Q&A: Surfaces Navigates Redemption on the Road to Album Seven
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY SOPHIE GRAGG ☆
WITH BILLIONS OF STREAMS AND SIX STUDIO ALBUMS UNDER HIS BELT - Surfaces’ Colin Padalecki is no stranger to the "feel-good" spotlight. But as he gears up for his seventh project, the San Antonio-based artist is trading polished samples for raw, live instrumentation and a deeper sense of introspection. The lead single, “Call Me When You’re Home,” serves as the perfect gateway into this new era, a track that was born on a vintage piano and developed in the open through real-time fan engagement on social media.
From recording background vocals with a group of close friends in his home studio to collaborating with producer Anderson East in Nashville, Padalecki is leaning into a sound that is as much about community as it is about personal redemption. After a year defined by loss, the upcoming album represents a shift toward authentic storytelling, written almost entirely on guitar and rooted in the silver linings of life.
Read below to learn about the intentional "rawness" of the new production, the vulnerability behind his favorite lyrics, and why his close-knit community is the irreplaceable engine behind this seventh chapter.
LUNA: You developed “Call Me When You’re Home” in real-time on TikTok and Instagram. How did involving fans change your usual creative process?
SURFACES: I think I was so stoked on how fast this one started to come to me that it would be cool for a change to let people in on what I was writing at the moment. I love hearing people’s differing perspectives and opinions, but I try not to let it affect my creative decision-making. I’m always so grateful for all my supporters in music, but I feel it’s important to stay in tune with my internal compass and experiences so that each song is as authentic as possible. I’m thankful for so many different types of input across multiple communities in my life, but I try not to let those opinions influence my process so that I can continue to grow naturally as an artist and retain the uniqueness that I hope gives my songwriting and sonics their own defining character.
LUNA: Can you tell us more about working with Anderson East and how that impacted the final feel of the track?
SURFACES: I always love working with Anderson, man—great guy. I remember the first time we met in Nashville we wrote two songs in a couple of hours. He has my favorite home studio in Nashville and I always feel inspired when I walk in. I had brought in the early version of CMWYH and sang the first verse to him in the room on his upright piano. He loved it and helped me steer the song where it needed to go. He understood that I wanted to retain the rawness of the song production-wise and not over-produce it so that the melodies and words could speak on their own.
LUNA: You invited friends into your home studio to contribute background vocals to give the track a more "human" texture. Why was it important for this specific song to feel like a communal, shared experience?
SURFACES: Community is a huge pillar in my life. I consider all my close friends like family; I don’t know what I’d do without them. They helped me get through the worst year of my life two years ago, so I wanted to share this moment with them and just have fun with it. I could have hired a small choir to sing backup vocals "professionally," but I thought having my friends—none of whom have a serious music background—would mean more. I told them not to worry about hitting the right notes, rather just yell out the chorus like we would singing any other song on the weekend.
I also think it's important in this daunting era where AI is only being used more and more to “create” songs, that the more imperfections, the more “human” music can continue to be and become irreplaceable by soulless AI song engines.
LUNA: The lyrics explore two people reconnecting after drifting apart. What are your favorite lyrics from the track?
SURFACES: There’s a few on this one that I look back on with a smile, haha. I’m a stream-of-consciousness songwriter, so I think the words were drawn mostly from a night a while back I shared with someone at Manhattan Beach. “Waitin’ on you like a sunrise” was about possibly never seeing this person again after an amazing night out, and we always used to talk about the colors of sunsets/sunrises. “Spin you round, out on the sidewalk” is about dancing on a street corner that night to live music that was right off the beach. “Come and roll my stone” really made the chorus for me… to me it means being vulnerable with someone and asking them to take a chance on truly getting to know one another and not having to hide or be afraid of truly living anymore.
LUNA: After six albums, how do you keep the "Surfaces sound" evolving while staying rooted in those sun-drenched influences?
SURFACES: I love being hard to define genre-wise; I take pride in it. To this day I still struggle to answer people who ask what kind of music I make for a living. I usually just tell them “feel-good music,” whatever that entails anyway, haha. Again, I’m just a stream-of-consciousness songwriter… I never know what’s gonna fall out of my head every time I hold a guitar or touch a piano. I just try to be honest and authentic… like Jack Johnson, an artist and songwriter I have a deep admiration for both in and out of music. I feel like as long as I continue to find the silver linings in life and go out and live outside under the sun, that these songs will continue to grow within me as I do.
LUNA: This is the lead single for your upcoming seventh studio album. How does the energy of this project differ from your earlier work since launching in 2017?
SURFACES: I feel like this is my most introspective and authentic songwriting to date. This album came from an honest place of loss turned to redemption. Every single song came from me writing on just a guitar (with the exception of Call Me When You’re Home being written on piano). There aren’t any samples on the project; all live instrumentation played with intention and warmth.
LUNA: Can you share a favorite memory from the making of the album?
SURFACES: The very first song that started the concept of this album was one I made with some music friends on Lake LBJ in Texas… my favorite place in the world. We made the song in a day and genuinely had so much fun. It just felt like a new chapter in both my life and in my journey in songwriting. I just felt so free in that moment. I still feel like I’m reliving that day in the sun every time I listen.
LUNA: With the album slated for a summer release, what is the core feeling or world you want listeners to step into when they hear the full project for the first time?
SURFACES: I just hope they listen and find peace in the words like I needed the words to find the peace in me.
