Many artists chase their dream for years before getting their big break. And that is no different for the Swon Brothers. Colton and Zach Swon had gone back and forth to Nashville to chase their dreams before getting their big break- an audition on NBC’s hit reality television show, The Voice. The two brothers recently gave New England Country Music a call to talk about The Voice, their debut single, their influences, and more.
The Swon Brothers were born and raised in Muskogee, Oklahoma and were around music from day one. Their parents, Kelly and Tammy, were in a Southern gospel group called Exodus and Zach even played drums in that band when he was around nine years old. Growing up, music is what they knew most and they listened to all sorts of music. Everything from Ray Charles and Michael Jackson to the Eagles. Zach tells us that there was a wide range of music that they gravitated towards, especially music that featured harmonies since the two brothers sang together all the time and that’s what they wanted to do. And although they were influenced by groups like Diamond Rio and Little Texas, there was not a group that influenced them more than the Eagles. “I listen to them daily,” says Zach, “Nobody did those vocal harmonies better than those guys. We loved the fact that they could do one song that was super rocking and then could turn around and do a classic country sounding song too.”
In 2007, Colton auditioned for American Idol and reached the top 48 in the competition and the duo would appear as contestants on a local reality show called Gimme The Mike. But the Swon Brothers’ lives would change forever when they auditioned for NBC’s The Voice, to which they describe as an “impulse decision” and a “game changer.” On their televised blind auditions, the Swons would sing Tom Petty’s ‘American Girl,’ which led to Blake Shelton, Usher, and Shakira all turning their chairs around to try to convince them to join their respective teams. But, there was only one team for these Oklahoma boys… they had to go with Oklahoma native, Blake Shelton. But if Blake were not a judge on the show, they would have gone with Usher. “Even off camera, he was a cool dude. He had a unique way of coaching and was very genuine and devoted to his team.”
Throughout their time on The Voice, they performed songs from Merle Haggard and George Jones to Randy Houser, Bob Seger, and their childhood idols, the Eagles. And it worked. Their performances would bring them all the way to the live finale where they would eventually finish in third place with fellow country artist and team Blake member, Danielle Bradbery, being crowned as the winner of the hit show. However, they have no hard feelings for anyone or anything with how the show ended. They loved everything about it. “It was just a great experience. And Blake Shelton is absolutely what you think he would be. He’s just a great dude and he’s gone from a coach, to a friend and fan. He’s one of our biggest supporters. We love that guy and we love that show.”
Since then, their careers and lives have taken off with numerous television appearances and shows including recently playing at WKLB’s Country Heals road race in Hingham as well as a show at the Fryeburg Fair in Maine. They also got to play the famous Joe’s Bar in Chicago where they filmed the music video for their single, ‘Later On.’ The Swons equate that single to the ‘little engine that could,’ and describe the song as lighthearted with really good harmonies, which is why they gravitated to the song. The brothers tell us that the song took off more than they expected it to, which sold 23,000 copies in the first week.
After sixteen years of going back and forth between Nashville and Oklahoma, the Swon Brothers have finally made it. All that hard work and those auditions have paid off. So what’s next for the Swons? They have a new record coming out on October 14th and they will be doing everything they can to promote that record, including playing a lot of shows through the end of the year. They dreamt of this. To be playing music for a living with fans singing their songs back to them. This is all they ever wanted and there were not any backup plans. But they have had the right attitude the whole time. “As long as there is someone listening, you’re doing something right. Whether it’s one person or a million people. We all dream of having careers like Blake. It’s just hard work and determination.”