Colony House performs at Block Party, discusses the future of their music
In front of a packed house, Colony House performed at the annual Block Party the night of Sept. 3 to a crowd of students and community members.
Colony House is no stranger to Lynchburg or Liberty University. Under the name “Caleb,” the band first performed at Liberty with Anberlin at the Vines Center in 2011.
More recently, as Colony House, the band headlined Lynchstock music festival in the spring of 2016.
Colony House is comprised of band members Caleb Chapman, Will Chapman, Parke Cottrell and Scott Mills.
The band took their name from Colony House — an apartment complex located in Franklin, Tennessee — where most of the band’s members are from.
All of the band members have assorted ties to the apartment complex and collectively changed the band’s name from Caleb to Colony House to better reflect their plan for the band.
PLAYING HIS HEART OUT — Colony House bassist Parke Cottrell provided bass and backup vocals at the Sept. 3 concert held in the LaHaye Student Union parking lot. Photo credit: Caroline Sellers
Lead singer Caleb Chapman and his brother, Will Chapman, are familiar with the limelight.
As the sons of Christian musical artist Steven Curtis Chapman, the brothers toured with their father in their high school years and played music in his live band.
“My dad is our biggest fan,” Caleb Chapman said. “He loves what we’re doing and believes in it.”
Nearly seven years ago, they began the band that would become Colony House.
The band takes influence from both secular and Christian musical artists.
Guitar player Scott Mills named Led Zeppelin and U2 as his biggest guitar influences, while Caleb Chapman takes his musical influences from bands such as Coldplay.
Due to the musical influences the band has, their music has characteristics of alternative music and their songs have been played on religious and secular radio stations nationwide.
Their debut album reached No. 154 on the Billboard 200, and their song “Silhouettes” was the top track played on one of Sirius XM’s secular channels, Alt Nation, for four months in a row.
According to the band, Colony House has evolved since its founding seven years ago.
Bass player Parke Cottrell came on board about halfway through those seven years, and the band has grown to playing on larger stages for larger audiences. As the band has changed, so have the band’s opportunities to put its music out into the world.
Caleb Chapman had advice to give to anyone afraid to put their art into the public eye.
“Every time you get up on stage, you’re doing something brave,” Caleb Chapman said. “I think there’s something healthy about being scared and being afraid of putting your art out there because that means you’re probably doing something really honest. Know that honesty speaks louder than anything else.”
Colony House’s next album was meant to come out in September 2016 but has been pushed back to a release sometime in early 2017.
There are more than 200 tour dates lined up for 2017, but the Chapman brothers were quick to mention that number will only grow.
With that growth, Caleb Chapman named a long-term goal that the band has to one day play at the Ryman auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.
However, he also said that he has more important goals for the band.
“If at the end of this thing, we can still say that we’re best friends and we love each other, that’s a great goal,” Caleb Chapman said.
“We want to grow this bigger. We want to move to the next level. At the end of it, we care mostly about our music being an honest conversation between us and the audience.”
Colony House’s music is available on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube.
Information regarding their upcoming tours can be found at www.colonyhousemusic.com.
Moyer is the feature editor.