Things just keep getting better for rising music star Colt Graves. The local singer-songwriter announced Wednesday he’s signed a record deal with multi-platinum artist and producer Timbaland.
The news comes less than 2 months after Graves, a Calhoun native who now resides in Owensboro, released the viral hit “Dirt on Me.” The song peaked near the top of several country charts, but more importantly caught the attention of Timbaland.
In a Q&A in May, Graves said Timbaland runs a TikTok channel with close to a million followers where he reviews independent music. “Dirt on Me” was among the selected songs one day, and Timbaland “had nothing but positive things to say” about Graves’ music.
The record deal is something the two camps have been working on for about a month, Graves said.
“This deal allows me to do what I have always wanted to do, make music for a living. I have spoken with Tim and his team about collaborations and they told me, ‘We will be involved as much or as little as you want.’ So there are definitely opportunities for us to fly out to Los Angeles and work on some tracks with Timbaland,” Graves said.
Asked why he thought Timbaland was drawn to his music, Graves said he thinks the uniqueness of the songs stuck out.
“He kept mentioning how he could just tell that I’m a superstar. Which sounds wild, but he really does believe in me,” Graves said. “He has always said that he loves my music and trusts me to do what I think is best on songs. I will definitely be using his expertise to create songs moving forward. Why would you not?”
Graves already had some new music in the works, saying he’s still planning to drop the single “3AM” around August. Beyond that, he said the deal will impact new releases with multiple parties now having a stake. While Graves and his team had been discussing an album before the deal happened, he said now they’ll need to see what the label has in mind before they start pumping out new tracks.
In making his announcement Wednesday, Graves posted a picture of himself looking out over his old family farm. He had just taken care of the horses and was about to create some promotional videos for “Lonesome Roads,” his first country music song as a solo artist.
“I was looking over my family and farm and thinking about how grateful I was to have made it this far in life from where I started, but also thinking about how things were about to change,” Graves wrote. “I knew in order to make this dream come true I had to commit to this and put in more work than I ever had before. I have sacrificed a lot to get here, my family has sacrificed even more. We are now starting to reap the rewards of those sacrifices.”
Graves said the deal allows him to leave his position at Moore Automotive to pursue music full time.
But he’s not leaving Owensboro — at least not yet.
“I love Owensboro,” he said. “I fully intend to live here as long as it makes sense for us to. I will be working a lot out of Nashville to write and record, and probably doing the occasional flight out to LA.”
Graves also wanted to give credit to the crew of local people involved that will continue with him along his journey, including:
Christian Potts (management/promotion); Nick Gray (tour manager/music direction); Jake Parshall (producer/engineer); Taylor Graves (photography/videography); and Alan Richeson, Jordan Centers, Adam Scott (songwriters).
While Graves can’t get into more detail yet about “some of the other cool things happening,” he did have a message for his supporters.
“What I would like to say to everyone is that you can do it too,” he said. “People may think you are crazy, but you can do whatever you want to do in this life if you believe in it and commit to it. I am living proof that you can achieve even the loftiest of goals if you are willing to put in the work.”
