When Colony House plays music, they want listeners to not only enjoy it, but feel a sense of connection too. “One of the reasons we sing these songs with each other is to feel less alone in the world, and we hope that it does that for others too,” says Caleb Chapman, frontman and guitar player.
Caleb and his brother, drummer Will Chapman, have been creating music together most of their lives. A family friend, who they called Uncle Dave, tour managed the Highwaymen for decades.“We grew up hearing stories about them,” says Caleb. “They’re like the original trailblazers for knuckleheads like us trying to make a mark.”
In 2009, Scott Mills added his guitar skills to the band. “My only friend at college turned out to be Caleb and Will's cousin, and around that time they wanted to start a band,” recalls Mills. “My friend laid on a super shameless plug for me.”
It worked, and after Mills received the classic “Let’s jam sometime” text, Colony House was formed, and the rest is history. “Scott and I moved into the Colony House apartments in Franklin when we started getting serious about the band,” says Will. And the name stuck.
Colony House dropped its first record, When I Was Younger, in July 2014. One of its singles, "Silhouettes," was the most-played track on Sirius XM’s Alt Nation for four consecutive months and the album reached number three on Billboard’s Heatseeker’s Chart.
When bassist Parke Cottrell joined in 2016, the connection was complete. “Parke jumped on the When I Was Younger tour to fill in for our previous bass player while he got married, and he just never left,” laughs Mills.
The band jokingly classifies their music as land-locked surf rock. “One of our mentor/idol bands growing up was Switchfoot, and Will and I met them in a mall back in the day,” says Caleb.“Long story short, they invited us to play at their annual charity event in San Diego in 2015.”
Switchfoot, a surfing term, was also founded by two brothers who were surfers as well as musicians. When they heard Colony House play, they said they sounded like a surf band from Tennessee. The new genre was born and, seemingly, working. Their surf-rock hit, "You Know It," went viral on TikTok, and has amassed over 100 million streams across all platforms.
All Tennessee born and bred, many of their songs are full of nostalgia and love for their home state, which is especially reflected in their latest album, The Cannonballers, released in February 2023. The lead single, "Cannonballers", whose name is derived from the now-defunct Opryland rollercoaster -The Wabash Cannonball - scored a top 10 on alternative radio.
The band checked another box on its list of goals by releasing a three-song Christmas EP, Every Christmas, at the end of last year. They also recently visited Vanderbilt Children's Hospital to sing holiday songs to children with the Ryan Seacrest Foundation. “If we can help them feel a little less scared during the holidays, that’s way more important than playing a sold-out show,” says Caleb. “Music is fun, but it's also a vessel to do things that matter.”
In addition to international touring, selling out the Ryman Auditorium and playing Bonnaroo all in the same year, the band has performed twice on both Late Night with Seth Meyers and Conan, twice respectively, as well as TODAY, VH1’s Big Morning Buzz Live, and MTV Live - and they don’t have plans to slow down any time soon.
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