“It’s important to go all the way back to square one and then find something within yourself
that makes the music yours.”
Even after their amazing cassette tape came out in 2021, Color Green felt more like a well-kept secret than an actual band. With a couple of road-seasoned musicians behind the wheel, the group has started to gain attention as news of their debut album and stand-alone singles get introduced to the world. I guess songs this good can’t stay a secret forever, so I caught up with song writing duo Corey Madden and Noah Kohll to learn more about the magic that is Color Green.
How and when did Color Green start?
Corey Madden: We worked together in like 2017.
Noah Kohll: At Stumptown in Ridgewood. We lived close together, so Corey would always ask me for rides. Someone told me “don’t give him one ride because he’s going to ask for one every morning.” But I didn’t care because I knew Corey before then.
Corey: I didn’t know that. Someone said that about me?
Noah: Yeah, someone said that. But I knew Corey before then from some New Jersey kids I
knew, including this guy Tony Price who crashed on my couch for four months. We would deliver coffee in the car all day and talk about music the whole time.
Eventually we started talking about playing music together and then started jamming together. Light in the Attic had just reissued that Acetone stuff and we were like “oh we both fuck with this? We should start something kinda like this.”
Corey: We jammed once with him on drums and me on guitar and that’s where the song
“Night” came from and we were both like “alright, cool.” We did the EP in Ridgewood shortly after that.
Noah: I was kinda spiraling in that period, I think we both were. We were both going through pretty heavy break ups.
Noah: Well we sat on these songs for a long time, and then during the pandemic I was playing the EP to Ben Cook (of the bands Young Gov and Fucked Up) and Tony Price who had a label called Maximum Exposure and they were like “we want to put this out.”
I hit up Corey and we decided then that this was going to be an actual band, because originally this was just a recording project we were doing during whatever spiral we were going through. That kinda solidified us being a band, from there we wrote and recorded the record in the height of the pandemic and when things started to chill out a bit we decided to play some shows.
Corey: We’ve only played technically three shows, and two of them were this week. We also had to find the band members, which took a minute to figure out.
Noah: But now we’ve got some sick players.
Because you guys are the songwriters, will the live band have a revolving cast? Or do you want to keep it solid?
Noah: Well this iteration of the band I’d like to keep pretty solid, but I’m also open to having
new people come in, especially when it comes to recording. The last thing did we got Richard
Gowen and Ryan Gavel to be the rhythm section who are some awesome session musicians. It’s nice to have a revolving door because you can achieve different sounds that way.
It seems like with this type of music that approach can work super well.
Noah: Yeah and how we operated on this last session was really sick because me and Corey
basically demoed all the tracks with a drum loop. We sent those demos to the other people
playing on the recordings and we were able to just sit down and record it all live with them and play along with them. Those people also bring in their own ideas on how something should go, which is how we want it to be.
Corey: We had the idea for the songs and how they should sound, but when you get in the
room this thing changes or this thing gets stretched out. The cool thing about the last session we did was knowing we were only there for two days. If something changed we just ran with it instead of sitting around trying to figure out if it worked. It was nice to be like “ok that sounds good, we’re done with it,” and not have to stress out about shit.
Where did you guys record the album?
Corey: The album was recorded with Johnny Cosmo at his studio in Highland Park, I dunno the name of the studio.
Noah: It’s called Slime House. For that we used the drummer who plays with us live – Dave
Ozinga, and he had his friend Trevor Tallakson play bass for us. We approached recording the
album differently than the session we just did for the singles that are coming out. We rehearsed a bunch and demoed the basic stuff, but the vocals and overdubs were recorded separately.
Corey: The album was a process for sure.
Noah: Every time you record something you kind of learn what not to do the next time. Like this latest recording session we did went really smooth. This last time in the studio was with Mike Kriebel and he cranked everything out very quickly.
So the single “So Far Behind” that was just released is different than what’s on the album?
Corey: The idea is that those two singles are coming out now or really soon as kind of like a
teaser, and then the album will be out in early summer.
Noah: Yeah the album will be out like June or July.
Corey: Then we’re going to start working on the second album, and these two singles will be on it.
Noah: I think the idea with the singles is just to stay relevant while people wait for the album.
When are you going to premiere stuff from the debut album then?
Noah: We’ll have something come in February, March, and April leading up to the release of the album.
Corey: The album has been done for a minute so – at least for us- it’s cool to have new songs
dropping before the album songs get premiered.
Let’s switch gears here a little bit. Where is Verdolaga?
Noah: It was a street I was living on in Taos, New Mexico during the pandemic. It was really a dirt road. Corey came out and was there for a week the first time and then he came back later for a month. The song “Verdolaga” is an ode to living out there.
Corey: All those lyrics were very combed over. It was originally going to be about something
else but we just decided to make it about Taos instead. It’s an extremely special place.
When me and Mike Kriebel came back to LA after being there for a week I was like “let’s just go back.”
A lot of the record was written there, probably 50% of it.
Noah: The road Verdolaga was not maintained at all and there were huge holes everywhere. A
few days before we left it snowed a foot or two, and then was 60 degrees the next day, and all
the snow melted. The road turned into this giant river of mud. I was the only one who had a 4×4, so we were moving out and putting everyone’s shit into the jeep and then driving across a river of mud to a U-Haul that was a half mile away. That road was a piece of shit. But also I loved it.
You guys traveled a lot during the pandemic, and you seem to both be nomadic in general. There’s kind of like a traveler’s vibe to this band. What are some other cities that are important to Color Green?
Corey: Definitely New York because it started there, even though it doesn’t sound like a New
York band. Also New Jersey because I was writing a lot of this stuff when I was stuck there dealing with family shit. LA too…
Noah: I did this big solo drive through northern Nevada, the drive is actually called America’s loneliest highway. It’s in Nevada and its stretches of nothing for 250 miles with tiny towns sprinkled in. That was really special because I spent a lot of alone time. We’re both touring musicians. I’m gone a lot of the year.
Corey: I was driving across the country during the pandemic and I feel like I would stop in
random cities and sit on the street and play guitar. This record specifically captures the time we spent in Taos more than anything.
Noah: There’s a lot of bands that try to make Southwestern sounding music, or like desert
music. Which is cool, I’m down with that. But on the record, it’s not trying to sound like a
country rock band. It’s a genuine representation of what we experienced out there. We’re not trying to sound like a cosmic country band.
Corey: The songs just naturally sound that way because of where we were. I think the song “ill-
fitting suit” is a good example. We were crammed in a car on the way to a hot spring in New Mexico, blasting The Allman Brothers, and when we’d get back home we’d just pick up guitars and the vibe would already be there.
Noah: That song is funny too because I was telling my friend how different my life was when I got to LA from Taos. Like instead of going to the river in the morning I was going to
gentrification town to get a smoothie, thinking like “who the fuck am I?”
My friend was like “you’re trying to wear that ill-fitting suit dude.”
I would describe you guys a travelin’ band. I think that can be a genre, right?
Noah: I would consider us a jam band, but Corey says we aren’t.
Corey: We’re also a cruising band. It’s a driving band. I always aim for that.
Noah- And we’re driving a lot!
This next question is a staple for me right now, would you ever write a diss track?
Noah: I guess “ill-fitting suit” is a diss track to ourselves.
Corey: It’s rock and roll at the end of the day. Taking yourself too seriously is pretty lame. This shit is all a little silly when you really look at it.
What are your thoughts on the band Bread?
Corey- Wow, curveball. I’m not that crazy about the band Bread, but my dad was super into it, he was a huge Bread fan. I hated it then, but I’d probably fuck with it now.
Noah: Someone said that we sounded like Joe Walsh’s Barnstorm the other day and I listened
to it and I was like “fuck yeah, let’s go!”
Corey: I don’t know any Bread tracks.
You know Guitar Man for sure…that’s an AM radio classic.
Noah: I’m down with Bread!
Enough said then. How does one get “Blizzed Out?”
Corey: Dude..
Noah: Blizzed?
Corey: Honestly blizzed is more about being completely fried, it’s the aftermath.
Noah: Yeah it’s like the next day after going to hard. It’s a cocktail.
Corey: It’s a cocktail of regret
Noah: Being blizzed is basically feeling immensely guilty.