Kolton Moore

Full episode transcript, auto-generated from the audio and lightly formatted (verbatim, not edited).

[Music] what's the theory on pulling one out though like people tell me that's bad for your ears yeah and I've heard the same but I don't know even running crowd mics and we've tried kind of every variation of crowd mics and having one pointed towards us but just the feel you know when you're in a room and you want to feel the

crowd singing back to you or you want to feel I want to feel Ryan's guitar coming from stage right you can't feel that when you're in you're so Consolidated into your own head in between what's in between your ears you know and you have those ears in that uh I feel like just cracking one and not taking it all the way out

but just cracking it and to where you can hear a little bit of what the ear is giving you but you can also hear what's actually happening you know um to me it's just like the perfect mix but the crowd mics don't really do it for you the crowd mics just don't ever seem to God it just seems like a whole other

thing that you just have to mix y yeah and if you get too much mic it's like man that sounds like [expletive] if the room is you know real verby or real dry you know the opposite side of it real dry then you just get a weird sound and I don't know huh so I just like to crack it a little bit

and I just find that the band in a small venue I hate the idea of the band not playing to the room mhm like I hate the idea that like a drummer and maybe a guitar player are just playing at a certain like I'm sorry if the room is small enough like Dr drums are just freaking loud yeah oh yeah and like

they could just potentially ruin the mix of the room if you're just playing too loud as opposed to like playing to the room and you're like you're just going to have to dial it back a little bit Y and if you're just on ears I think you just get so isolated and you just can't you can't find that barrier so like in

smaller your drums aren't getting any louder because your mix is what it is it's not changing it's not variable you know so yeah I would agree with that huh well so you just put out a record like a year ago now yeah I think uh technically yeah December I think would have been a year yeah this past December would have been year

You released like a bunch of singles off of it m we think we did six singles six singles off that record and then we put the rest out in December and we've just kind of let it ride we didn't put anything else out this past year we tried to play you know for us we played quite a few shows I think we

played 25 shows um in 2025 so yeah all things considered wait hold on you said in 2025 you sorry in 2024 like my God been getting after it three shows a day since the New Year strike while the's hot dude yeah since yeah in 2024 I think we played 25 shows okay maybe 30 but for us that's a lot we don't we're

not you know Road dogs anymore playing 250 dates a year um is that how hard you were going years ago yeah 201 like when did you actually put out your first record 2012 or late 2011 okay would have been the EP um which was called the love me instead EP with uh with M all mine on it and love me instead and

I don't know there's two other songs on there I don't I don't remember any of them you play drums on yeah there's a track on there I played all the instruments um because I didn't have a band I was fresh out of high school but I played drums which I grew up playing drums I played drums before I played guitar and so

on that track I played drums and bass and AC IC and sang and then I had a guy that played came in and played lead um it's a terrible song I think but I played all the instruments and I was 17 years old so I was like hell yeah ride and then there I mean there was like so what was the movement

uh like so you put out a record every year for how many years so that would have been late 2011 was the EP 2012 I think late 2 would have been the dear Mom record glad I got Aon here to shake his head yes or no um on the facts but yeah late 2012 would have been the dear Mom record the first

like full band full length record and then 20 2013 we put out a record called how did I get here and then November 2014 we quit playing music um just cold turkey we had we had a I don't Know full like four or five month schedule set you know we had a lot of shows booked and um due to some different things

uh within the genetic makeup of the band and extracurricular activities I was just like all right no more so you at that point you were grinding pretty hard yeah that's you know back to what we were talking about being Road dogs uh we were playing I mean uh so 2011 we really didn't play any shows but 12 and 13 yeah like at

least 200 dates a year both those years proba were they good shows what was the they were all terrible yeah I mean we might have played like five good shows in both of those years um might have played a couple of good shows at the blue light and lck and we played we played one good show here in decar at uh at

Bonos oh we played yeah long time I don't even think that place is still open no they owe me $500 really they probably owe me $500 me yep um man I wish $ it's my hometown the one venue in my hometown owes me money that's crazy yeah it's great it's way it should be right but yeah we played like we played one

show there with whiskey Meers and uh yeah that might have been it we might have just played three good shows in three years and the rest of feeling dude it was it was a lot of stuff in the Stockyards you know Tuesday I think we played Wednesday nights at the basement bar um which was you know down that flight of stairs like

literally in the basement and those were I mean those weren't bad shows we'd put 20 20 people 30 people in there on a Wednesday night and me drank for free and made 200 bucks and the people that were there were there to hear us play um and that's the foundation we built the foundation there and then we kind of graduated to the

Thirsty armadillo down the road and which was upstairs wasn't in a basement anymore people could actually just walk through the door and listen th yeah it wasn't in a basement was it I don't I think it was just right off the street yeah wait but you said it was upstairs no just because it wasn't it wasn't below the ground you so it's

kind of funny but then the other venue that we played in the Stockyards um was called what it was down the street even further Whiskey Girl and it was like up some stairs well that one's been through like four or five different owners at this point for sure and I think four or five different names along with it but yeah it's funny

we were basement bar below the ground then we graduated to street level at the Thirsty armadillo and then we graduated to walking up a flight of stairs into the whiskey girl so was it was it kind of when you quit was it kind of a moment of like this just isn't working like I think it was working I mean it was just

taken some time which it should have all good things do you know um it was a lot of things man we had uh yeah it was a lot of grind it was too many shows that's for sure you know it was too much time spent with all those guys and not enough money being made and you know then emotions start to fly

and you put out a record and you're like well it's not doing what we thought it would do I think a lot of that a lot of it for me was that we put out that how did I get here album and I at the time I thought man this is the best thing we've ever done by far way better than the

EP way better than the dear Mom record and it just kind of flopped you know um and there's still some great songs on it that we still played to this day uh but it just didn't you know it's just being young I mean still at the time I think I was only I was I would have been like 22 or 23 I

guess I don't know um were you trying to go like the more uh I guess like traditional Texas country route with like radio promoters and things like that or you were subverting that in ways yeah were you like focusing on cuz that was still relatively early in the social media yeah thing way early so like what was I like that would have

been the transition phase yeah of like the old way moving into like now so like cuz my theory is there's not really built-in crowds anymore people don't discover music like out at the local Watering Hole anymore you don't discover the new band because they're discovering it on social media yeah exactly y so but you were like that was kind of a transition

phase cuz that was still kind of happening at that time like people would go out and try to discover music but also they were finding it online too I think it was before they were really even finding it online cuz I can remember maybe 2014 the year that we quit playing was the was you were able to post videos on Instagram but

they were only like 10 seconds long or 15 seconds long so people weren't putting videos out you know like we do weekly of us playing our songs and writing new songs and playing old songs they weren't doing that so that's how you're discovered on social media now it's not from a picture really um but yeah I think it was still yeah we

were that's why in my brain I was like let's just play as many shows as we can because if we play 200 shows this year and in those 200 shows if we're in front of 2,000 people then hopefully you know a thousand of those people will be fans and then we just keep on building a thousand people per year and by the

time we're 50 we're going to be famous you know you had to have struggled a little just based on your sound uh like it's inspiring to me because my I've always had a difficult time finding my place like it's like I don't really ever belong to really any one genre mhm and that's always been tough for me uh and I'd see that

with your stuff yeah cuz we didn't um we don't fit the Texas country genre to a te I mean we do there's some songs we play that are Texas country sounding songs and then there's some songs we play that you know lean more hard rock and there's some songs that are like the first EP was strictly acoustic you know it was real

folky rootsy type yeah and I guess the way you're saying you're not out there freaking yeah I'm not shaking my ass and yeah fingers yeah no we're not doing any of that I mean maybe you know depending on back in the day how many whiskey sh having 2 a.m. cigarettes in the house yeah exactly you might finger gun a little bit Sig

inside yeah we were finger gunning after sigs inside after 2 dude I think sigs inside is like an album title mhm no I actually find I mean that phrase sigs inside after 2 a.m. that's I've tried to fit it in a song for a decade now just you can't make it happen no I finally did it this year oh you did and

it's like a uh to me it's a it's sick like I sigs inside at 2 a.m. MH mhm yeah I love it um I don't even care if anybody else likes it I just love the song and because of that line being yeah well I can tell you I love sigs yeah uh and smoking them inside seems like quite the power move

it just it's cooler way cooler inside yeah pretty much that's like been every bachelor party I've ever been on since you asked I'll tell you this story uh every bachelor party I've ever been on that's like my go-to yeah is like trying to smoke in places that I'm not allowed to smoke in and it's not it's not the best uh it's like

the old saying like you know mama said don't touch the stove every kid wants to touch the stove it's just like don't smoke inside why not seems so much more fun I'm going to smoke inside also there's some Nostalgia you like watch old TV shows and you're like really on an airplane yeah exactly you're just the thing was just a tube full

of smoke yeah 30,000 feet I would have thrown up that's a nuclear bomb like that's what that was yeah that's crazy dude mhm so uh so like when y'all quit playing what' you go do um I didn't know what I was going to do um I kind of went back to painting houses with my dad that's what I grew up doing my

dad was a paint contractor and did that for maybe a month and then one of my buddies that I grew up with um was he was a hunting guy in the Hill Country and I grew up hunting that was like I always tell people before music before girls before booze like that was the first thing I really loved was hunting um shot

my first deer when I was like four or five years old and it was just ate up with it you know um so he said hey come down and you know get away he's like just I know you're kind of going through a weird stage they just come down and help out and so I did and didn't leave that was in like

Harper Rock Springs area went down there that would have been probably like December maybe early January um right after we quit and just never came back home um ended up getting a job with him and then um yeah I did that I guided hunts fulltime from I guess all of 15 all of 16 and all of 17 and um then fast forward

through all that uh I think it was 18 when I came back and played that one show with uh with Co he asked me he's like hey do you want to play an acoustic show with me in Stephenville on a Monday night or Wednesday night and I'm like dude I don't even know if I know how to play a guitar anymore I

didn't touch a guitar all those years I was guiding hunts strictly guiding hunts I didn't touch a guitar didn't write didn't play a guitar just it just didn't feel the same you know it wasn't because I was mad at it I was just like didn't even think about it you know just didn't have didn't let my brain have time to even think

about playing or writing and so I did that went and played that show and it was it was a big sold out night there at the Twist of J in Stevenville and what year would that have been 18 18 right yeah um I think July of 2018 and um I'd met my wife then she kind of pushed me to do it I

was I was like no dude I'm good um Co and Dre had both asked me and I was just like no it's I'm busy I'm guiding ask a HTS during the summer like we're just tied up and my wife's like why don't you just do it you know it'd be fun she had never seen me play we didn't meet until um 16

or 17 and so she had never she knew that I played and she had obviously heard the records we had then but she uh she was like I want to see you play if anything you know oh wow that's a wild yeah so it was cool so she got to see me play for the first night for the first time that night

you know in front of I don't know how many people were there shitload a lot um and it you know I don't know if they were there to see me or not they probably weren't but uh it was cool to be in front of all those folks yeah um and so that kind of rekindled the fire you know and then 19 the

year after that we played a full band show I think no post in March of 2020 that was our first full okay so we went all a night team I played some acoustic shows yeah I just went out by myself and uh and played like four or five acoustic show because your music had really started taking off at that point right well

yeah and that was another thing and that show that I did with Co I hadn't even been paying attention to numbers Spotify numbers or anything there was some time in there too that I put out that EP um the Lone Wolf EP uh yeah I had I had recorded this EP before we quit sometime in early 2014 and then I forgot about

it and Aaron uh one day in did I yeah you said can you add these as bonus TRS yeah that's it sometime in like 2016 or so I was like hey we should put that out you know I forgot about it and it's got it had one song on it that I really dug and I think it's four or five tracks and

so we put that out and I didn't pay attention to numbers or anything you know we just we've always been independent there was no label pushing it or you know distribution deal or anything of the sort and then so playing that show um and I said you know I don't know if any people anybody was there to see me play that night

with Co but realistically these people were damn near every one of them I looked at were singing my songs back to me and I there was times here in that night I was just like what is going on happen because were you okay were you really that Clueless yeah 100% whoa completely clueless I was not dude I'm I mean I was off

the grid not paying attention to any sort of growth of music I just wasn't pay left music if we can call it that yeah that was not happening at shows no and then you haven't played in I mean 3 four years yeah it was about four years and then right when you come back you got like the thing that you were like

wanting so bad mhm yeah then you stumble in and now it's now it's happening yeah and surreal wasn't is not even a good word it was just like felt conf very confusing I because it that was a foreign it was like walking you know I don't know walking out your front door and being in China and everybody's speaking to different language it's

like what the hell's going on like I did not know that these people all knew not just one or two songs but like every song I played that night so that yeah I started paying attention then you know that was like okay maybe we're on to something here how weird too and so you said were you married at that point no I

wasn't married okay but she had never like really seen you play yeah and she I think I think that next day we drove to riosa New Mexico that next day to vacation we had a vacation plan and I think there were times on that drive where I was just like what happened last night what was that you know were you there was

that did you see the same thing that I saw and um and she was like is was that normal is that the way it always was she was definitely saying that why did you leave why yeah why did you quit doing that and I was trying to explain to her like listen this is not I don't know what happened in these four

years of me being gone but whatever it was you know it's it's cool you know and so um I don't know it still took a few years to kind of comprehend that and then we I played those acoustic shows and they were all great kind of the same way you know everybody that showed up was there and knew every single word and

um it just we finally had fans people that knew the songs yeah and we didn't have that in 2013 12 and 13 we didn't have we had fans but I feel like they just came out to drink with us after the show dude it's really it's really like I just don't know if that's ever existed in the music industry before yeah I

don't either where you can disappear right something that uh that uh will green text me year several years ago uh right when we came back and started playing like maybe the first time we got on a bus he was like dude what the hell he's like the you're the only person I know that quit to go fishing and hunting and then comes

back to a bus bigger what the hell's going on and then these dudes okay so did you deal with any like resentment from some guys that had just been grinding while you were going I don't think so none that was brought to my attention sure yeah they wouldn't tell you if mean surely not cuz we were we grinded with the best of

them I mean I mean I know we quit and then came back to it but this was no overnight success you know um still took time you know there were still six years of you know three years of touring and then and then three years of not still a six-year time span there of letting that music you know yeah and also like

when the moment happened you were like sure you hadn't been like playing a bunch like for a few years before that but you had already put in a ton of work so it's not like you just put out a couple songs and then blew up and then now you don't know you got to figure out how to play in front of people

like you'd already done it yeah and that was another weird thing for me it didn't feel like a one hit wonder type thing I was I was like well you know this could be a maybe not at the time a career but I was like this could be something that I do for the rest of my life mhm um yeah I mean

you already you had already cut records led a band y traveled dealt with all of the yeah we' been through the trials and tribulations of what I thought being a you know traveling musician was and um yeah and then seeing that night it was just like man what's uh how did this happen you know and there was a lot of people I

was not the only person that felt that way um because I got texts and calls the next day and um and then I look at Co after the show and he's like I told you he's like I told you all these people wanted to see you play like what the hell how did you know you know who told you this and uh

and Dre the same thing he was telling me the same thing and I'm just like well you know thanks for inviting me out you know thanks for bringing this to my attention it's so cool dude yeah so what was the transition like are you still going through a transition of like how do I lean into this how hard do I lean into

to it cuz you'd kind of developed a whole other part of your life yeah which I still have even more so I have that part of my life um because now I don't just work for an outfit I own an outfit and I've got people that work for me and we hunt all over the world and so that's up until 2024 that

was like 75% of my life it was 75 you know hunting and 25 music and everything else um I would say 2024 was a good 50/50 split you know with obviously family and having a wife and kid all that mixed in there and them doing both of those things with me because when we're on the road playing music there with me um

and you know it's uh it's just been it's still just a learning curve of trying to find that good mix and I plan on 2025 and forward being leaning more towards the music um because I'm enjoying it that much now playing music it's not it's not because of the money it's not because of any sort of Fame or anything like that it's

just like I'm loving playing music I'm loving writing I'm loving recording like I've been begging to record and we've already recorded two projects this well that I guess was that in January or December we recorded uh two projects in December and yeah I love recording music I mean that's I feel like that's part of what I was built to do like it's

just uh feels natural it's not I'm never stressed going to record I've listened to interviews and read interviews and stuff about people being stressed out and um or feeling you know uh nervous or whatever you know going in record but to me it's just like man these are the song like I just want to perform the best I can and do this

song that I was able to write Justice you know to get it out there because it's going to be out there for eternity you know after when I when we when we leave this room this is it you know this is how it's going to sound you felt like the question do like do music full time have you ever thought that was

like a weird question yeah first off do you do music is a weird question very weird yeah we could unpack that if you wanted how do you do that because I would love to do it I guess right yeah I mean we're doing it you want to see me do it I'm doing it just don't freaking you looked me dead in the

eye when you said that I mean dead in dead in the eye we're doing it we're doing it uh yeah now it's time to turn the lights down that's right no I like them on I like to see you um but yeah that's a weird when anybody asks that you know how long you been doing music full-time and it's like man I

don't know I can't even remember you know that's part of it for me I'm like [expletive] I have no idea I don't even know what year it is right now you ever thought it was people that maybe don't create um like don't understand the idea of like uh like having a creative bug inside of you is more of just like you your

you your being is creative it's not like something oh now this year I am now going to do music I'm going to be creative this year 100% yep it's like anybody that thinks like that I don't think has ever created anything yeah probably not um because I don't yeah I don't I don't just wake up and be like I'm gonna make I'm

gonna write a song today you know um something I a goal of mine for this year and in like the last quarter of 202 for was to start riding with others because I don't play well I don't write well with others I never have not that I wasn't capable of it but I just never did it I never even tried it you

were lone W dude yeah an indie thing like you did yeah and I felt like I the songs I was writing were straight from my experiences so I didn't need to lean on anybody else to help me out or want anybody else but it was kind of a um a goal I guess to exercise that bone you know that muscle or whatever

to well cuz I'd be curious to ask if when you first started playing did you start like with some buddies and you guys would jam together and play together or was it like a totally solo Pursuit for you when you when you started playing I it was a solo deal in the very beginning my sister I played drums I said that earlier

I started playing drums and I was like six and then from six to 13 it was just drums and my sister got a guitar maybe for her birthday or Christmas or something and of course I went in there and was like twisting on the tuners and trying to mess it up you know yeah and um she was like let me just teach

you a few chords and I'm like no I was like I said 12 or 13 you know I'm like no I don't want to well she like forced me to learn a few chords on it and then I think just pressing that guitar against my chest and playing those chords something there just clicked and um I taught myself you know four or

five more chords where I could put you know e a d GCB and that was kind of it for a long time that's all I knew how to play and started writing those first few songs and it wasn't I didn't try it wasn't like it didn't go I didn't wake up and say I'm going to write a song you know it was

just like I was sitting there picking and it just kind of came out you know which that's I think that's why some of those songs are some of our most popular listen to songs cuz they were just like so naive just so uh I don't know the best way to describe it kind of just anybody could listen to it and relate you

know just something easy to digest I guess you know yeah it was honest yeah it was honest for sure and it was coming from a place where there was no uh there was no motive you know it was just like here this is it listen to it and at that time I wasn't even trying to let anybody listen to it you know

so we I wrote I wrote those couple of songs um like mine all mine and love me instead and then was at a buddy's house down the road and um he we were we were all underage and his parents would buy us you know a couple cases of beer and turned us loose at the house and just the rule was he couldn't

leave and so um you we' all have a few beers and be tipsy as hell and I would find a guitar and uh I would end up playing guitar and I would play like those two songs I had written and maybe um what was that one song it was blue Edon finger on the trigger I would play that song and then there

was one other those were like the two covers that I knew and um one of my buddies or a couple all of them maybe they were like you got to go do the uh Ranch picking party the little deal that the ranch used to put on at the rail head they may still do it I don't know but 2011 the summer after

I graduated um I went and did that and I won that thing and then played with open for Shawn McConnell which that's a good one yeah had become just that first part of that year had like become my hero you know and then next thing I know I'm opening for him and I wasn't direct support for him it was like me playing

my three songs that the only three songs I knew and then Phil Hamilton and that's where I met Phil and then Sean played you know later on and then um I mean I still from that night like Josh Wes is our tour manager now he was Phil's tour manager that night that's how I met him okay and uh I met my very

first booking agent that night it's just like crazy how things kind of fall into place but yeah that was the beginning of it and then um there was a uh a kid I graduated high school with his older brother which was like 25 at the time reached out and said hey I heard you won the picking party I play leag guitar you

know I'd love to start jamming so I started jamming with him and he was like my first real guitar player and then we found Aaron you know playing drums and then found a bass player and then the band came together and we started playing at the basement bar you know in the basement so was it so move moving into like trying to

collaborate more I guess like on the songwriting side of that when you started though like all the songw writing was just you like you didn't really have much collaboration in that regard no not even in those days where I was you know just kind of jamming with people it was it was strictly yeah really every song I've ever written up until what

we're going to put on this new record that's that we're going to record this year has just been me so now have you done any co- riding like out Nashville or anything like that no never in Nashville and don't plan on going to Nashville but I've got a studio at my house I invite guys there of um just like the last quarter

of last year like I write with Ryan wiox my league guitar player I write with him a lot um which is great it's great for us to both bounce ideas off each other because we're so much alike in our riding Styles but yet so much different and he comes from his angle is always different but it's just perfect it's like right in

line um so we've written and we've written probably five six songs um that are going to go on the new record and then I've written with um uh Tanner usrey this year La last part of last year we wrote a song that's going to go on the new record um who else Jordan Nicks which is a young cat it's a really good

writer yeah I know Jordan we wrote a song that's gonna go on the new record yeah I'm kind of finding I've done a fair amount of writing in Nashville and like a decent amount of code writing and stuff M what's interesting is and probably to like people that haven't done it before they think of like I think what maybe what's been lost

in songwriting is maybe the musical component of it and um like even in like writing sessions probably especially out in Nashville it starts to become like if you just find a general chord progression and a general Melody then they just start packing words in there or you usually show up to the session with like some song idea right or lyrically and that

can be cool like if it works out that can be really cool but I start to find it a little like it just starts to get just boring and it all starts to sound the same because nobody's like focusing on like oh why don't we like try this progression why don't we jam on this for a little bit and then find something

that sounds cool and then like really build a melody and then really build like a Groove and then like write a song it starts to just become so like that sounds nice oh what about this lyric that sounds catchy and then you're like what we were it's the exact opposite of what we were talking about earlier with like my songs back in

the day like in all of our songs back in the day there was no motive yeah now with the songwriting sessions and stuff there's 100% emotive you're not going into a damn songwriting cubicle or uh get together with eight guys to not write a number one single you know that's the that's the point you know everybody get their publishing money and go

about your Mar on day and uh well and like a lot of the class like a lot of the music I grew up listening to and the stuff that like it seems like people always go back to is a lot of like classic rock stuff and stuff from the 70s and the 80s and the way a lot of that music was put

together was guys like playing together right like you don't get a lot of those iconic rock songs mhm by three songwriters getting in a room together and then just going oo like drunk on the other side of 30 I35 like that sounds catchy like no it's not even that Lyric's bad it's just the idea that like well we got to have something

to support it that is actually like unique Y and so it seems like there's a lot of really what I've been focused on is like there's a ton of really good musicians especially like in our world down here in Texas that I think are kind of untapped in like a songwriting way because they maybe they're not like great lyrically or something and

they might not be like not might not be able to sing at all right but in my experience you sit down with them and they're like oh no what if you went to this instead yeah and you're like holy cow and then as a songwriter for me I've had moments where it just like sends me down a totally different Road melodically and

I'm like oh I would have never thought of that yeah uh 100% And touching on kind of the Nashville thing or you asked if I been to Nashville and it's like no and I never have any intention on doing that like it would have to be you know hey do you want to go uh you want to meet up with Stapleton he

wants to write with you he you know he's only going to do it in Nashville it's like okay yeah I guess I'll book a plane ticket to go do that you know but I'm not I just don't have any interest in going up there and doing that whole thing and you know dancing with that monkey it's kind of one of my goals

along with collaborating and co-writing with people is doing it not just at my home studio but that's I built that place put that building up and made it look the way that it looks for one reason and it was like to make music in there and that's where me and the guys get together and rehearse it's literally built for it you know

and it's uh I think that's why I've written why I wrote so much in 2024 and have already in 2025 is because I've got the spot now that just feels comfortable and it feels inviting and it's there's songs in it they're just waiting to come out you know it's kind of I kind of just look at it as like big guitar I

heard a quote one time that was like you know every song's built and if the guitar is built well it's built with songs in it you just got to you've got to discover them you know thought yeah I thought that was a cool uh kind of analogy you know and um that room I just felt like as we were as we were

as we built the building and as we you know did the inside and as we painted it and as we put up decorations and it's like it seconds as a trophy room for me so it's got mounts all in it and then you know it's got big tall ceiling so it's got mounts all up high whole VI yeah but it's just like

it's just me it just encompasses everything that I love you know so we get in there and you were talking about like those old rock songs how they wrote those songs as a band so that's something like I've taken I took one song in particular a few months ago to the guys I pretty much had the song written but I didn't have

it I didn't have the structure all sorted out and so I was like hey let's just let's just kind of sort through the song and see where it goes and like at the end of the hour or we had this song nailed down and I was like dude this song is incredible like kind of It Go a different way than you maybe

anticipated it definitely turned more into like a Groove you know it just it's a good groove song and it's uh yeah it's awesome and that's but that's the way it was it's we got in that room and the song was there it was ready to be discovered and we just all put our minds together and played our instruments the way we know

how and it came out you know the way that it did and uh yeah there's something to be said about that getting together with a bunch of folks that I don't know maybe you like them maybe you don't but they all but they all but they all play their instrument well and then you know you come up with a song from that

like there's something to be said about that yeah it's interesting you use the word discover I've said that to so many people that creation doesn't feel as much like you're inventing something out of nothing it feels more like you're they were already all there all the options were there it's just you discovered how to put them together in certain feels like more

like puzzle yeah for sure a puzzle definitely and it's hard people ask me often like how do you song write and I'm like dude I really don't know I was just it's cheesy to say like I was just born to do it but that's the best way I can describe it like I guess I was just made to write songs and are

you are you how many you got siblings yeah I've got one sister older oh she's older yeah I kind of have a working theory on like more creative types yeah that cuz I'm the youngest of three yeah and like I've just noticed more people that I meet typically are maybe the younger in their family yeah and I kind of have a theory

that like we got drugg around a lot of places yeah there was a lot of like I don't know go play in the corner go entertain yourself yeah and you're kind of forced to just like look at the world around talk less think more maybe yeah no it's a good way to look at it I mean I think I still live a

lot of my life kind of like that it's like you know you've got two years one mouth for a reason hey and dude I got a podcast so don't get me wrong I'll freaking I'll bump some guns you got you got to talk but at the same time it's like when you need to be listening you're listening you know you're learning something

or observe like take the time to like slow down whether that's internally like observe yourself and like how you respond to certain situations observe others comedy's that way for sure mhm like being funny observational humor yeah I mean that's some of the most powerful stuff songwriting feels like observation to me really solid observation yeah whether internally or externally yeah but like a

lot of the people I see like in the more corporate side of songwriting if you're in Nashville or something like how are you going to you're going to write a scooter to your to like your cub and then sit in a cubicle for eight hours and then you're going to write music about like the Common working man what are you talking about

I don't know how they could do it man I really don't there's no possible way but that goes back to the idea of doing music full time mhm writing music full time yeah well okay so you could go sit in a cubicle and technically be spending eight hours a day working your 9 to5 writing songs that's great you're doing it full-time but

are you getting inspired at the level that you should be inspired so like in my opinion it would be better for somebody to go like no go guide hunts for 3 years right to me that's going to lead to more inspiration than going to a cubicle mhm yeah get getting away from it whether you're going to God hunts or going to play

golf or whatever the hell you're going to do hit the rodeo circuit like I don't know what you're doing but just getting away from it and then coming back into it with a different mindset couple year couple more years under your belt you know couple more experiences under your belt and just coming and stepping back into the same thing that you once

did but just with a different mindset that's what it was for me you know and it's uh there was a while there it was like man I these songs they can't come out fast enough because they're all they were just like you said they were kind of there and those pieces of that puzzle had built up and almost like placed themselves together

I just hadn't let them come out and so it was like I'd come up with a chord progression and while here one comes and here's another one and it's a good problem to have uh but it was just kind of like felt like word vomit for me I was like man where is this coming from but it did it feel like you

didn't have an option it was just happening yeah it was just happening yeah wasn't trying I wasn't going to set in a cubicle or wasn't waking up you know saying I'm going to write a song it just was happening you know and I mean I think that's the best way to do it I would agree works best for me do you do

you think you like is there something in your life that you like to do the most like what's your favorite thing to do um hunt and play music are they both like yeah they're just neck and neck man and I that's why I do them both and it's you can ask my wife I tell her all the time sometimes multiple times a

week like I'm going to quit outfitting it's just it's a pain in my ass a lot of times you're dealing with a lot of these wealthy land owners that you know I don't own any of the land that we hunt on uh but we've I lease almost a half a million acres in the state of Texas and then we lease stuff in

Old Mexico and we lease stuff in New Mexico and so I've just got land everywhere and uh relationships everywhere and so you've got to keep all these relationships you know you got to got tend to each fire and uh you know Alex Nester hunt Nest oh yeah in Colorado yeah I don't know him well but I mean I know like Co hunts

with him and M Ron hunts with him I was just curious yeah I don't know him but um but yeah uh to answer your question I don't know I just going to keep doing both of them for now you know until I can't do both and then it's well because the outfit fitting thing that starts to become more of a business yeah

as opposed to like just I mean do you enjoy just going and hunting it's like yeah sure yep and that's where it's at right now it's like it's we've grown exponentially we've been really fortunate to be on some TV shows and grow that way and um just get some guys in that are huge in the in the Hunting Community now Black Rifle

coffee guys uh guys with mountain Ops guys with loople Sitka like all these big brands and they've passed the word on to their you know people in their Circle and it's grown way bigger than I wanted it to um I've got four full-time guys and two part-time guys and it's just like it's got to stop or it doesn't or it's got to

just keep going and get huge but I don't know if I wanted to do that you know and yeah maybe I'm not the guy to segue it and keep it going maybe it needs to be passed on to somebody else I don't know yet but um I mean I'm thankful and grateful for it and where it's at but it is becoming a

job and it has been a job and there's a lot of times where I look back and I'm like you know get off of a hunt and I'm out of service I'm in the west Texas Mountains for three or four days and get back into service and just want to talk to my wife and I've got 50 emails to catch up on

and you know 50 calls and 20 texts and it's like man and it's all none of it's about music it's about all about hunts and guys coming on hunts next week and guys want to book [expletive] next year and you know how much do you think that like there's been like a cross-pollination with the music and that I've tried to keep it

minimal um really why yeah just mainly to kind of weed out the awkwardness and the um oh do you just me oh do you mean like you don't want like maybe like a fan yeah I thought that's what you were talking about but that's yeah I've just tried to keep them really separate and if you follow me on any of my Social

Media stuff you're gonna figure it out pretty easily I guess that's more what I meant like but I try not to like I'm not getting on you know our my regular social media page and trying to sell Hunts by any means yeah or you know we're promoting shows but like I'm not promoting shows and then saying hey come ax something with me

or come kill an elk with me I like no that's not what we're doing that's not the goal and yeah there's been two times two times in the past four years of me owning perennial that uh a fan has come on a hunt and I didn't know until they showed up like I booked them we talked on the phone see everything seemed

to be normal and they showed up and it was like I could tell right away this is going to be weird you know because they were just all struck you know they got out of their truck and I went to greet them like hey welcome to camp and they were like Colton Moore you know that's you which I guess wouldn't be that

big of a deal if unless they were like really there was one of those two that it was just awkward the whole time I mean like one of probably the second or third sentence out of the guy's mouth was did you bring your guitar no okay and I'm like dude I mean I literally never bring my guitar to hunting camp never yeah

it's just I just don't mix that is a little bit tough to navigate yeah for sure the same time you're appreciative y it's like well I'm glad you're super in yeah it's a it was a weird spot and I mean we dealt with it we killed a great buck and all was we deal with it we killed him uh you killed him

threw him in the river and but I mean it worked out but yeah I've just really tried to keep them separate um because they are two separate things I mean they're totally different entities you know um but yeah it's going to cross-pollinate a little bit more I feel like uh moving forward more than more than it has yeah cuz y'all got a

lot going on yeah on both sides of things but are you are you done with your new record have youall finished it we haven't even started it but we've got so nothing it comes out next week yeah it comes out next week wish I wish it was already done uh but we've got we've got some cool projects that are finished um we've

got a deal called a project called be bones and it's I hope people like it but if they don't that's okay because I really like it and everybody that's worked on it with me you know from the guys that have helped engineered it to the guys that have you know played instruments on it everybody's been like man this is just a cool

project who cares if anybody likes it so that's kind of the mindset I was just like it's not for everybody I think people that have followed us for a long time are going to enjoy it but the what would be your reservation of why people might not like it well I'm not saying that they won't but I'm just saying I really don't

care if they do because I like it and I had a lot of fun doing you're confident in it yeah I'm not and I'm not saying it to be to be rude by any means I'm just uh yeah I'll just tell you what the project is so it was like the concept came from like the um greatest hiss records that we used

to listen to like I always think about Allen Jackson Greatest Hits like my dad's 1993 you know cherry red Ford F-150 we'd pop that cassette in and knew every word to every song like it was all heat it was just it was all badass you know and um I thought that was a really cool concept I haven't seen a greatest hits record

put out in forever everybody was doing it in the 990s I feel like 80s and 90s I mean all the all the top dogs were right and so uh maybe earlier last year I thought man that'd be cool to do just put out all of like our top 10 or 12 Songs just put them on a you know a record together and

my first idea was like let's put them on a vinyl yeah let's just do a vinyl release of like Colton Moore and the clever few Greatest Hits and then the more I thought about that I was like no that's kind of dumb let's not do that and then I was like well let's do it but let's re record those songs and just

do them acoustic okay um just me and the guitar and then so that kind of morphed into Bare Bones and so what Bare Bones is like our top 12 songs um over the past decade and we re-recorded them Bare Bones version um so some of them are just me and my guitar some of them are me and my guitar and Fiddle some

of them have upright bass banjo mandolin harmonica piano they've just it's they're all acoustic instruments um and they're just accompanying me and in the in the lyrics you know and um I think it's cool man it ended up feeling I thought it was going to kind of get monotonous re-recording these songs some of them that I've played for 10 years but ultimately

they felt like recording new songs because they took a totally different take I mean uh we recorded a couple of our like kind of rock and roll songs God man blues and it's blueg grassy as hell it's really cool it's got upright base on it's got banjo on it's just a neat spin so um that's why I say it's like I hope

everybody loves it but if they don't I still had a hell of a good time making it and putting it together and the whole process was just cool I think uh for me it was it was just like having the thought having the idea making it come to life and then seeing what actually happened when we got into the studio and the

we added all these pieces and all this different instrumentation and it's neat so we've got that coming out um that'll be starting to be released here in the next month or so um and then I recorded at the same time in conjunction in the same studio uh recorded a little Three Song acoustic EP um it's just it was three songs that were

never going to be on a record with the band and um so it's really stripped down just me and my guitar they're yeah you know slow sad songs kind of my specialty I guess and uh so we've got that and then we've got the full length record that um we're going to start working on February the 22nd and think we just figured

that out today are you tracking all that stuff at your place all those two projects were at my house yeah what about the full record the full record we're going to Memphis and we're tracking that with Matt rosang he's going to engineer and produce it um if you don't know who Matt is look him up he's what's his last name Matt Ross

Spang okay s p n g um he worked on uh he was engineer for uh stapleton's uh traveler record he was engineer for interesting isel's Southeastern record traveler was with Dave Cobb right producing it but Matt was engineering it you know he was behind the that uh who's the freaking uh anyways I didn't know that was a different engineer on the traveler

record MH sorry what um so he's just he's worked on a lot of really cool projects and he's worked with uh some cool bands like um uh St Paul and the Broken Bones uh it's just he's very well versed in the music that I love to listen to I don't really listen to Texas country music or country music really I just don't

uh I like it but I just you're not going to look on my playlist and see hardly any of it um I'm pretty out there yeah I mean I think most folks that are writing the kind of music that we fit in the genre most of them are not listening to that same type music I don't think maybe they are maybe it'

be a surprise like what would be the like top three people that pop in your head of like people that you're kind of jamming right now um even just one what's like one that comes the one that comes to mind is Maggie Rogers wow very cool she I mean on my Spotify rap this year she had she was my top artist Maggie

Rogers is that the Alaska G okay I was thinking cuz have you heard the Maggie Anton girl she's pretty dope too no I haven't you might need to check her out but she's not quite like Maggie Rogers but it same name but she's dope yeah but uh M I listen to in like 23 and 24 I listened to a lot of female

artists before that I almost resented listening to female artists for some reason it wasn't I didn't have any beef with them but I just didn't like a female singer maybe I didn't like their perspective on songwriting I guess um in the past couple years I've really dug it and my wife's like man all you listen to is girls anymore I'm like I

yeah I don't know why shoot we can Bond over that cuz I've found in recent history there's a lot of female songwriters ERS that seem to be just like insanely honest in their songwriting like uncomfortably honest where I'm like damn yeah I don't know if I could don't know if you could put yourself out there like holy cow like it's ballsy and

that's what I'm starting to find big time uh but and then there also some of those girls like for sure Maggie Rogers she's not trying to do too much with her voice in the same way like I hear a lot of guys nowadays that it's like dude just cuz you can freaking growl and scream real loud doesn't mean you're a good singer

right but there's a lot of guys doing that like conversely there's a lot of women that like sing and that's just like blowing me out and it's like I don't really want to listen to that but like a Maggie Rogers she's like very intricate and delicate with her Melodies and stuff it's nice to listen to but then like lyrically it's freaking incredible

yeah I think that's what drew me to her and the people that I've discovered from listening to her was just the she's a Lyricist I mean I look at her as a Lyricist versus a songwriter it's just like man she's just a genius with it I mean way Sasha Sloan no I haven't what about Nikki Niki n kki Lane well Nikki Lane

is good but there's ni there's girl Nikki that she's the same producer that musg Graves has used for like the last couple records yeah I have seen that it's all caps Nikki yeah I haven't listened to it I think she's Asian-American or something but she like really Taps into like I think she I mean I could be totally Korean Japanese something like

that but just like lyrically it's freaking and then you hear it and you go oh okay yeah that's where Casey got her idea for the last two records the same producer uh but then lyrically it's just freaking incred it's just like so freaking good but she again she's like not doing anything that crazy with her voice right like just kind of stays

in the same little they Groove super hard really in production too that's what I've gotten like more fascinated with I like let's do some weird sounds I like we don't have to like an acoustic guitar doesn't have to sound like an acoustic guitar yeah run it through a bunch of crazy [expletive] and see what it sounds like yeah it might Inspire something

yeah I went through that phase for sure I think uh and I still I still am there sometimes I still want to hear those weird sounds you can ask the guys like I've got a pedal on my pedal board called a memory man and it'll make the craziest freaking sound you ever heard and sometimes I make it make some pretty crazy sounds

and it sounds cool and sometimes it sounds like [expletive] you know just like all right let's dial that on back and never do that again but so your next record is called uh Honky Tonk country through and through y blue blooded Honky Tonk country man is what it's called that's what it's going to be right out of Memphis right out of Nashville

honky ton Country blue blooded man yeah been writing in Nashville for the last 10 years yeah it's going to be the exact opposite of that I was trying to think of a pretty witty uh comeback for it but it's just going to be the exact opposite you turn around and look the other way that's what it's going to be from that and

um well I'm excited to hear it I'm excited to hear I'm to hear [expletive] I'm excited to hear it yeah dude yeah it's such a the uh one of my goals for the record is just to kind of get back to not the first EP like not just completely acoustic and that infancy but just get back to the root sound you know

that we had and it's funny that you mention like you know having weird sounds and kind of experimenting a little bit because I did there was a time with maybe uh maybe that how did I get here album that I was gung-ho on that too gung-ho on it like trying to make every instrument not sound like what it really was you know

and um I think every single artist goes through that and some it sticks and it works and a lot of them it just it's not good and so they have that record or they have that time frame that like what the hell were those guys doing you know I think we had that I think I had that um but yeah lately the

riding that I've been doing has just yielded back to where it all started um and I'm that's what I'm most excited for because I just want to I just I want there to be drums and guitar and bass and piano and that's it we don't need sometimes that exploration like once you get back to distilling it down and getting it more simplistic

in terms of maybe the production and stuff some of that exploration will trickle over where maybe it's just a little bit more guided where it's like maybe instead of everything on the track it's just jam-packed full of all this really cool stuff but it's just like oh my gosh what is going on there's too much happening uh and then the mix is

just you know you get I don't know man it's like you just get too much stuff into a mix and I'm really guilty of it like cuzz I just am notorious for like oh then there's this little melet and then we can do this but that need to be on there and it's like you get a mix it's just jam-packed full of

stuff and it's just they can't get it as loud yeah you know uh it just starts getting weird and uh and so but in that exploration it's like once you can get back to Simplicity there's some of those little trinkets that you can take and then you know at least that's kind of the way it is with me but I'm a few

years behind you so I think I think I had just kind of been going through the throws of like all the bells and whistles and I'm just like a little like oh my gosh look at all these things I can play with yeah and it's like okay now let's get back to like the basics I guess yeah I don't man music's cool

because you can uh it's kind of the same concept of like what we were talking about what I did with music stepping away from it and exploring everything else that life was throwing my way and everything else I was called to do in life and then coming back to it's kind of the same way with like being exploratory in your in your

you know musical Journeys like going and exploring different sounds and uh you know maybe making a different type of music maybe not making a country record making a rock and roll record the our self-titled album that we put out last year was that was the goal for it was like let's make a rock and roll record like raw big drum sounds big

nasty guitar tones let's do that you know and that's what we did and I love that one I think it's great you know but we're going to reel this one back and it's going to be yeah it's still going to have our sound it's not going to sound any different but it's going to be like back kind of back to the basics

I guess you know yeah well hell yeah man well that's where we'll end it cool thanks for doing this yeah for it was good to finally meet you been a fan for a long time thank you I've tried to book some hunts with you I didn't make it through the didn't make it through the vetting process the first question was how big

of a fan you are and I was like I'm a huge fan man I really want to hunt with him and as soon as you hit that button it sends it straight to the junk mail yeah that's right that's right all right we cool man thanks see yall thanks for hanging [Music] [Music]