Do you like music from Owen Ashworth aka Advance Base? If yes, the Color for Colors might the right choice for you. Or maybe not, but you should still check out this album. I usually do not do this, but I am sharing the full bio I received. It’s not only well written but also interesting story:
“Color for Colors is the musical moniker of Ollie Hobson, an artist and songwriter from Urbana, Illinois. He is the middle child of seven, and son to two concert pianists, Ian and Claude. Much like his siblings, Ollie was prescribed music lessons as a kid. Discouraged by his lack of immediate talent, however, he began to gravitate toward visual art in his adolescence. This passion eventually led him to Boston University, where he studied painting, graduating in 2007. It is here where he met fellow art student Matt Milkowski, and in 2006, after discovering their mutual appreciation for underground hip hop, the two began writing and performing their own hip hop tracks. In 2008, they migrated to Chicago, where they continued to experiment with DIY music making and production.
Beginning to discover the therapeutic nature that songwriting could provide both as a form of expression and introspection, Ollie took the name Color for Colors, and with the help of Matt, released an indie folk EP titled The Misadventures of Phthalo Blue in 2009. It was enjoyed by a handful of close friends. Mentally exhausted from the making of the EP, Ollie found it difficult to write new music. Searching for a new creative outlet, he discovered the art of improvisational comedy, and for the better part of decade, engrossed himself in the artform. Occasionally, he attempted to tinker with writing, but always found it difficult to complete anything substantial. In 2015, as a Christmas gift for his younger sister, Sophie, Ollie offered to write her a pop song, secretly hoping this might inspire him to finally finish something new. His writer’s block persisted, however, and in December 2016, without ever receiving her present, Sophie very tragically and unexpectedly passed away.
Trying to navigate and express the feelings of immense grief and sorrow around her passing, while simultaneously feeling a sense of guilt for having never followed through on her gift, Ollie found himself pulled back to music making. In August 2018, he finally sat down and began writing until he came up with a chorus. The chorus grew into a verse, and after many months of obsessive writing and rewriting, he had completed his first Color for Colors song in nearly nine years. After sharing it with a couple of trusted confidants, he was encouraged to keep going, perhaps with the goal of releasing an EP. In order to help fund it, Ollie turned to crowdfunding, and after a successful kickstarter campaign, Heartache’s official production began.
All in all, Heartache was written over the course of four years at his apartment in Logan Square. It was only with the support of countless friends and family that its creation was possible. An album written both about and through the ever winding road of the grieving process, Ollie’s hope is that Heartache might bring comfort and clarity to any listeners who are wading through the deep end of their own loss.”
A little bit longer read, but I hope you enjoyed it and it inspired you a little bit. I will definitely give this album some proper re-listening time so I can fully enjoy it. These days it is hard for me to find some extra free time where I can fully immerse into music and not be disturbed by everyday life.
You can find more music on Bandcamp.