Interview: Constantly Evolving With In Color
Written by Lindsey V. Britt / Photos by Dillon Jordan
Straight out of Nashville with their debut single “Headlights”, Holden Clontz, Matthew Hastings, Val Hoyt, and Miles Laderman, are four musicians you may have seen or heard before, have now come together to form their new band In Color.
What’s the story behind your band name In Color?
Honestly, settling on a name was the hardest part of starting a band. For months we’d all shout out random ideas we had for band names. In Color was the first one that made all 4 of us turn our heads, and the name is vague enough to where the meaning behind it constantly evolves for us.
How did you four meet?
We all met through playing music together in different ways. Val and Miles met in high school and played in a band together, which later brought them to Nashville. Matt and Holden separately moved to Nashville pursuing music and ended up living together in their formative years. We’ve all been best friends for years now. Nashville’s a small town and it brought us together.
Your debut single “Headlights” comes out on February 14th, how excited are you for people to hear your music?
It’s been fun to find our identity as a band. We’ve put everything into these songs, writing, self-producing and mixing these ourselves, and we’re excited to share that with everyone.
What is “Headlights” about? I’m so excited for everyone to hear it.
“Headlights” is a song about the longing that two people can feel to be together, despite a distance that can’t be bridged. We’re excited to see the way people interpret our songs in their own ways.
Do you have any exciting plans to celebrate the release of “Headlights”?
Probably gonna hang out like we usually do and crack open some ice cold Diet Cokes.
Who are some of your musical influences, either lyrically or melodically?
We’re all songwriters and look up to good writing. We’re big fans of that 90s/early 2000s alt-rock nostalgic sound, but we also love pop music. Smashing Pumpkins, Wilco, Coldplay, The Paper Kites, Dawes, Radiohead, Justin Bieber, The Beatles, etc.
When it comes to performing live for the first time as In Color, are you excited or do you have any nerves?
Yeah, we’re all very excited to play these songs for the first time in front of people. Obviously there are always nerves that come with a debut show, but we’re pretty confident that the energy in the room will be inspiring.
Are you planning to play at any music festivals this summer, like Bonnaroo, or Tin Pan South?
We don’t necessarily have any plans to right now but it would be awesome if we did. We would totally play Bonnaroo right now.
Being based in Nashville, what’s your favorite thing to do on Fifth + Broadway or a place nearby? I feel like Downtown has some of the most iconic Nashville spots.
We don’t really go to Broadway much, but Robert’s is sick. We mostly go out in East Nashville, shout out Schulman’s.
Social media is a very vital part of the music industry nowadays, is it overwhelming as artists trying to balance it along with the other aspects of music, especially with the whole TikTok ban that happened recently and its impact on artists?
We’re all just trying to have as much fun as we can, whether that applies to making content, music, any creative aspect of the rollout. The amount of music/content out there can be overwhelming, but it’s unavoidable if you have social media. It can be a challenge to not compare yourself to everything you see online, but at the end of the day we’re just trying to be as real as we can in the process.
Between the four of you, how would you assign the group chat? Like who gets the group chat going, who sends the memes and videos, who goes on a random tangent, and who leaves it on read.
We stay in the GC, Holden’s definitely got the craziest algorithm. Miles uses a lot of big words and Val sends monkeys. Matt’s an instigator for sure.
Did you start the $600K GoFundMe? And have you gotten in touch with Emily Ratajkowski?
Yes, it’s all going according to plan!! Already raised more than enough!!
Girl Scout Cookie season is upon us, do y’all have any favorites?
Samoas and thin mints for the win… Frozen.
Lastly, do you each have a recommendation? This can be anything: restaurant, movie, book, advice, etc, anything you want.
Val: As far as restaurants go, I’m a big fan of Dreamburger, SS Gai, Baja Burrito. I thought the new Jesse Eisenberg movie “A Real Pain” with Kieran Culkin was great. I’m reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest right now. My advice to everyone is to keep learning to love yourself through loving others!!
Collectively we recommend cracking a fresh bottle of sake with the homies at Bite a Bit in East Nashville.
Also, have you heard that Me Espresso?
You can stream “Headlights” out now and follow the band on socials for the latest updates and announcements.