“I thought I told you I was in it for the long run,” sings Chase Coy on “Different This Time,” one of the standout tracks on his new album, Youth. The 24-year-old folk-pop singer-songwriter takes a silent breath before adding: “Usually I make an escape plan, but lately I don’t got one.”
Though he doesn’t let on, Coy could be talking about his own career, which blossomed in the late 2000s on the strength of acoustic balladry and songs built on emotional overdrive. Today, Coy releases Youth, a record that’s both a look back at his evolution and progression as a person and artist and a smart mind looking forward at where he’s headed.
“This album represents a time of growth for me, both as a person and an artist,” Coy tells Vanyaland. “I went through a tough time to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it made me stronger and it made me more appreciative of the good things once I was past it. It is really a story of redemption and rebirth. The songs may not be presented in chronological order, but they tell a story of someone who moves on from a toxic presence and is able to find something better because of it. Relationships often end up dragging us down if they aren’t healthy, and this is about moving past them and being able to grow into better people who don’t make the same mistakes.”
Coy succeeds in his goal to “create a sound that could be both expansive and really intimate,” touching on the pop sheen of a Matt & Kim while still exuding the lyrical heaviness of a Hozier. It’s a swift cocktail of both folk and pop that transcends any simple genre tag and makes rag-tag hyphenation look like a reach.
“I’m always looking to draw the listener close but surround them with cool sounds and ear candy to keep people interested,” he says. “I’m a big fan of pop music, but I also have a real desire to dig deep with my music and use it to reflect on my own experiences and learn from them. I was inspired by Beck a lot on this album, as well as some other influences like Bon Iver and Foreign Fields. I tried to take a lot of ideas from a lot of places and make them my own.”
Listen to Youth in full below.