In Color

In Color make the kind of alternative pop that sounds like a long drive after midnight, headlights cutting through the dark while everyone else is asleep. The Nashville four-piece came together in 2024 around Matthew Hastings on vocals, Holden Clontz on bass, Val Hoyt on synths and keys, and Miles Laderman on drums, and from the start they have prioritized feeling over flash. Their songs are built from layered soundscapes where synths, guitars, vocals, and drums blend without any one element fighting for the front. It is music made by longtime friends, and you can hear that ease in how naturally the pieces lock together.

The band's breakout came with "Headlights," their 2025 debut single, a song that opens with a sense of motion both musical and emotional. The rhythm pushes forward like driving at night, building toward a chorus that never loses its introspective hush. It became the centerpiece of their debut EP, the aptly titled Snow Day, and it earned them a home on Big Loud Rock. Across that EP, including the warm ache of "I Want You," In Color staked out their territory: alt-pop with real weather in it, songs about distance and longing that stay controlled and sincere rather than oversung. Hastings has a gift for keeping his voice soft and reflective, letting the production carry the emotional weight while he holds something back.

What makes the band worth watching is how they keep moving. "Big Deal" arrived as a natural progression, rooted in the mood of Snow Day while quietly pointing toward where they were headed next. "Lighter" deepened the same instinct, that sense of small, intimate stakes rendered on a widescreen canvas. Then came "Jet Lag Mouth," and it felt like a leap. Sparked with electronic detailing and techno-leaning beats, the single manages to feel nostalgic for the synth-pop of the 80s while staying firmly planted in the high-definition sound of right now. The band described wanting to bottle "that weird, lonely electricity you feel when you're awake and the rest of the planet isn't," and the song delivers exactly that suspended, time-doesn't-exist hum.

That balance is the whole story with In Color. They reach for multi-layered, nostalgia-infused energy without ever sacrificing intimacy, so even when the synths swell and the beat turns electronic, the songs stay close and personal. Their influences run deep and wide, from Coldplay and Kings of Leon to Switchfoot, the Beatles, and U2, and you can trace those threads in the big-hearted choruses and the patient, atmospheric builds. But the result never feels borrowed. It feels like a band that found its own lane in the indie and alt-pop scene and decided to drive it with full conviction.

They are playing these songs nightly now on a headlining U.S. tour, the live setting where this kind of music tends to bloom. In Color are still early in their story, and that is the exciting part: every release so far has been a step up, and they sound like a band just getting started.