In just a year and a half, In Color has gone from four friends making music together to more than one million monthly listeners — and the Nashville band is only getting started.

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(L-R: Matt Hastings, Val Hoyt, Holden Clontz, Miles Laderman.)

I’ll never forget discovering "Headlights" in February 2025. It was one of those songs that immediately stopped me in my tracks, and I quickly found myself following the band on Spotify and social media, watching their rise unfold in real time.

In just a year and a half, the Nashville alt-rockers have evolved from four longtime friends deciding to make music together to building a rapidly growing fanbase, surpassing one million monthly listeners, and taking their music on the road.

While in NYC opening for Jutes at Irving Plaza, Matt, Val, Holden, and Miles stopped by the BuzzFeed office to chat about how In Color came together, the stories behind hit singles "Headlights" and "Lighter," what it’s like hearing fans sing their music back to them, and the next chapter for the band.

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Miles: Friendship really is the cornerstone. We've all known each other for years. Val and I had a band together in high school.

Holden: The first rock show I ever played was actually opening for the band Miles and Val had. When I moved to Nashville, we stayed in touch. I ended up living with a member of The Band CAMINO when Matt came over to write, and we hit it off.

Matt: I was couch-surfing at the time, and I met Holden and Garrison from CAMINO. I ended up living there, started paying rent, and they introduced me to Miles and Val. 

Over the past six years, we've all lived together at different points and had different musical endeavors. But then we got snowed in together about two years ago.

Miles: In Nashville, when it snows in January you can expect the city to shut down. We all went to the house where Val and Matt were living at the time, and we intentionally got snowed in together for a few days.

At that point, we'd all been involved in different things — playing for different people, and working on solo projects. I think we all were ready for a new chapter where we could be at the helm of our own creative vision. Getting snowed in together unlocked that Pandora's box for us to actually consider it.

Val: It was like, "Wait, we should just do this."

Matt: When the snow melted, Val sent a picture of all of us. It was like four in the morning, and we were all still awake and super stoked. He was basically like, "Guys, we look really cool!" 

That struck a chord in all of us. I remember calling him the next day, and we all called each other separately, like, "What if we did that?" I think that was the moment we decided to make a band.

Matt: We'd written dozens of songs before we even had a name for the band, but "Headlights" was the first song we wrote that really moved us. We were pretty certain that it was going to be our first single.

It's unreal to see people listen to it and have it translate the way it did, especially so early on. We had no idea it would do what it did in those first few months. For us, it was more like, “Okay, we just have to start. We have to put something out, and then keep going and stay consistent.”

About three months after it was released, "Headlights" started getting this huge spike in streaming. We were out in LA when it happened, and I remember we were looking at Spotify for Artists like, "Wait, there's over 1,000 people listening right now."

Over the span of a week, we started getting a couple hundred thousand streams in a day. It was just like, "Is this real? Is this happening? What's happening?" It's so cool that there are people who heard it for the first time and then went on to listen to our other songs. That's the hope.

Val: We all really believed in this thing from the jump. We always said it might take five or 10 years for us to really start getting somewhere, but we really believed in it and wanted to see it through.

It hasn't even been two years, and we've already seen this community being built around the music. The growth in such a short time has really surprised us. That's the coolest part.

Holden: There was an aspect of trying to find ourselves and explore as writers and producers, and figure out what our "thing" is. "Headlights" was a song that just made us go, "Oh, this is at the core of what we naturally do."

Matt: It came about in like 30 minutes. It was a Tuesday morning, and it was a beautiful, sunny day at the house where we lived. It was just effortless. When we go into a room to create, we always want to feel that.

Miles: That's what we chase when we're creating more than anything — trying to find that space where we're all feeling that same powerful emotion or catharsis together. Whatever that ends up being sonically, I think we can naturally filter it into what In Color is.

Val: It's more about trying to replicate the emotion and the feeling behind the song versus what it sounds like. With "Headlights," we were all immediately looking at each other like, "Oh my God, I'm going to cry."

Matt: This was May 2025, and we were driving up to Canada on a writing trip. Val's family has a cabin up in Sturgeon Falls, so we took a trailer with all of our studio equipment and planned to spend a couple of weeks up there just writing songs.

On the way up, Val was like, "Guys, I want to show you an idea." He was sitting in the backseat, pulled a guitar out of the trunk, and sang part of "Lighter" to us.

We were just like, "Yeah. That's the idea. That's perfect!" It was one of the first songs we worked on when we set up the studio. We wrote the bridge and finished the second verse once we got there — but that's a Val Hoyt song through and through.

Val: Whenever we play it live, I'm always transported back to that moment with you guys. It was just a very special feeling. It was a beautiful day, a big patch of grass, and we were all just throwing a football outside. It was a very bright and wholesome time.

When I first got the idea for the song, I remember I was on another tour at the time. We were staying at this beautiful house in Granby, Colorado, and I was looking out at the mountain range. It was the first thing that came to my head, and I was like, "Yeah, we gotta write this. We gotta do something with this." I can still hear the voice memo in my head.

Matt: When Val was showing us in the car, I remember thinking about playing the song live and exactly how it would feel. Then it happens, and it's exactly what you thought it was going to feel like. That's pretty crazy.

Val: I think "Marionette" takes what we've been doing just a tiny bit further, especially as far as production, song structure, and our influences.

It's got this '90s trip-hop vibe, but I was also inspired by Van Halen's "Jump." I was sitting on the porch playing it with Holden, and all these different influences came together. I think it's a really cool mix, and we're really excited about the music coming after "Marionette," too.

Matt: We just took a trip in June and were gone for three weeks writing. "Marionette" was actually the last song we wrote. It was the day before we left, and we were thinking, Do we have time to write one more? All right, let's do it.

It's such a mix of our different influences, and it sets up the next batch of songs, which we're also really excited about. We're already playing a couple of them live.

Holden: There's more of a character to the music for us now. It's kind of page one of the next chapter.

Miles: That means world-building, visuals, and all of that. That's something we care about a lot. This new chapter is an opportunity to forge ahead and be creative in that space, too.

Matt: We all have different favorite songs to play live, but mine is "Is There Anyone?" Also, the fan interactions, like during "Lighter," are always exciting. That's a huge part of what we do. We love playing songs live and watching them come to life.

Holden: The craziest thing is hearing people singing the songs back. Doing these headlining shows where people are singing along has completely changed touring for me, personally. In the past, I've always played drums or supported different artists and played their music. I was essentially just doing a job.

I've never had that real connection until this band. It has completely changed the way that I feel about performing because it becomes a connection with people. Being up there with your best friends and giving our best effort to provide the world with some kind of experience is really cool.

Val: When you're part of creating these songs, and then you're singing them in real time and people are responding to you putting your heart on your sleeve — it's a completely different experience.

Miles: It's a beautiful thing seeing people sing the songs. I remember the first headlining show we did outside of Nashville in Chicago, and it was so powerful. We were in a different city from our hometown, and there were a bunch of people singing our songs. That was really impactful.

Matt: It continues to grow. We played D.C., and the lights came up, and we were just like, "How is there this many people in D.C. here to see our band?"

It continues to blow our minds every time.

Keep up with the band on Instagram, @incolorincolor.