RCA RecordsColony House's new album, Only the Lonely, is out now. With their sophomore effort, the Tennessee band wanted to harness the energy of the many, many live shows they played in support of their 2014 debut album.
"It's a little more raw, we didn't polish it as much, we colored outside of the lines a little bit more," frontman Caleb Chapman tells ABC Radio of Only the Lonely. "We saw people reacting in a positive way to that live -- just naturally, it's a more color-outside-the-lines thing when you're live -- and people were responding to that so much that we were, like, 'We need to take that into the studio.'"
Also on Only the Lonely, Colony House found themselves exploring new lyrical themes, particularly on the single "You & I." With lyrics like "maybe the world isn't crazy, maybe it's you and I," it's not difficult to see how Chapman was influenced by last year's election. While he hasn't been happy with what's going on in politics lately, Chapman wanted to express a message of openness with "You & I."
"As opposed to being, like, 'This world's crazy. Man, we live in a crazy world. We're all screwed,' going, like, 'No, maybe the world isn't crazy. Maybe if we broke this down to me and the person sitting across the table from me, maybe we could get somewhere,'" he says.
Even with the political overtones of "You & I," Chapman is encouraged by different interpretations of the song.
"That's what makes me want to make music for the rest of life," he says. "I don't know, there's probably songwriters that are maybe offended if someone doesn't get the song, but I'm like, 'I'm writing this to be interpreted.'"
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.