Cold Canyons

ARTICLE BY VANELIS RIVERA
PORTRAIT BY IVY BRIGHTWELL FRENCH
PERFORMANCE PHOTOS BY ANDREW BAILEY

COLD CANYONS IS A COLLECTION OF TALENT ASSERTING WHO THEY ARE THROUGH ALTERNIVE ROCK ORIGINALS AND COVERS. THEIR ENERGY LEVEL IS LIKE SMOKE IN THE ROOM—CONCURRENT ENERGY CURLS AND EXPANDS, SONG AFTER SONG, LIKE HUNGRY GHOSTS.

“Naming a song is hard,” explains Caleb Wilt, frontman and rhythm guitarist of Ruston based band Cold Canyons, “but naming a band is excessively hard.” At first, it was just a random name that sounded cool. The attributions were simple. When you think of cold, you think of the color blue (high marks for alliteration). When you think blue, you think blue skies, like the expanse that you can see from canyons. Blue also ties to the genre that heavily influenced their sound or at least three quarters of it, according to Wilt. But if you’ve ever paid attention to the blue of the sky, you know it comes in a gradient of hues, ever-changing, which mimicked the progression of the band. “It’s one of those things that took a while before feeling what the name was,” says Wilt, explaining that over time what began as cool-sounding words shifted into their identity. Since their first show last December at Sundown Tavern in Ruston, this collection of talent from different bands has been asserting who they are through alternative rock originals and covers; ones you’ve never heard live but will be glad to do so, especially from a band delivering echoey and chill tunes.

Like a few North Louisiana bands, Sundown Tavern is one of the revolving doors of this band. “Every first show I’ve had with a band has been at Sundown,” reveals Colby Rushing, the band’s drummer. The first time he went on stage at Sundown was at a John Simoneaux Memorial jam (also known as “Johnny Jam,” held to commemorate the beloved local up-and-coming guitarist) that his uncle organized. At those Sundown gigs, he would often steal his uncle’s beers even though he was under the drinking age and didn’t enjoy the taste at the time. Wilt also played at some John Simoneaux jams. Also too young for the bar area at merely thirteen years old, he would hide in the kitchen until his set. Albeit exposed at a young age to the roistering revelry of the bar scene, it’s not what these young musicians were immediately drawn to. Rushing was inspired by his uncle who played the Ruston music scene since the seventies and the fellowship he witnessed in music.

Around 2014, Wilt had formed Chief and the Hounds and invited Rushing to join him as a drummer. The band had a good run, touring for about four years, but they came to a rough end when some band members wanting to move on. Crushed, Wilt took a two year hiatus from music after that. Enter the outsider of the band, literally and figuratively, bassist Christian “Shoepic” Hanna from New Orleans. Hanna relocated to Ruston after Katrina hit, where he met Wilt and Rushing between junior high and high school, even performing at an eighth grade talent show with Wilt. “Everyone is nuts in high school, but I never had any problems with Caleb,” mentions Hanna, adding, “You don’t have that with a lot of people.” Hanna had his own share of disappointing band experiences, and after a dissolution, he also decided to take a break from the scene. As a major horror movie fanatic, he delved into composing ambient sounds that fit the genre, composing a few albums during the time. Occasionally, Hanna would reach out to Wilt to ask, “When we gonna do a band again?” It was one of those things said in passing, half-serious and half-joking, and Wilt seemingly received it as just that, until one day Hanna caught Wilt at a moment in his life when he was open to change. That same day, Wilt gathered a few guys and formed Cold Canyons. That’s the first time Hanna met the prolific guitarist Landon Treadway, also affectionately known as “the golden boy genius on guitar” by Rushing who continues with, “He could outplay any guitar player I’ve ever met. He’s an old soul behind young fingers.” Hanna seconds this with, “He’s an effortless guitar player.”

Wilt’s main passion is writing. “We started the band just to write music and put music out,” he says, mentioning that live shows are not their top priority. As long as he’s writing, recording, and playing (his self-proclaimed “happy place”), he doesn’t need to dive for gigs. “That’s where I get fulfillment of music from,” he clarifies. So at the beginning of last year, “Boom! We started writing immediately,” he adds. The writing process is a combination of Treadway’s “tasty licks” and everyone else spinning off of his guitar combos, then Wilt writes the lyrics on his own. Mostly taking a freestyle approach to his writing, Wilt’s lyrics often go where they want on their own will, never pointing in one particular direction. “I don’t like to say what my lyrics are about. I want my songs to be true to the listener,” he says.

Musically, they fall under the indie rock/alternative rock genre, but Wilt adds that there’s a touch of songwriter to their approach, each song maintaining a particular feeling. The more Wilt performs their songs, the more he understands what the song can be about. He feeds off of that revelatory aspect because it allows him to interpret his own music. In “These Ghosts,” he’s discovered the ambient apocalyptic vibes that emanate from a story about a person haunted by someone that still exists—I didn’t deserve it/ I guess karma finally found a way to you. The originals can easily be confused as autobiographical, but Wilt claims he’s writing the lyrics as he would write a short story. Even in “Walk Away” where he’s writing as a partner who has betrayed his significant other, but keeps getting taken back, the lyrics can take on deviating forms—Sticks and stones may break my bones/ With every word you say/ Changes me, makes me bleed. “It’s [songwriting] the only way I truly feel understood,” Wilt says.

As far as sound, it’s blues structurally and in chord progression, explains Rushing, adding, “But there’s some grit to it like dammit you’re gonna listen.” As the one who leans to classic style of the bunch, his love for drums stems from their technicality. His versatile drum influencers like John Bottom from Led Zeppelin and Steward Copeland from Sting and The Police peaks through his own shuffles in the band. Even Hanna, the classic rock and roll guy who only listens to eighties-style music like Whitesnake, Night Ranger, and Sammy Hagar, has been able to challenge himself and adapt to holding down a solid rhythm spearheaded by the “riff masters,” i.e. Wilt and Treadway. An ever-changing sound is indicated in the three singles they’ve released on Spotify, which are all recorded in Wilt’s personal studio. Their sound ranges from Alabama Shakes to straight rock, Wilt says. “Paranoid,” the furthest from their style, is a wild song reminiscent of the Killers, while their most popular original, “Walk Away,” is a ballad that Hanna considers “wrote itself” after they kept mounting on a strong riff. Their next single that will be released soon, “This Aint Me,” is structured identically to any blues song from the twenties to fifties, says Rushing about their favorite original to date, declaring, “It’s the three-four. It’s the waltz.” The band is releasing singles in increments, but they have an album’s worth of material recorded, not to mention the wide array of covers they delve into when performing live. “We love some Jet,” says Rushing, but his favorite cover they perform is “Figure It Out” by Royal Blood. “It has that rock out in the end where I have to go wide open,” he enthuses. “It’s got attitude. It’s got funk. It’s got stank.”

There’s no particular aesthetic the band strives to mimic or present. They are as much a mishmash as their sound. “It’s more attitude vibe, which is just natural,” says Wilt, who stands out in stature with a cool side part comb-over, even once having styled a gunslinger beard and mustache. The rest of his bandmates are a bit more subdued: Rushing often sports graphic tees, Treadeway’s groovy long hair is hard to miss, and Hanna is more of a black tee, jeans, and flannel type of guy. “I still feel like I’m gonna puke before going on stage,” says Rushing proudly. “I don’t want to be so comfortable that I get relaxed in what I’ve been doing,” he adds. His nerves keep him on point and focused, a reminder to him that worrying is merely fuel for doing your best. In a few respects, the band is just getting started, but they’re not novices, especially when performing. Their energy live is like smoke in the room—concurrent energy curls and expands, song after song, like hungry ghosts. “I knew we would be peanut butter and jelly,” says Hanna about his bandmates.

Follow Cold Canyons on Instagram and Facebook to learn when their next single will be released and to keep up with upcoming local performances.