Kolby Cooper is kicking down the doors with his roaring new song, “Hate You Too,” out November 1.
Penned by Cooper with Andrew Baylis, Riley Thomas, and Michael Whitworth, the fresh release takes his signature grunge style and layers it with bold, punchy drumbeats to create the perfect soundscape for the passionate love-hate relationship at play.
The Texas native sings from the perspective of a man who is deeply in love with his other half but also has some pent-up rage over her reckless and toxic habits. His commanding vocals put those honest emotions on display in full force, allowing the listener to escape from their own state of confusion and bring every raw feeling to the surface.
“I hate you too/The way you blame the planets for your bad own mood/ The law should lock you up for how you drive/ The truth is you don’t know the half of what you put me through/ I love you baby never say goodbye,” Cooper sings on the chorus.
The Intention Behind The Song
While speaking with Country Now, he reflected on the journey of the song and the inspiration that sparked his idea for the conflicting storyline. While he didn’t put too much pressure on creating a tune that fit into any one genre, he explained that his intention was to make the listener feel as though they’re “driving on a straightaway going 150.”
“I had the title, ‘Hate You Too,’ and we talked about it for probably an hour, like should we make it a love song or should it be just straight up like a f**k you, I’m done song. In the end I feel like it’s a little more, I guess, different to do it this way. I mean I was so stoked when we finished it and the way it turned out…it’s one of my favorites really,” he admitted.
Before the song’s official release, Cooper saw rave reviews from fans who were learning the lyrics via snippets shared online and then fully prepared to sing the chorus back to him during his recent live shows.
“It’s been a crazy reaction. We’ve been singing it live. It’s just been cool to have a song that’s not out with people singing it.”
New Project On The Way
This release comes hot on the heels of songs “Hello From The Road,” “Running Away,” “My Love,” and “Mama.” With each new song, Cooper teased that he is building out a brand-new project, and “Hate You Too” is slated to be one of the heaviest songs on the track list. The forthcoming collection will mark his first project since his label-debut full-length album Boy From Anderson County To The Moon, which dropped in 2022.
“With the new project, we don’t have an actual release date for it yet, but it’ll be early next year, in the first quarter sometime,” he promised. “I’m so excited about it. It’s like all my favorite stuff, and I feel like every album I get closer to finding, I don’t know if it’s finding my sound, I don’t know, I like every album more than the last one.”
That signature rock/country sound will likely come to play throughout these next set of songs, but overall Cooper says it will be “pretty mixed” as far as the sound goes.
He continued, “I really do feel like this is some of the best writing and stuff that we’ve done. And I’m just so excited for everybody to hear all of it because it’s not just a heavy rock/country album. There’s some more country stuff on it that hasn’t been teased…I’m just excited for everybody to hear it.”
Balancing Life On The Road With Fatherhood
After a wildly busy year of touring, Kolby Cooper has learned the value of staying present in the moment and enjoying every second of his time on stage. These experiences are even better on the nights he gets to share the excitement with his three kids and his wife.
“We got three now. The oldest is in school and with school every day, it’s kind of hard to get them out on a three-day run where they’re gone half the week or whatever. But anytime they can, my wife always tries and brings them out, and it’s the most fun just getting to have them out.”
Part of his touring schedule this year has included opening dates with rising country star Koe Wetzel. The pair of artists have been sharing stages since Cooper first started out, around 2018, and some of his first major shows were with Wetzel.
“He was still playing like 300-400 person clubs, but our first shows were with him in New Orleans, like 250 people in a small room. So to go from that to playing some of these arenas where there’s 10,000 people, it’s really cool.”
Kolby Cooper Christmas Acoustic Tour
Kolby Cooper is now gearing up to launch his annual Kolby Cooper Christmas Acoustic Tour. This trek is expected to be a “really fun time” and will give the emerging artist the chance to put on a more relaxed show. He says he spends half the time trying to make people laugh and the other half playing songs that he loves to play that often don’t make it into his full band sets.
“It’s very loose. I’ll take requests and sh*t. If somebody really wants to hear a song, we’ll be like, alright, we’ll try. We haven’t played it in a couple years, but we’ll see what happens. It’s fun. We’ll go up there and just have a good time.”
Despite the name, the emerging artist doesn’t typically bring out the holiday tunes on this run, but he did reveal that he’s thinking about adding one to the setlist this year. The Christmas Acoustic Tour features four dates in Texas and runs from Dec. 4-7.
The post Kolby Cooper Offers Another Look Into His Forthcoming Project With Hard-Hitting Track, ‘Hate You Too’ appeared first on Country Now.
