Today we’d like to introduce you to Colin Dieden.
Colin, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started off like most people who are songwriters and musicians – I started my career playing in punk bands in my hometown of Kansas City.
I moved to LA at 18 and started The Mowgli’s. I wrote, sang and played guitar in the band for ten years. That band took me all over the country for what feels like a hundred times, and to some really interesting places internationally.
I feel in a lot of ways that experience prepared me for what I’m doing now as a solo artist. I spent years and years becoming the writer and frontman that I am now. For me – ultimately – it was time to break off from the group and take some risks, which I’m doing now. Almost everyone in my life had been telling me that for years – go try this on your own and see if it works for you. I just needed to build up the confidence, and now I’m really excited about how things are developing as Little Hurt.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No, it certainly wasn’t smooth! I feel like things like this rarely are, especially as a music creator. I’ve dealt with a lot of rejection. You have to put in insanely long hours and a lot of hard work to build your music career… While often not feeling very appreciated. You work for long stretches with getting enough sleep.
Sometimes I would get feelings of homesickness & loneliness that are hard to describe with words. I’ve lost a few really good friends because of the decision I made to go solo – but at the end of the day, you have to put the blinders on and keep marching forward no matter how much it hurts. And it does hurt because you put so much of your heart and soul into trying to build up a career. But no matter how difficult it can sometimes be – I’m just never gonna settle for the easy way.
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I write songs for a LOT of different things.
I work with other artists – some of my recent co-writes have been with Twin XL, Tim Legend, Mainland, and Culpriit.
I also write for TV, Film, commercials, etc. I’ve had sync placements in TV Shows & Movies including “Sirens”, “Batwoman”, “Shameless”, “Little Big Shots”, “Reef Break”, “Telenovela”, “Gainesville”; the theme song for Disney’s “Big City Greens”, and numerous ESPN and MTV shows. Sometimes that stuff feels a lot like a job – but that’s not what Little Hurt is.
Little Hurt is where I get to be as honest and vulnerable as possible – to the point that it can be uncomfortable. I think my lyrical style is pretty decidedly my own – and is unique.
What sets me apart is I definitely have this dichotomy thing I do – where I tend to set really sad lyrics against music that sounds pretty upbeat and happy.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I’m encouraged by the way my fans have stuck with me, and how Little Hurt is growing. My new song “Alaska” is off to a really great start on all the streaming services and is gaining traction at Alternative Radio, which is really exciting. We’ve made a fun video for “Alaska” that’s a mix of live action and animation that we’ll be sharing with everyone soon.
I really want to get back out and play live as soon as we can safely do so. The Covid-19 pandemic has made it hard to know exactly when that will be… So I’m engaging with my fans on Social Media as much as possible for now, and playing music on various platforms to at least share that kind of live experience with everyone.
I’m continuing to write more new songs, which we will be releasing to keep things moving forward until touring opens up again.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littlehurtofficial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/littlehurtofficial/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/littlehurt
- Other: https://orcd.co/alaska
Image Credit:
Kay Kay Blaisdell
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