Lonely Ones

“I’m not the same guy.”

That’s certainly an understatement for Graham Colton. After amajor label career, numerous TV appearances and the limiting musical peg of“singer-songwriter,” Colton has gone through a complete reinvention on his newalbum Lonely Ones.

Credit his reinvention to a few things: Colton’s return to theOklahoma music scene; a budding friendship with the Flaming Lips; and for hisnew record, an entirely new approach to songwriting.

Colton’s return to Oklahoma may come as a surprise. The singeradmits he initially had to leave his home state to find his footing as amusician. “My dad was in a cover band, but besides that and some open micnights, I wasn’t exposed to any sort of ‘scene,’” he admits. “I’d just sitaround writing songs in my bedroom. It wasn’t until I moved to Dallas that myprofessional career in music started.”

And while that early career led to success — major label albums(Drive and Here Right Now), performances on The Tonight Show and The Late Show, videos on TRL, tours witheveryone from John Mayer to Dave Matthews Band to Maroon Five — there weretradeoffs. A little stifled creativity. The musical designation of being asinger-songwriter, a genre not known for taking risks.

Things changed after Colton’s move backhome. There, he met his wife, and re-discovered a thriving music scene...whichincluded a creative friendship with Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips. “Oklahomahas a tremendously active music community,” says Colton. “Wayne and I met at afew functions and hit it off. I started chatting about my past, what the Lipshad done, and having these really long, crazy music conversations. Everythingreally graduated from there.”

Inspired, Colton decided a complete reinvention was in order.“I didn’t have a starting point for this,” he admits. “But I knew I had to growand do things differently than I had done before.” Eschewing labels, he turnedto Kickstarter to connect directly with fans. “I couldn’t do it like I’d donemy last two records [2008’s TwentySomething and 2010’s Pacific CoastEyes]. I wanted to work with some good friends [longtime collaborators ChadCopelin and Jarod Evans] and record in good studios. This was going to be arecord where I wanted the freedom to do something new, without any parameters.”

Now reconnected with Copelin and Evans and ensconced with hisfamily back in Oklahoma, Colton felt comfortable taking chances. And workingclosely alongside Coyne and Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips certainly helpedradicalize his recording process. “It was completely unlike anything I’d everdone,” says the singer. “It wasn’t a Flaming Lips record, but I borrowed somegear from them and used those guys as a sounding board.”

Instead of writing an acoustic song and having his band fleshit out, Colton took the opposite tack: he neverwrote on guitar. “Guitars became an accent, not the cornerstone,” he says. Hewould try out scenarios where Copelin and Evans would make sounds in one end ofthe studio, and he’d begin writing from there. And the singer would spend hoursjust “twisting knobs and pushing buttons,” both Chad & Jarod's Blackwatch Studios in Norman, OKand the legendary Sonic Ranch studios in Tornillo, TX, home to some of Colton’sfavorite bands (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beach House, Bright Eyes)

“The point was to make me the most uncomfortable,” he says,laughing. “I had to unlearn everything from 12 years. It was amazing andhumbling at the same time.”

Lyrically, Colton found the shift liberating. “I had been anautobiographical storyteller,” he says. “I love that, but this was the polaropposite. The sounds made me think different things. I mean, I’m married with akid and live back home...I wasn’t writing love songs. It was freeing: I didn’tfeel the need to be real direct. This time, I wrote visually.”

The result, Lonely Ones,is a lyrically desolate album — dark at times, open to interpretation atothers. And there are moments when Colton’s voice works as more of an accent tothe song, rather than the focal point. “It needed to be another instrument,” hesays. “As a singer-songwriter all you have is your voice and your lyrics. Icould let that go here.”

The biggest example of change comes from the first single,“Born to Raise Hell,” an initially upbeat psychedelic rocker full of “la lalas” and whistles that disguises a rather gruesome subject matter: a storyabout a hitchhiker who turned out to be a famous serial killer. “The guy,Richard Speck, was in the car with Chad Copelin’s dad,” says Colton. “He had abig tattoo on his forearm that said ‘Born to Raise Hell.’ Once I heard thatstory, I was like, I have to writeabout that.”

Musically, Lonely Onesruns a wide gamut, veering from synths to guitars to strings, full ofpsychedelic flourishes and big production. But at its heart: a real sense ofmelody and plenty of choruses to wrap your head around. Think of it as catchy,thoughtful headphone music.

When Colton takes to the road this winter, he’ll face his next challenge: turning his bold new music into something equally as bold in a live setting. “I’ve been doing a lot of solo acoustic before this, and that won’thappen,” he says. “It’s a full band, and there may even be moments where Idon’t play guitar. These aren’t songs you strum along to.”

He adds: “Just like the record, I’m prepared to unlearn my liveexperience. I’m just really excited to begin everything again.”