In 2018, Aaron Cole was a man on fire. From the second that New Year’s clock hit, this Virginia Boy got to work cranking out an EP and about a dozen singles. Let’s also not forget, he was on the “Sessions Tour” with Canon and Deraj, and then TobyMac’s Hits Deep Tour. Oh yeah, he was also all over Derek Minor’s The Trap project. It truly was #ColeSeason.
The end of 2017 saw the newly minted Gotee Records signee getting ready to move to Nashville at the start of the new year.
“When I moved out here I just got to work,” said Cole. “I got in the studio and at first it was just me recording in the crib – I live with Canon. I was just going in and writing whatever, then I started to connect with Derek [Minor] on the daily. Then I started connecting with Cole [Cole Walowac, formerly of Capital Kings].”
The double Cole’s combined for Cole Season, as Walowac produced every track Aaron put out after his Virginia Boy EP.
“I would go to Cole’s house and every day we’re cooking,” he explained.
Cole admitted that most of his tracks for the EP were created and recorded in 2017. He pieced together a few missing parts and then had that EP ready quickly. The problem was, he was sitting on a bunch of new stuff that he desperately wanted to put out.
“From day one, I just write every day, EVERY-day,” he emphasized. “My dad, he had me write a song a day. I was like 13 or 14. Then it was hard. Now, I literally do that. If it’s not a song a day, it’s a few. I had this idea to put a single out every two weeks. The label was with it, and then we took it from there.”
Even though most of the tracks were ready, at times he was waiting for features to come in or the records to get through to streaming platforms. Cole said under normal circumstances, you’d give a track up to six weeks to get sent out. During that time, the songs can even be spotted for playlists and placements. With Cole Season, most of the time things were coming down to the wire.
“We weren’t doing that. We were doing it a week before and the mix wasn’t ready. It was crazy because all the plays were all organic. I got on a few playlists and some of those songs were slept on, but there was a lot coming out at the last minute. Hopefully, ‘Patient with Me’ goes to radio soon,” he said.
All throughout that time period, Cole was continuing to write as well. He had a lot going on in his life behind the scenes and that sparked the strength in his pen game.
“Life man,” he responded when asked about the inspiration for writing every day. “I hate going through trials and tribulations but at the same time, I love it because I can write about it. Going through life’s ups and downs. I can get inspiration from having a conversation with someone about what’s going on in their life. If I’m just thinking about something going on in my past, sermons, podcasts, learning new things and listening to things about life and how to get better. Talking to people in my life, keeps me going. If you listen to my music, you get my life, what I’ve been through, and where I’m going.”
Although his streak of singles is finished, that doesn’t mean he’s done for the year. He’s heading out on another leg of the Hits Deep Tour and at the same time plotting out what his own headlining tour would look like. Ideally, he’d love to take out artists like Kaleb Mitchell and CASS. They fit his mold, one a rapper and the other a singer, Cole, being both.
Cole began collaborating a lot with Mitchell, Caleb Cruise, Koryn Hawthorne, and of course, Derek Minor.
“I like building relationships with people and working with my friends. If this song blows up, I want one of my homies to blow too. If I eat, they eat,” Cole revealed.
Cole appeared on the tracks “Nothing Into Something,” “See You Win,” and “Don’t You Cry” off of The Trap. He explained that “See You Win” was originally his track but “Derek was vibing to it” so he gave it to him.
“I think what makes our working relationship so dope is that we have a relationship outside of work. We just get inspired all the time when we are together,” he said of all his frequent collaborators.
All this working together has created talks of a joint album. Cole said the biggest reality is probably a project with Mitchell.
Right now though, Cole’s main focus is on what’s next musically. He is already starting to plan his full-length album. “People are saying albums are dying but I just want to make a fire album,” he said.
For Cole, December is his month of rest before sprinting out into 2019.
“Right now I’m chilling with family, enjoying life, and then going back on the Hits Deep Tour with Toby.”
Listen to Aaron Cole Below:
And that’s it…for the moment. Aaron Cole took the time to give Rapzilla an exclusive breakdown on every track he released this year. So stay tuned, next Monday, you’ll get to see just what “trials and tribulations” Cole went through this year.
