler off their website, thecomusic.com. With plans to release their new album next spring, there is plenty to keep them busy along the way. They are constantly making music, recording new videos, and playing shows when possible. Take a second to read a bit more about the band and use the links below to check out more of their music.
Arin: How did you all meet each other and create the band?
Colin: We kind of… We all met in college — at least Troy and I met my freshman year here in Nashville — and then we played for a little while together with a couple guys just trying to figure it out and figure out what we were good at and what we wanted to play and went through a couple different genres of music; and then I guess it was junior year when we met Nate, our drummer, and he started playing with the guys that we were with and at that time we were playing more rock — like brit rock type stuff — and he came in and played with us on that stuff and we did that for about a year. We did a little EP and it was a totally different band name; and then Troy, Nate, and I just had this change of heart for music and just really wanted to do pop music and pop music that had some meaning to it — something that would hopefully withstand the test of time and stick around for longer than a top 40 song. We started that adventure in 2008, so we’ve been doing that for about four years now; and I think this year we’ve graduated from a whole other level with this new album that isn’t out quite yet.
A: You are giving away a free 17 song sampler of your music through your website, what made you decide to do something like that?
Troy: We pretty much believe in the power of the people; and we know that we can only do so much with spreading the word about who we are and what we do, and we just have a strong belief that you have to give some things up to get something in return. So our thing was, we realized that we haven’t really reached out to a bigger branch of people than we had before and this is just kind of an introduction to what we are and that’s what the starter kit was called, ‘An Introduction to The CO.” And it’s just kind of setting the tone for what we’re going to start releasing this year into next year and it’s our way of just saying thank you to the people who have supported us for so long and also hello to the people who are just finding us out.
A: I know you are really involved in giving back so what are some of the causes you work with and do you have anything going on right now?
T: It’s just always been one of our mantras and it’s really been what the time calls for. Colin is from Mexico, Missouri; and two years ago when they had Joplin — that whole catastrophic event…
C: Basically, we had written this song called “Be Ok” and we kind of went into the studio really not knowing what we were going to do with it, but it was just this song — kind of [an] uplifting anthem — and basically what had happened was Joplin got hit by tornadoes and we just had this song and I was really interested in finding out a way to sell that song and give all the proceeds to someone in Joplin or some institution that was going to help with relief efforts. And my parents still live in Missouri and my dad works for a company that has some connections in Joplin, [so] I just called my dad and said, “Hey, what have you heard about Joplin? You guys are closer to the stuff,” and so he set it up and his company actually operated, at the time, the Joplin facebook page. It was actually the first Joplin Relief facebook page and that was like the main page to go to for information, so he had all the people there. So he posted it up there and had his whole team of people really promote it, and we did it for like three months of earnings and we cut them a check after that.
T: Sometimes, it’s not even about money. We all decided that I should go to India last year and I went all around India with this organization called Dalit Freedom Network, and our idea is doing something like that where we give away money from a song that we wrote and sell it or going over to India and looking at ways that we can start helping schools that are giving education to the lowest caste. Doing those sort of things now and putting those in our heads and our hearts… This is something we are passionate about; all three of us are passionate about giving back. It looks different every time, but I think what we always want to remember is if you don’t practice it if you are young or you are this size of a band, [then] you’ll never do it. That’s just kind of something we do and it’s not really like we’re tied to one thing. I don’t think that would be good or smart because you never know what might happen, but that’s definitely who we are and I think that shows in our music too.
A: What can people expect to hear from you, music wise, through the rest of this year?
T: I guess we can just leave it at a lot of music. The album, most likely at this point, won’t come out until next spring, but we are planning on releasing a lot of things in between then to lead up to it. We’ve already started doing some innovative things in terms of pre-promo for it. Nate is an incredible remixer and DJ and he did a lot of the programming for the new record, so we did what’s called a premix — and so [it’s] like a pre remix of a song on the album — which is the “Frequency Song,” and we did a video. So we’ll probably release a couple of other songs that didn’t make the cut. We wrote like forty songs for the record and there’s only eleven on the actual album, so we’ll do some of that. We’ll probably release an EP, we’ll probably even start doing listening parties for the record as well.
