Let’s talk about Fort Collins’ brightest up-and-coming indie artist, Co-Stanza. His sonic style is often drenched in sunshine, but make no mistake — he’s not afraid to revel in the shadows.
Take his recent single, “Sunny,” for example. It’s a breezy pop tune that elicits feelings of barefoot summer strolls in the park surrounded by friends and lovers, a cool wind blowing gently through your hair. Yet, it acknowledges that these lovely sunny days spent outside wouldn’t mean as much without the cold, rainy days spent looking out the window. This contrast makes his music so exciting in its ability to capture a wide range of emotions in just a few minutes. Plus, it’s catchy as hell.
Originally from the Chicago suburbs, Jack Costanza began his musical journey as organically as it gets: driving around and freestyling with his friends. Eventually, this casual relationship with songwriting developed into a more serious aspiration when he began his college experience and discovered how much he enjoyed the creative process. Around this time, he met longtime producer Ryan Adams (maybe not the one you’re thinking of) — who Constanza described as his “right-hand side of production” — and the early days of the Co-Stanza project officially took form.
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As his name began to rise in the Chicago area, Costanza began “getting burnt out living in the city.” He described a sense of competition that “makes you hungry” by emphasizing the “grind” rather than pure creation. “It’s super competitive in Chicago, in a way that you can get lost in what you’re creating.” This burnt-out feeling influenced the young artist to relocate to Fort Collins, where he now resides and teaches high school math.
Since moving to Colorado, Costanza has found a clear, refreshed sense of belonging. He described his admiration for the Colorado music scene and its “tightness,” emphasizing how artists out here tend to see their fellow musicians as peers to work alongside rather than competition to beat out. Speaking of his early years in the state, he told 303 Magazine he “felt super welcomed and supported and encouraged.” It wasn’t long before Adams, a proud Berkeley graduate, followed Costanza to the Rocky Mountain region and Co-Stanza soon became a household name in the local scene.
As they delved deeper into creation and experimentation, Costanza recognized a “vacuum of — especially within pop and indie pop — high quality, well branded, well-marketed music.” This realization can sometimes feel a bit discouraging to emerging artists that don’t have fancy equipment and marketing teams to help build their sound and brand to a professional level. Thankfully, Costanza saw the flipside of the coin.
“It feels like a really cool time right now,” Costanza said, “because things continue to get more accessible and artists can make high-quality stuff through cheaper and better programs. It feels like there’s an era of change that’s shifting from small singer-songwriter house shows to movers and shakers. I’m really excited to be a part of that.”
This manner of thinking — the willingness to find hidden hope within difficult situations — influences much of Costanza’s work these days. But this perspective was hard won through years of difficult lessons inherent to creative evolution.
Years of the aforementioned “grind” definitely wore Costanza down. On more than one occasion, he almost gave up. People in the music business were constantly encouraging Costanza to ground himself in a single sonic lane, which quickly began to feel more limiting than inspiring.
But now, Costanza has come out the other side with a zen-like sense of peace in his approach to music. He’s no longer concerned with what people think he should do, instead looking at his future with a clear mind, ready to mold his project into whatever he wants it to be. This has manifested in a commitment to variety and reinvention, never willing to make the same song twice.
At times, he’s a singer-songwriter, evidenced by his raw, stripped-down 2021 effort, Patch of Grass (check out the song “Gum Disease” for a folky guitar ballad with some bluegrass flair). Other times, he’s a laid-back pop star, dealing out big, stick-in-your-head-forever choruses and easy flows on songs like last year’s “Method Actor.” These days, he considers his creative philosophy as informed by past hardships but looking confidently to the future, saying, “Don’t be scared to go hard. Don’t be scared to push it just because it’s sucked in the past.”
“For me, as far as the philosophy goes, it’s about finding a middle ground between staying relaxed, staying in it for the right reasons. A part of me likes to play big shows and share my music with a wide audience of people. But I also have this side that’s like, ‘I’m just going to play in my bedroom for the next year.’ I just try to walk through it slowly and try not to stay in one camp or the other.”
This sense of contentment feeds into his upcoming projects, songs that he describes as “big swings” into “weirder” territory for Co-Stanza. He teased five upcoming singles releasing this summer — the first of which is “On My Mind,” a bass-forward funk tune and a certified bop set to be released April 28th. Another is a full-blown punk rock anthem. In the meantime, he’s got two big headlining shows coming up, one at Globe Hall on May 5th and the other at Fort Collins’ hallowed Aggie Theatre on May 6th. His song “Not Sure What to Do” featuring KT will also be featured on the upcoming 303 Music Vinyl Volume 5, officially being released on May 6th.
As for final words, Costanza left 303 Magazine with this, “I feel purpose in my job. I feel purpose in my relationship. I feel purpose in music and I feel good right now about it. It feels like the time for it to be both high quality and low stakes and really fun. I just hope that people feel that in the music.” Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for all of Co-Stanza’s upcoming projects!