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To celebrate 11 years of OnesToWatch, we’re presenting our favorite alumni artists with the opportunity to chat with a rising act of their choice. Our latest Artist on Artist conversation, between two of Nashville’s finest, saw The Band CAMINO handpick In Color for a comprehensive chat. 

Currently opening for 5S0S on their Everyone’s A Star Tour, The Band CAMINO continue to cement themselves as one of the most, if not THE most, influential contemporary/alternative rock act to come out of Nashville’s abundant non-country scene. Their performance at MSG earlier this summer, one night removed from the New York Knicks’ NBA Finals win, saw them perform a solid mix of new tunes from their latest album NeverAlways (Vol.2) with near decade-old fan favorites like “See Through” and “Daphne Blue.” Completely in their element, and with 5SOS’s crowd hooked within their clutches well before the halfway point of their 40-minute set, they played with an edge and a chip on their shoulder as if to say, “How haven’t WE done this yet??” A fair question, though a goal that could soon be a reality.

In Color, one of Nashville’s latest and hottest commodities, is the culmination of its members’ efforts with previous bands. Lead singer Matthew Hastings possesses several similar traits to that of another YA-focused Nashville-based band, and one similarly adept at soaring, emotive ballads. At a show at The Sultan Room in Brooklyn this past fall, he waylaid this writer with a performance of In Color’s tender, cinematic ballad “I Want You,” perfectly curating his moments of vulnerability and stoicism by the warping of his vowels and the shifting of each passage’s phrasing. Collectively, the rest of the band ensured their dynamics steadily grew over the course of the near five-minute performance, generating the shimmering, awestruck scene the song is meant to evoke.

As they will allude to in the conversation below, In Color’s breakout tune “Headlights” recently peaked at #1 on Alt Radio, the results of which have caused them to take a pause to consider their next creative steps as to not trap themselves within a bind. Organic and infectiously current, it is no surprise this tune has scored them the attention each member has been seeking this entire time. They are currently on tour opening for Jutes. 

This conversation is, at times, a chaotically playful chat between friends as they bond over musical interests, Nashville-based hardware stores (Cumberland), coffee shops (Elegy), and more. At its core, it is both a lesson and a reflective period between rising students and their esteemed teachers. Each member of In Color reveres CAMINO for the impact they have had on their artistic community, and repeatedly revert from their artistic personas to sputtering fans each time CAMINO offers them praise. The results are an honest, meaningful discussion between the present and future of their field.

Jeff: What's up, guys? We're The Band CAMINO. It's really nice to meet you. We've heard a lot of good things about you guys.

Val: Hey guys. Thanks for having us. We're big fans, so it's really an honor to come on here and speak with you. 

Jeff: It's crazy that you guys are a band. It really is. It's awesome.

Val: Dude, thanks. It's crazy seeing you guys, like, in person. Hearing your voices like, not singing, not just on the internet. 

Holden: For the article, actually… it IS crazy we're a band. We've all known each other for, like, what? 10 years? And we weren't a band for half of those years? 

Miles: Yeah, if not more!

Matt: You guys are kind of the reason we're a band, if you think about it. 

Jeff: We actually get that all the time. That's a good segue! [Laughs] Question number one… I honestly feel for the person that's going to transcribe this. On a real note, you guys are the next wave of bands out of Nashville making cool music. There are bands in Nashville but, you know, Nashville is obviously so country, so it's nice having another wave of music that's succeeding, and that we actually listen to. So, what is the first artist that you remember falling in love with?

Holden: The Band CAMINO.

Jeff: And what's your favorite song by The Band CAMINO?

Holden: Do you want the real answer? I think it's between… it's oldies. It's “Berenstein.” 

Val: I'm gonna say “Who Says We're Through.” That's the throwback.

Matt: I'll finish answering. Jackson 5. Their song “Ben” was one of the first songs I heard.

Val: I'd probably say The Beatles. Yeah, you know, I'm basic. 

Jeff: What era of Beatles do you like the most? 

Val: I’m either an Abbey Road or a White Album guy. I like when they started to get weird, and honestly, when they got dysfunctional and started to hate each other. That’s my favorite era of their music. I don't know what that says about me… 

Miles: The first band I fell in love with was probably Wilco, just because I was, like, indoctrinated at such a young age. That was so much of what my folks listen to...

Garrison: For me, The Killers were one of the first bands I truly fell in love with. Ronnie Vannucci is an incredible drummer. And so, I always loved his stuff, but “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine” was a song that really resonated with me. 

Spencer: I'd say “Sam's Town” by The Killers was one of my first, because my brother put me onto that. He loves The Killers, and then my first CD I ever owned was A Rush of Blood To The Head… 

Jeff: My first favorite artist was Steven Curtis Chapman, but we can't talk about that. That was when I was in elementary school. My first real favorite artist in high school, when I was finally writing some songs myself and decided I wanted to do music, was Eric Church. I was pretty much only listening to country radio until I got to college and met Spencer and he showed me cool stuff. 

Val: Was it like, “Springsteen”?

Jeff: “Springsteen,” dude, “Carolina,” “These Boots.” Early Eric Church had some absolute bangers, man. He was definitely an early inspiration for your boy. 

Holden: I feel like I should probably give a real answer for the article.

Val: So, The Band CAMINO is not your real answer? What the hell? 

Holden: Embarrassingly or not, my first favorite band, my first CD, and I even printed out a picture of them and, like, taped it up on my wall, was Nickelback. That opening piano riff of “If Everyone Cared” is disgusting. 

Miles: The first CD I ever picked up at a store and bought when I was a little kid was Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins. 

Jeff: Okay, next question. What was your first concert and how did it make you feel?

Miles: Mine was Wilco. I went with my family. We saw them at Chastain Amphitheater in Atlanta. 

Jeff: How much drugs were you on?

Miles: [Laughs]. Zero drugs. I just remember being really moved by it.

Val: I actually feel the same, because my first concert was Weird Al Yankovic, and I was almost moved to tears by each song. It’s something I will always walk away from dearly.

[General murmuring] 

Matt: … I thought this was a bit. 

Val: I think the second was maybe Hoodie Allen and Air, so if that tells you anything, that's kind of the juxtaposition with my musical taste and influence. 

Matt: Mine was Switchfoot and Reliant K was opening. 

Spencer: Oh God! No wonder you wanted to be in a band. 

Matt: Yeah exactly. I went with my dad I just remember being like “Holy shit, Jon Foreman is like the coolest guy in the world.”

Holden: My first concert, sitting in a baby carrier on my dad, was The Charlie Daniels Band. But, my first concert I remember was Rascal Flatts. It just made me feel overwhelmed with freedom.

Jeff: Fast cars and freedom… literally, dude. 

Spencer: Life IS a highway!!

Jeff: My first concert that was not... church related, as a child was John Mayer with my whole family. This would have been 2012. So probably Born and Raised. He played the arena in Memphis. My first real, like, rock concert. It was him playing guitar for 10 minutes at the end of every song. I was like, “This is how concerts work?” I didn't know you can do that. I thought they just played the songs. 

Garrison: I truly can't remember my first non-Christian concert, so for the sake of this question, it was Steven Curtis Chapman opening for Casting Crowns at the arena in Little Rock, Arkansas. And let me tell you, my hands were UP, okay? It sucks though because I cannot remember my first secular concert…

Miles: Just say it was In Color. 

Garrison: It was In Color, yeah that's right exactly. 

Spencer: Mine was also John Mayer, but it was in 2006 on the Continuum Tour. 

In Color collectively: WOWWWWWW.

Spencer: Yeah. After that, I literally didn't play any other record. I fell asleep to that record every night for three months. 

Val: Do you feel like that was the catalyst for something bigger in you? 

Spencer: Definitely. He CAN shred, but that's not all he does. He writes very melodic guitar parts and solos specifically. Like the “Gravity” solo. You can sing the whole thing, so that became a giant thing for me, not feeling like I had to be a shredder and just trying to write more melodic interesting things that you can sing back. 

Jeff: Next question. Outside of music, what is something that you're secretly really good at?

[In Color turns to Val] Val: You're all looking at me [Laughs]. Well, I would say impressions. 

Matt: Any that you feel inclined to share? 

Val: [Imitating Carl Wheezer from Jimmy Neutron] Yeah, there's one that I think that's, I've been doing a lot.

Spencer: Carl Wheezer! 

Val: [Continuing the impression] Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course, of course. Yeah, so you guys are kind of like my favorite band. Lately I've been really loving the self-titled album that you guys put out, it’s really good. Never Always. I'm more a fan of like the deluxe edition. But, you know, it's all just preference. You know what I'm saying, right? 

Spencer: I can't wait for this transcript to just say [extended Carl Wheezer impression].

Val: That's something I'm good at. No doubt.

Matt: Golf, maybe? I don't really do much outside of music. 

Holden: I'm pretty good at cooking. I don't do it enough. I'm never home. And when I am, I’m too lazy to go get stuff to do it.

Miles: Off the top of my head, I don't know what I can come up with…

Val: Photography!

Holden: Being a cool guy!

Miles: Haha, yeah, this is actually better when other people say it… What about you guys? 

Jeff: All the things I do outside of the band are not things you can be good at. I like going outside…

Spencer: You're good at editing videos. You've gotten good at that. You're good at going outside. 

Jeff: I feel like I put a lot of thought into like the art of living a purposeful life, and enjoying my life outside of just work and trying to grow the band, which takes up most of my mental real estate. I like to think about life through the lens of old Jeff. Like I’m 89 years old and I’m looking back and I’m like “Did I do cool shit?,” Am I pleased with this story that I wrote for myself?

In Color: [Collectively] That’s beautiful! Wow! 

Matt: … I said golf.

Spencer: Don't worry, I'm about to say card games. 

Matt: What card games? 

Spencer: Egyptian Rat Screw. I'm really good at that. 

Holden: [Directed at Garrison] What are you good at? I feel like I can already answer for you. You're good at bringing people together.

Garrison: I do feel like I try to live a life of loving well and caring for others. Just trying to love-maxx out here. 

Val: I think you guys are good at being HOT. 

Matt: And Fortnite.

Jeff: Okay, you guys have been in a band for what, two years now? We've been a band for 11, so you guys are in a cool time that we often look back and romanticize in our career from, like, the 2018-2019 era when we first had buzz going. We look back on like those years and feel like we could never really appreciate it. Does it feel like, two years into this, that it’s what you've expected it to be two years ago? Do you feel like you're in that moment? 

Matt: Yes and no. What drew us to be a band in the first place was our friendship, and we've all been friends, as you guys know, for so many years. We always talk about longevity, and how we want to maintain that longevity and friendship. We take multiple trips every year. We just got off one, and we wrote songs. It kind of grounds us. I don't know if we're ever going to lose that through the chaos, but we'll always rely on our friendship. It makes touring, creating, and life more fun. 

Jeff: You guys have all been grinding slowly for years before you landed in this super group. We've been a band for 11 years, and we get asked all the time, “When's the moment you feel like you MADE it?” And it's such a weird question, because in our heads, we still have so much to do. Right now, we're on the biggest tour we've ever done in our lives. We're still like reaching new heights. Hopefully constantly, but, at the same time… you can only be the new thing for a short amount of time.

Miles: We're always just trying to be 10 steps ahead of ourselves. And so, a lot of times when there are these small wins and things that we can celebrate, we’re like, “Okay, that's great. What's the next thing? What's the next move?” Like you said, we're a new band. We are trying to ride that wave. You're only a new band once.

Matt: But also, a new band to certain people. 

Jeff: That's something I have to remind us all the time. We're getting so much exposure on this 5SOS tour, “See Through” is now having a resurgence on our streaming. It's been out for seven years, but people are hearing that song for the first time now.  

Matt: We hold each other accountable, too. That's a huge thing of being present. And there's many moments where we're not going to be on the same page all the time. 

Jeff: Okay, last question from me. We’ve never had what you guys are having with “Headlights.” Our discography is always streamed as a whole. Our most streamed song is our oldest song. All of our songs, even on the new record, are all streaming evenly. I’m sure it feels amazing to have the first song doing so well, but does it feel like there's a pressure to live up to that, and recreate that on every song? 

Matt: Absolutely a pressure, and it's an inherent pressure even if we don't talk about it. But yeah, that being the first song that we ever put out do the best for us, and it's still doing well two years in. Today, we just got word that we hit number one on alt radio with it. The past three weeks, when we're writing, there's an inherent pressure that we put on ourselves trying to chase that same feeling, because that was one of the first songs we created before we had any music out that we thought, “Oh, this feels like US.” That's just not a reality every time you make a song. 

Val: Rather than chasing it sonically, we’re chasing the feeling of. “Does this feel new? Fresh? Like In Color? Authentic?” We still want to push ourselves and grow sonically, and always be able to express ourselves through our music. 

Jeff: We had to learn a lot about that. On Never Always, it was us being like, “Okay, this is going to be kind of a departure from the try-hard sounding Band CAMINO era, because… we were still kind of, in a way, going to the studio being like, “How do we create that again?” In a way, that's what put us on the map. It's not 2019 anymore, so how do we push the envelope and make what we're listening to now? But it's tough. You guys are inspiring man. 

Matt: YOU guys are inspiring. I feel like it came across as a joke at the beginning of this, but you guys are actually probably the reason we are even a band, and how any of us even met in the first place. We've come a long way as individuals, but also as creatives. And the fact that we're all still friends and get to call each other and share success or not success is really special. And you guys rock.

Jeff: [Directed at Garrison and Holden] For the person transcribing this, this information is cool. When did you guys meet each other? 

Garrison: Me and Holden have known each other for a long time. 2016, Arkansas boys. I had moved up to Nashville and I had been living there for about a year and a half or so before I met them. But I'm pretty sure I met Matt…

Matt: [Interjects] It was at a birthday party. We didn't really know anybody. And we ended up on a corner just chatting. And then we were like, “Let's make some music next week.” I went over your house that week and made music, and that first day I was over there, Holden walked out of his room, because you guys were living together. Ever since that day, I never really left your house and ended up paying rent and then you guys had toured with them…

Jeff: That was 2018, and then 2019, CAMINOs very first headline tour, we had Hardcastle which, you know, Val and Miles were both playing in. So, these two guys were on our first ever headline tour with us. Then COVID happened, and then our first tour back after COVID in 2022 was when we took out Hastings, and Val and Holden were both playing for Hastings. When we moved to Nashville, we were like six houses down from Miles and Val when all the Hardcastle guys left, so we were neighbors. Do you remember the first show we played together?

Val: It was the Firebird. 

Jeff: CAMINO had never played in Nashville. So, I logged onto the High Watt calendar online. I looked at every band that was playing on social media. And I DMed, like, 10 different bands, “Hey, I saw you’re playing at the High Watt next month. Can we please open for you?” And you guys were like the only ones that responded. 

Val: That was when y'all's, Heaven EP had either just come out. There were maybe 20 people at that show, and that was the first time I remember being like “Oh, this band's gonna be huge.” We listened to that EP in the van, like the whole drive home.

Jeff: Yeah, there was probably eight people. Everyone in the audience was playing. 

Matt: All 20 people WERE the bands.

Val: We were all just standing in the crowd for each other's set. 

Jeff: Getting paid by two drink tickets. That was all we got paid. 

Holden: And now you're playing arenas!

Val: We're proud of you guys as always. And thankful, because… you guys were going to do this? And then COVID happened. Way back. So, it's really cool to see it actually come to fruition.

Jeff: Well, thank you, guys. We're having a fun time. 

Listen to In Color and The Band CAMINO below: