The Aftermath of a Song-Per-Week: Interview with Corey Gossett
Last year (2021), Corey Gossett set out to do the unthinkable - releasing a brand new song every single week for an entire year. He started in January with a 4-song EP that symbolized his move from Indiana to Ohio, then he continued to drop a new single on Friday of every week.
Corey, along with the help of Smart Boy Studios and Four Sixty Three, released not only a bunch of new music, but music videos and other complementary visuals as well. Even through a pandemic, Corey managed to find performance opportunities to show the new music to new AND existing fans. On top of the major task of writing and recording enough music to consistently drop over 52 weeks, Corey worked on building his knowledge and skills in terms of production and recording, and even creating content in addition to the weekly singles.
I sat down with Corey to pick his brain on the process…
What inspired you to WANT to drop a song every single week?
I think the main motivation behind it was just the desire to grow, ya know - audience wise. I knew based on people who have done it in the past that consistently releasing a digestible amount of music - we just did song - it’s like people are more likely to give that song a listen rather than dropping lengthy project after lengthy project and taking time in between to build hype then drop and it fizzles out and build up hype and drop again and it fizzles out. We just wanted to be consistent with it and do our best to get as many new ears as we can on it. Everybody that’s been with us on the journey, just keeping them content and happy - giving them new stuff constantly.
What were your goals and what were you hoping to achieve with this massive feat?
I knew it would be a challenge for both of us (Corey and Ash), because the workload was ridiculous, let's just get that straight. Other than that, I’m always trying to get better at songwriting. This year I practiced production a ton. I want to say I ended up producing around 25 of the songs.
Did you have that as a goal in mind - producing a large portion of the songs?
I think it was something that just came about. I knew I wanted to practice production throughout the year, and I knew it would be a good opportunity to. I don’t want to have to take away from Swove’s catalog, and Vesta’s catalog, and your catalog constantly because I know other artists are trying to look in. I definitely did want to try to branch out and learn what I could, but I didn’t have a set amount of songs I wanted to produce. I worked at my own pace and we ended up around 25, which I was super proud of. So to answer your question, practice production, grow my songwriting skills, and grow my fanbase.
What were you afraid of before going into the task?
That’s a good question. I don’t think I was necessarily afraid of anything. Looking back, my biggest fear was running out of things to talk about. I wanted to keep it genuine, I didn’t want there to hit a point in the year where “he’s just saying the same thing”. Even if it’s about a similar topic, I wanted to be able to approach it from a different angle, that was my technique to evade that. There’s something Gary Vee said, “I’ve always been saying the same thing. I just found different ways to say it until certain ways started connecting with certain people”. So for me, taking the parts of my life I love to write about, and getting creative and trying to find separate angles to display it to the audience to see what clicks better, what people like more.
Did you ever get to a point where you felt like you were running out of things to say?
Not during the year…honestly, now after the year, I’m like ‘what am I gonna talk about?’ It’s kind of something I’ve been struggling with recently. ‘What is next?’ Because it’s a huge thing to follow-up. Like you said, taking a step back and processing…we did grow a lot. I need to take time to step back and reassess where I’m at in the space right now and figure out how I want to maneuver forward.
Halfway through the year, how did you feel about the process, the work involved, and the reception you had gotten thus far?
I think I went into things with extremely high expectations on the outcome of growth...so that’s not to say I was disappointed or anything. I was always taking it step by step. When you’re working on something so big in scale, you have to break it off into pieces to really digest it. Halfway, I was happy with the growth on Spotify. As far as the process, that was around the time I started to get mentally worn out. It wasn’t so much the music, as it was promoting all of the releases and making sure everybody knew what was going on…staying on top of weekly content. It was just crazy - that’s when I knew how crazy it was going to be, not even just from the songwriting perspective.
What did you do to promote the music and your song-a-week goal?
I always tried to post a short little snippet on all my socials just announcing the song and giving people a taste of it. Looking back, I would have tried to re-format those. People on TikTok post extremely similar videos around the same song - that’s one thing I wish I would have done that may have resulted in more growth on TikTok. Aside from the snippet videos, we did a few lyric videos that Robby (Corey’s brother and a co-founder of Four Sixty Three) designed with cool effects and 3D assets. That was like our first go - right when we kicked off the year we had that in mind. But that got difficult to manage with the assets and syncing them to the sound.
How did you feel after the final song was finished? How did you feel when the final song was released?
Okay, for me, what moment in my head is solidified as the end as far as the studio process went, was the last session we had because I know we ended up using the recording that I did for “CHURCH” which was the last song - so kind of like seeing that come together and it was the last session, we got it mixed and we got it mastered and I mean, it was a moment. It’s hard to explain - I think there at that moment, I felt more proud and grateful. But I will say, when the song was released, it’s like those feelings had kind of- not entirely dissipated, obviously I’m proud of what we did…permanently, but when you first feel something, it’s heavier. So the weight of those feelings started to trickle off and by the time the song was released - the day of it’s always a good feeling, I’m listening to it trying to feel what everyone else is feeling - but that’s when I started to get feelings of sad and empty because it’s “done”. Everything we worked for was over, and it was so constant so to have that release of “you don’t have to do stuff like that everyday” - you do but not with the particular goal of the whole year - the question of “what’s next” starts, ya know?
It’s quite the arc from the beginning of the new year, you didn’t even have the MacBook yet and we were just starting the process - to the last song you produced it AND you recorded it - that whole arc of brand new to final song after 52 you produced and recorded.
I was really proud that I got to produce as many as I did, and that we got the couple in that I recorded as well. We talked about it a year and a half ago, I wanted to get to the point where I could just start sending you stuff, so it was cool to inch closer to that and get to do it a couple times before the end of the year.
What are some of your favorite songs you released this year, and why?
I think the first one that comes to mind is “Like You” with Duvo. First off, that song is a vibe to me. I love that song so much. The story of how that song ended up coming together, it seems like it’s one of those things that feels like it was supposed to happen. I hit up Duvo because of Jabari’s recommendation. We wrote “All In” the night he told me about Duvo. He hit Duvo up on SnapChat, Duvo messaged me on Instagram, I had the beat from 24k. I told him to check it out and let me know if he wanted to do something to it. He wrote something to it that night and posted a live snippet of it on Instagram and told me to check it out. It was a beautiful verse, I thought. So JV had a session the next day and had to cancel and you said “hey JV had to cancel, do you wanna slide through?” So I went there and Duvo messaged me while we’re at the studio saying he was going to be in Dayton that day and asked if he could slide through. His car broke down and he managed to find one of his buddies to drive him all the way out there despite. By the time he walked in, I had just finished my verse and my hook so he could just hop right in there and get it done. It came out amazing, so I just love how everything worked out with that song. “Night Day” is for sure - it’s another slow vibey one that I love also produced by 24k. “Ohio Is Most Definitely Not For Lovers” also produced by you - the production on that is nutty and as far as Pop Punk instrumentals go, it’s one of the best ones I’ve heard personally. “Lucid” produced by Dswove, he went so crazy on that production and for me to be able to let loose and try something entirely new - lots of screaming, it was just a different space for me to be in. We had a lot of fun making that. That’s definitely one of my favorites. [after asked another question] I just remembered another one. “Changes” - that was the first song I wrote and produced when I got out here [Ohio] - and that piano melody…God gave me that piano melody, let’s just get that straight. It was one of those things where I was fiddling around with something - once I had the MIDI down I started making tweaks and it came out beautifully. It’s easily the best piano part I’ve ever written.
Looking back, are there any songs that you released that you feel weren’t ready or that you don’t love maybe how you thought you did?
The only song I really feel ‘meh’ about is “This Party Sucks” - That’s always been the one for me. I get it - it was fun. It is a fun song, but it’s one we had been sitting on. We couldn’t really find a place for it. I don’t think it’s bad. I don’t hate the song. But it’s one that could have been perceived as a “throw-away” because lyrically it’s not anything fantastic. It’s just explaining a vibe and a situation, not so much a - there wasn’t a lot of weight to it. And that’s what I try to achieve with my music - at least giving it some sort of substance or emotional weight.
How many songs did you hold back from releasing and why did you hold them back? What do you plan to do with them?
There were a few we held back - one was made on that SorrowBringer beat - “Blinding” - we had to find new production for it because the original beat was sold exclusively to someone else. That is gonna find its place on a project in the future. One song we held back but did release was “Same Me” - I was super unsure about it because it showed an interesting side of this whole thing. It ended up being perceived well, it’s just a super personal song. There are some lines that come off a bit snarky or confident. I’m always interested in how people will take that from me. I try to be chill. I’m not “in your face” with confidence. 24/7. So that always has me kind of worried, and it brings up a super personal side of all of this - how much I’ve changed and AM I the same person as I was when we started this year. When I think of holding back, that’s what pops up in my head. Just the [Blinding] will go on a project in the future…then there’s the one I can’t say because artists don’t like to text back, but it is what it is.
I was thinking of “Somebody Stop Me”.
Oh THAT one…I forgot about that one. That might need to sit on ice for a minute. Like you said, we’d have to do a crazy visual for that one.
What are your plans for 2022?
Basically this year I want to focus on continuing to promote the music that we made last year. I want to start really focusing on TikTok. Now that I’ve seen - I was sleeping hard on TikTok - how people are dueting each other, it’s a lot more collaborative than I realized. I want to go back and maybe let people put verses on some of the songs we did this year - make them duetable. We’re working on a couple ideas for projects moving forward. We’re gonna keep creating music. I wanna do some videos, we’ve got merch coming. Boy Meets World will be out soonish [Feb 4th] - it’s gonna be the project that represents the year. I’m super happy with how it came out.
Tell them where to find you and what to listen to.
My name is Corey Gossett with Smart Boy Studios and Four Sixty Three - you can find me on any social @kidwhocameback - any streaming platform as “Corey Gossett” - new merch coming soon, Boy Meets World coming soon, new album after that. I love you guys.