Music has been a serious passion throughout the young artist’s life, as Supple put it: ”kind of an always thing.” Supple began playing the guitar at six years old, kicking off his initial interests for music through practice and delving into songwriting. It began to develop further, by third grade, writing songs; a curious, genuine interest furthered by seeing progress in his work.
Major influences of his work, such as the Beatles, shaped his previous styles and allowed him to further add onto his early subject matter with more depth and experience behind it.
“Back then, it was just kind of my “I’m this huge Beatles fan,” Supple said. It was a beginning for his ideas, shaped by his “third-grader’s perspective on love and relationships. Now that I’m in high school, it’s developed a lot more and the songs are [not only] about relationships, things in my life, little topics that get into my head, so it’s a big range of things.”
His style, developed with his topics, has shifted as well— expanding further with what suits him and what he enjoys. In earlier years, it was straight rock and roll, but now, he finds it leaning towards a more “funk-rock” feel.
Even as it morphs, Supple has faced some doubt as to how his style is shifting. Creating a unique style and leaning more towards things that he can enjoy are important aspects, but he also wants to dive into writing for the sake of others as well. Finding that unique style that aims for becomes a goal to look for a “happy medium” between his 60s-70s background and what everyone else likes.
The inspiration to write his music has shifted with his new emphasis on practice.
“I write one song every day, because songwriting is a muscle,” Supple said, “you have to exercise it to keep it healthy. Anything from serious to silly, but if nothing’s quite hitting you, then you just write something random to explore something random.” Although any topic that he might think of might be considered weird, daily practice has helped out a lot in understanding himself and his own skill at song-writing.
While his songwriting practice does focus on understanding himself, he hopes to shift his subject matter to concentrate on the community within Thousand Oaks to learn more about the people in it. He hopes to be able to impact others with his music and songwriting, but also shift away from personal focus in individual songs.
“I really want to try to move away from [self-centeredness],” Supple said. “[I’m trying to] not be so concerned with my problems and just see what I can learn about other people through focusing on their problems.”
These goals for himself have shown the way he pursues music— by his own terms, but supported by a close community. He began building his own studio when he was thirteen years old, and records there for the majority of time spent by himself, sometimes with friends. Family and close friends have seen what he’s done, and have been supportive with his music.
“People have seen what I’ve done (close musicians, family, and friends),” Supple said, “they’ve all been super supportive, they’ve given me advice, they just kinda keep it going for me.”
With support for his dreams and a set of a different kind of strings, Supple is optimistic in his ventures for the future and even further into the music industry. He hopes to be able to pursue his musically-oriented goals in life and further to his abilities by his own standards.
“I try and do things my own way, because I think the way to changing people and progressing is through finding your own unique way of doing things,” Supple said. “[To this,] I’m really trying to find a unique style, a unique path, a unique perspective on everything so that I can try and live my dreams.”
You can buy Cole Supple’s album, “The Different Strings” and single, “Get With It” from his website, physical or digital. You can also find his music to listen to on Spotify and YouTube.
