Keeton Coffman

“Aren’t faith and imagination really the same thing?” Keeton asks, as he sits relaxed with his knees crossed in his new studio, sipping store brand green tea in a plain blue mug.

“I just think stories help me see what’s real about myself, and about the world around me, so much more than (he raises his fingers in air quotes) ‘reality’… and that’s the power of music.”

Keeton, I just realized, doesn’t want to be a songwriter. He wants to be a hypnotist. Keeton has entered a new chapter. Since releasing the widely received and highly praised album, Hard Times in 2021, the formerly branded Americana artist from Houston who once crafted songs in the vein of Springsteen, Jackson Browne and The Wallflowers, has how traded the vintage telecaster for his drum machines, Juno synthesizer and oversized red sunglasses to match.

“Not traded” Keeton corrects “ SPRAY PAINTED!”

The black and white has gone full color. The Heartland Rocker has sold his soul to a Neon Ghost.

“Sometimes you need the character to tell your truth. I have realized that right now authenticity is not the greatest gift I can offer listeners and fans. It’s fiction. I love Make Believe because in it we find out who we are meant to be, not who we currently are.”

Talking with Keeton about music, art and the future, you feel the hope that so many of us have learned to doubt begin to stir within yourself once again.

“Bob Dylan once said ‘You call yourself what you want.’ And I like that… and it’s never too late to do it.”

“Cinematic Pop” are the words Keeton uses to describe the music he creates. At his side creatively, though miles away in his own studio in Golden, CO, Ryan Cecil adds his masterful guitar work, coproduction, mix and mastering to the project. The two of them talk every morning en route to their separate and respective studios – 868 miles apart to be exact – normally obsessing over an old Genesis tunes, Jars of Clay albums, Greg Kurstin drums sounds on some random pop record, ground breaking albums from Beck, The Technicolors, INXS and The 1975.

The two share not a craving for fame, but a partnership built on friendship and obsession.

This new music of theirs is commonly compared to The Killers or Kings of Leon, if they hired The Edge to play guitars, Trent Reznor on the keys, and Phil Collins as the drummer… They are partners in pursuit, and friends now for 20 years.

The forthcoming album – set for release in 2024 – has been named Coefficient of Fiction and I asked, “I assume you are winking at the scientific term coefficient of FRICTION…Why?”

“Exactly… that term has to do with the value of two forces acting on one another. I wanted to name this album Coefficient of Fiction to highlight what happens to us when we let our imaginations collide with our lives, define our dreams, begin our prayers. Things get so colorful for me when I let it in.”

In a social media driven world teaming with personalities whose music is simply a “tell all” in pursuit of likes, where has the artist left to hide?

Keeton aims for something higher than songs about himself.

A mask to wear. A veil to hide behind. And simultaneously, a character to give his audience… for their sake, and their story.

“I thought to myself… I don’t want to write my story. Music has this mysterious thread for mankind. It possesses this tie that holds a tribe of people together, and I’m using these songs as paintings. They are hanging in hopes that when the right person sees them, he or she has a visceral reaction – prayer, sex, fear, pain, hope, dreams – both realized and deferred. Being human is a powerful cocktail and most of us are too sleepy to enjoy it.”

“That’s a powerful world to wake up to,” I joke.

“Most of us don’t realize the movie we are in,” Keeton says slowly. “This is the soundtrack to that movie for some of us…” as a slow and mysterious grin slowly forms on his face. – Michael Andrews

“Matching the tonality of Coffman’s words perfectly, the music behind “Magician” creates a palpable mood. Brooding with a neo-Western twist—but not without a tinge of melancholic hope—the song’s instrumentation peaks with a soaring climax. While the shadow-y feel is propelled in large part by the guitar tones, perhaps the true MVPs of the single are the texture sounds Coffman curated himself.” — AMERICAN SONGWRITER, 2021

“Keeton Coffman certainly has a way with a song and his knack for soulful indie rock makes him a diamond in the DIY world of reckless recordings. Coffman shines with a tender delivery and a big powerful song structure that is an unscripted blender of John Mayer, Nick Lowe and Matthew Sweet.” — GLIDE MAGAZINE, 2021

“Keeton Coffman whips up a classic Americana dish with ‘Wounded Heart’. The Americana artist with a high-energy heartbreaking single…with an addictive drumbeat, guitars, and Coffman’s vocals saturated with emotion. Everything is flawless – every note is perfect, every line delivered with emotional weight, and the tone of the track is somehow bittersweet and upbeat all at once.” — B-SIDES AND BADLANDS, 2021