THUNDER BAY – In order for Coleman Hell to have his musical breakthrough, he had to have a personal one.
For the musician, who was born and raised locally but now based in Toronto, the epiphany was that embracing who he is and where he came from makes him a better artist.
“I think I left Thunder Bay because I didn’t belong and it was hard for my music to have an impact. I came to this bigger city and I tried to fit into the scene here and I did that for a number of years,” he said in a telephone interview last week.
“I’ve just come full-circle and realized that the stuff people are truly responding to are the songs that are me being more honest and writing from a more honest place.”
Hell moved to Toronto five years ago and initially played at a number of different venues in the nation’s city on open mic nights, hoping to get noticed while also recording music and making it available online. But facing a half decade of living in the big city trying to make waves, it was time to make an impact.
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He burst into the mainstream in 2015 with his smash hit single 2 Heads, which went platinum in Canada and spent 20 weeks on the Billboard alternative chart, rising as high as No. 5. It has also been included in a number of year-end lists of top electronic songs.
That led to him inking a long-awaited deal with an international label, Columbia Records, and releasing an EP, which featured another song, Take Me Up, which reached a broad audience after it was featured in an episode of the ABC drama Grey’s Anatomy.
He’s coming back home to celebrate his achievements, playing a show at Crocks on Sunday that sold out the day tickets went on sale.
He has controlled local airwaves as 2 Heads has been a major audience favourite.As monumental as he finds it to hear a song of his on the radio, Hell is more pleased it fulfills a prophecy that was set out for him by his parents.
“I put my parents through so much, always being up late making music and keeping them awake,” he said.
“I think when I first moved away they were worried about me but they were always like ‘that’s going to be you one day, you’re going to be on the radio one day.’ Driving around with my dad he would always say stuff like that so to be on there now feels good for myself but it feels cool my parents can turn on the radio and hear me.”
As 2 Heads caught fire, with the official video having more than three million views on YouTube, he learned about what it takes for an artist to emerge above the noise in the modern music industry.
“You need something that’s reactive, a really good piece of content whether it’s a catchy song, really moving song or crazy video but you need something that provokes a reaction,” Hell said.
“There’s so much out there and it’s really saturated. There’s more pressure to make really good music and videos and a lot more opportunity for people that maybe wouldn’t have had a chance to get exposure 10 or 15 years ago.”
As a big of a year as 2015 was for Hell, he’s hoping the momentum will carry into 2016 to continue his ascension.
A new single is expected to drop in February with the release of his debut album scheduled to come at some point during the year. He has also been lined up for a number of major music festivals and will hit the road for an arena tour with Twenty One Pilots.
“I have a lot on the plate for next year so it should be fun,” he said.
