Singer/songwriter Colin Huntley has accomplished a great deal in music and film, even though he’s just a senior in high school at The Austin School for Performing and Visual Arts!
Based in Austin, this young guitarist/vocalist has seen emerging opportunities as he works to use his talents, develop his playing & singing abilities, and perfect his performances.
Doors really began to open for Colin after attending the AMTC (Actors, Models, and Talent for Christ) Shine event in Orlando, summer 2011.
For one thing, he signed with Abrams Artist Agency and Snow Entertainment in LA. Living in LA for 9 months, he was booked as a featured extra role on an episode of ABC’s Modern Family, an AT&T Commercial, a Music Video and a Web Series Episode.
Colin then released two EP’s, including the single “Wings” (a finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, 2012), and “I Bet” and “Linger” (semi-finalists in the Unsigned Only Song Writing contest, 2013).
Most recently, his first official music video “Best I Never Had” (one of the songs from his second EP) was nominated for best music video in the 2014 Hollywood Music in Media Awards. This original single has already had over 319,000 YouTube views so far:
This summer Colin was featured on Kings Of A&R as a Top 8 emerging Artist to Watch and he performed on the nationally televised premier episode of ABC’s Rising Star. And Colin is now working on his third EP at Orb Studios in Austin with producer Matt Noveskey (platinum indie rock band Blue October).
We met Colin at the Tom Jackson Bootcamp in Nashville this September. I asked him what he thought of his time at the event. “Rehearsal time is hard to come by since I’m still in school and we are gigging quite a lot,” says Colin. “But I’m definitely working to create ‘moments’ in my set lists… I’m also thinking differently about how I arrange a song when playing it live to create more dynamics and draw the audience in more effectively.”
Colin learned from his experience at Bootcamp and is trying to be creative with marketing and merchandise as well. “I plan to experiment offering a free autographed 8×10 photo for people who come see me at the merch table after the show… and I’m going to focus on getting them to sign up for free music downloads via my website in return for their email/zip codes so I can build my mailing list more effectively.”
After showcasing one of his songs in Nashville, Colin won an image/style makeover session as a Top Performer with potential that was apparent to everyone in the audience! (Watch his Live Music Makeover showcase here with a Backstage Pass…)
Check Colin’s schedule here to see him live… (he starts his first College-University music tour in early 2015, so dates will be added as the tour develops).
But until you have the opportunity to see him in person, watch this live performance of The Colin Huntley Band at the 2014 Red Poppy Festival in Georgetown Texas:
Hey all at OnStage Success!!
Now that I know where to ask questions lol and
join the Green Room 🙂
I was wondering how does a person get in a college
tour. I would LOVE to get on tour with something like
that. Can anyone give me some guidance in that area?
Thank you,
Stacy Stone
Hey, Stacy Stone, glad to see you posting here in the Green Room!
I know of one place to get booked for college tours (and there are likely more)… NACA (National Association for Campus Activities) books for colleges and universities around the country. We worked with an artist who became the #1 booked music artist at (NACA) and produced over $200,000 in bookings after working on his live show with us! (Pretty cool, huh?)
This article tells a little more about how to audition with NACA: http://www.musicbizacademy.com/articles/collegegigs.htm
Hope that helps!
Jodi
Awesome!! Thank you! I will look into it.
-Stacy