Meet Colton Kooker | Comet Lenny

We had the good fortune of connecting with Colton Kooker and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Colton, is there a quote or affirmation that’s meaningful to you?
A quote that I find myself coming back to time and time again is “Don’t be a donkey.” If you’re unfamiliar it’s the story of a donkey who was very thirsty and very hungry and equidistance from a barrel of hay and a barrel of water; it couldn’t decide which to walk to first so it died. If the donkey had just made a decision it could have gone to the water first and then walked to the hay. My take away is that you shouldn’t be paralyzed by not knowing what to do next, just do something, because you can always do something else later. This can apply to all areas of life but this comes to my mind a lot when I’m working on music because there’s so many sounds I want to explore. I want to dabble in different instruments and different genres. Some days I want to make electronic music and some days I want to make rock music. I want to take piano lessons and also singing lessons — but which do I do first?! Ultimately the best thing to do is: do something, don’t do nothing. You just need to pick a path and go for it, create something, you can always do the other thing later.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Writing songs is just one of those things that I keep coming back to. No matter how many times I’ve thought I’ve “grown out of it”, I always find myself doing it again. Ever since I was in elementary school, I’ve had melodies and rhymes floating around in my head. As a pretty introverted quiet guy, I eventually discovered that music was the best way for me to express my emotions. I think the hardest part about writing songs is making sure that you are writing from the heart about something real and not writing “for an audience”. It’s often easy to get sucked into writing something that isn’t genuine because you just want to “write a hit”. But the best songs I’ve ever written are always about something super specific to me and express exactly how I feel, irregardless of if I think a listener will understand.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Memories are made when you’re in motion. You need to get the blood flowing a little bit. When you’re spending time with friends you should start off with a walk, a hike, riding a bike, or better yet go skiing! This is easy for me since I live in the mountains. When friends visit I always first take them on a hike so we can get our legs moving, pump the endorphins and also dazzle the eyes a bit with great views. After that it’s great to go visit the local brewery to refresh and have a drink and a snack. Living close to Beaver Creek also has its perks. Since most people visiting are used to driving through crazy traffic to go skiing, it’s great to give them a trafficless ski day experience.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
A huge shoutout goes to my little sister, Mckenna. She’s been the most supportive of my music over the years and is always there to provide encouragement and help me take my songs over the finish line. She’s basically my music barometer, if she isn’t excited about a song, then I know it’s not the best it can be yet. And more than that, she also creates all the awesome artwork to accompany my music!

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