Today we’d like to introduce you to Caleb Coonrod.
Hi Caleb, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My mother taught me a few guitar chords when I was about 10 yrs old, but it wasn’t until high school that I began to take the guitar seriously. Once I got to the point where I could kind of play, I gravitated towards songwriting. I wasn’t naturally talented as a guitarist or a singer, but songwriting and connecting with others felt like something I could do. Something I had to do.
I graduated high school in 2007 and spent a few years riding horses for a living. I worked for various people, traveled a lot, had experiences, and saw parts of America I had only heard of. It was an adventure and a dream fulfilled.
I had continued to play and write songs and at age 20—when I wasn’t even old enough to legally get into a bar—I landed my first residency playing four-hour solo shows at a small bar near Enos, Oklahoma where I was working at the time. After a few months, I decided to quit riding horses and chase my new dream of pursuing music.
I spent the next few years playing solo shows in various venues throughout North Texas and southern Oklahoma. I worked various jobs to pay the bills, enrolled in junior college, and struggled to find band members.
Everyone in that area was engulfed in the Texas Country/Red Dirt scene at the time, but I had no interest in forming a band that played that kind of music. I wanted to do something more true to who I was becoming—something that could appeal to more people. I wanted to make music with a different kind of depth, something that would stand the test of time and inspire people to persevere in an eternal sense.
I didn’t have a band yet, but I decided that when I did, I would call it Remain.
In 2012, I decided to move to Denton, TX, primarily for the music scene but also to finish college at the University of North Texas. I attended open mics religiously and soon got involved with DentonRadio.com playing solo shows and events all over town.
Denton was great for me because you could hear and play any kind of music. The scene placed value on original material and people actually began requesting songs that I had written.
In 2014 I met drummer Perry Hill and I finally formed a band called Remain with three simple goals in mind: 1. become a great band 2. write great songs 3. play those songs in places where they will be heard.
We spent the next 5 years basically learning what not to do. We had setbacks, were rejected, had multiple failures, released a bad EP, had band members come and go, but slowly began to improve and find our sound. We began to learn how to play together as a band and how to serve a song. Much of our growth during this time can be credited to our recording experiences with Eric Delegard of Reeltime Audio in Denton, TX. This is where we began to understand the importance of the song and what it means to serve a song for what it is.
By late 2019, we had completed our first full-length album entitled ‘Millennial Nation’ and were set to release it but there was so much uncertainty with the pandemic that our management at the time advised us to wait to release any new material. All the shows were canceled and we held off on releasing new music for an entire year and a half, not releasing the first single from ‘Millennial Nation’ until the summer of 2021.
By 2022 we had begun playing shows consistently again and went back into Reeltime Audio to begin working on new material.
We secured a spot at SXSW 2023 and later that year we signed with Brooklyn, New York Indie label A Diamond Heart Production for the release of ‘Season of Youth’ in 2024 and ‘No Day to Die’ in 2025.
In February 2026, we released our latest single ‘The Last Light’.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Deciding to pursue music is almost a guarantee that you are setting yourself up for failure and setbacks. Especially if you don’t have a foot in the industry or financial support of some kind.
Starting a band is easy. Maintaining and retaining a band is almost impossible. Just thinking about all I’ve experienced in my fight to keep Remain alive is exhausting and still makes me wince a bit.
Since I first began assembling musicians and making noise for public consumption under the name Remain, I’ve had more opportunities to give up than reasons to keep going. We’ve experienced a steady dose of health issues, lineup changes, financial restraints and setbacks, bad deals with booking agents and management, and balancing the realities of life with the struggle to keep a dream alive on the far side of youthful freedom. Below are a few stories that stand out:
2015
The year 2015 felt like the end. Less than a year after we played our first show I developed bleeding polyps on my vocal cords and ended up having vocal cord surgery in 2015. I didn’t speak for 3 weeks and I didn’t sing for almost 4 months. We were in the middle of recording our first EP at Reeltime Audio in Denton, TX when I began having issues. I had already done vocals on a few songs and had to postpone recording for the rest. If you listen to that EP (which is available online but is intentionally somewhat hidden) you can hear the weakness in my voice.
Later that year, our drummer Perry Hill experienced a collapsed lung and was hospitalized multiple times. I couldn’t sing, and Perry couldn’t breathe on his own. We lost most of that year and I remember thinking that the band was over despite the fact that it had just begun.
The rest of that year and the following year felt like one big recovery. We finished and released our EP, I had to take vocal lessons and actually learn how to sing correctly, and Perry had to return to drumming and all physical activities with caution. Just as we were getting back to 100%, we had to ask our bassist to leave the band which again killed our momentum and left us stagnant.
After Five Years of Failure, It Felt Like Giving Up
I had moved to Denton in 2012 to experience the music scene and finish college. In December of 2015 I graduated college with a degree in English literature. Rather than take the traditional path of job fair to internship to career, I decided to take a job that would pay the bills but still allow me the freedom to pursue music.
For the next 5 years I worked 7-3:30 for an HVAC contractor at the University of North Texas called Entech Sales and Service. I would get off work at 3:30 each day and that is when my day began. My evenings were filled with solo shows, band shows, rehearsals, studio time, songwriting, and blind emailing anyone I could to try and find an avenue for the band to embark on. I also hosted a few open mics in Denton—one at Audacity Brewhouse and one at Killer’s Tacos.
The band was terrible. Perry and I essentially worked with a revolving door of musicians– each with different influences and each who had their own idea of what the band was trying to be. Musicians came and went, some moved away, some got careers, some lost interest, some left the band, and some were asked to leave. It was a struggle to simply keep a unit intact that would work hard to develop a craft, work to create a sound, and go be in the scene.
The shows we played were bad. We mostly played to no one and our lack of consistent members had made it impossible to develop a quality live show. Our songs weren’t that great either. It was mostly years of experimenting and learning what not to do.
We were amid one of our lineup changes when we wrote our debut album ‘Millennial Nation’. We saved money and worked on songs for an entire year before returning to Reeltime Audio in late 2019 to record. After the recording sessions we had solidified the lineup, had booked a string of quality shows for the year, and had a 3 month release plan and PR strategy set that would kick off with an album release show at Dan’s Silverleaf in Denton, TX.
The pandemic hit a week before our release show and all our plans, including the release of our first album were put on hold for a year and a half. Two band members left during the pandemic and again it was just me and Perry.
Along with all the other changes of the pandemic world, my first daughter was born and I was forced to do what I’d refused to do 5 years earlier—try to find a career.
It was 2021, I was 32, only had half a band, was playing no shows, still hadn’t released the debut Remain album, and I took an entry-level position working in Student Accounting at the University of North Texas by day and continued my HVAC maintenance job of changing air filters by night. It felt like giving up. I thought the dream was over but I kept writing songs.
This is the story behind our 2024 single ‘Season of Youth’
I had a rare Saturday morning off and my wife Kailey and I were eating breakfast at the Seven Mile Cafe in Denton, Texas. I was over 30, working two jobs that I didn’t like. We were almost 7 years into marriage, living in a one room apartment, and our first child was a few months from being born. She was excited and I was afraid.
I’d spent almost a decade on a dream that hadn’t happened yet. When my peers were building careers, I had been building a band and the foundation had taken longer than I anticipated.
Now, well beyond the age of starting from scratch, I was working multiple entry-level jobs and I felt pressure to provide for my family what all families should have—enough.
At the cafe there was a song playing in the background that I hadn’t heard before. It had a driving, double-time rhythm that not only sounded good but it felt good too. It felt like things are supposed to. With that I asked the waitress if she could check the playlist and tell me the name of the song.
The waitress returned it’s some song called ‘Dancing with Myself’ by Billy Idol. Driving home the Rhythm was in my head along with everything else. Unlike Billy Idol, I had everything to prove but I wasn’t dancing alone.
I spent the better part of that morning strumming my guitar and jotting down lines. At some point I sang the words season of youth. I’m still not sure what that means but I think I was trying to make sense of everything. I’d reached the age of arrival but I had really arrived anywhere yet. This reflection led to a confrontation with the inevitable truth that youth can only last for a season, and it’s a season that can only be lived once.
Seasons change, life goes on, and we all end up somewhere. Maybe writing the song ‘Season of Youth’ was my way of coming to terms with where I’d ended up. More so, I think maybe it’s a celebration of who I ended up with. Having a family of my own was the dream that had come true. And despite all I thought I didn’t have on that day, despite the inability to go back in time and the subtle renunciation of the present, I think that writing this song helped me realize that who you’re with is more important than where you are.
Delivering Door Dash (Again)
It was almost midnight on a Tuesday in January 2025. We were a few months away from releasing our single ‘No Day to Die’ and I had to finish paying for studio costs in addition to costs we had set up for promotion and ads to support the single release.
My daughter was almost 4 years old, my wife Kailey was about five months pregnant, and I was doing everything I could to ensure my family was financially stable and that I could continue to release music. If I wanted to honor the agreements I’d made and release the single the way I had planned, I needed an extra $730 a month for the next three months straight.
As I’d done before, I turned to DoorDash for supplemental income. I needed an additional $730 a month for three months and had done the math. If I were to DoorDash 5 nights a week for three months, I would need to make about $36 a night in order to have enough money to release the single, make sure everyone in the band was covered, and cover my agreements.
This particular Tuesday night had been slow. It seemed like there was no one ordering meals and I’d only made $11 when I was notified of a delivery pickup from a small restaurant that was connected to a gas station near UNT. I parked my car near some inoperable gas pumps and I walked inside to get the food.
I was only inside for three or four minutes but when I walked back out, my car was gone—nowhere to be seen. It was one of the most eerie feelings I’ve had in my life.
I retraced my actions and asked myself questions. Did I leave it running? Was it stolen? Was someone playing a joke on me? Was I being watched and followed? All these thoughts ran through my head as I stood there in the dark holding a stranger’s food, looking at the DoorDash app, and digging in my pocket for my car keys.
I had my keys which told me I hadn’t left the car running. I thought maybe someone had hot-wired it. But was that even possible anymore? Plus, how could it have been stolen so quickly? I stood there a second longer looking around and a guy in a tank top with sleeve tats and teardrops walks out of the gas station and approaches me.
He told me that he was the manager of the gas station and that my car had been towed for being parked in a no parking zone. I told him I was a delivery driver and pled with him for a while but he only gave me the number of the towing service and said I would have to go to the impound yard to get my car back.
I called the impound yard and they informed me it would be $350 to get my car back. Which of course, I didn’t have.
I took a moment to think. I’m 36 years old, it’s almost midnight on a Tuesday, I’ve already worked 9 hours at my day job, I’ve door dashed for 3 hours, my pregnant wife and 4 year old daughter are at home asleep without a vehicle (we only have one), I’ve got a $2,200 PR campaign for our next single to pay for, I’ve made $11 tonight, I’m on the clock for this Door Dash delivery that is running seriously behind, I have no vehicle to deliver the meal, I have no way to get the impound yard to get my vehicle back, and I get a text from the Door Dash customer wanting to know how much longer it will be until their fried rice arrives.
This was the lowest point in my musical journey. I wondered what the hell I was doing with my life. No one in their right mind, at my age, would be struggling like this just to release a song that no one was going to listen to anyway.
I thought of all my peers who were ahead of me in life. All the band members who had come and gone. All the people who had succeeded at their chosen work and bought houses and given their families more than enough and would have been smart enough to realize by now that this music thing wasn’t going to happen. All I could do was shake my head and keep moving forward.
I responded to the Door Dash customer and told them that another driver would be bringing their meal. I then took the cold meal back into the restaurant, informed them of my situation, and walked back into the gas station to find the manager.
I basically told the manager my life story and used every persuasive, interpersonal skill imaginable until he agreed to call the impound yard and release the vehicle. The manager told the tow truck driver that it was a mistake, and I told the manager that I promised he would never see me again. Turns out, he had actually called the impound yard about another car that had been parked there before I arrived (that explained how everything happened so fast).
I got the address of the impound yard that was about three miles away and took off jogging through the night.
It was almost 1 am when I drove my car off the impound lot. I plugged my phone into the charger, opened the Door Dash app, and headed off for another order.
Working Two Jobs (Again)
In May of 2025 my second child was born. Once again, I was faced with the financial stress of trying to pay for band costs and maintain financial stability at home.
I began working two jobs again— one to support my family, and one to support the band. Like many of my other situations in life, music had put me here but music felt like it was getting further and further away. Working every day, I was no longer able to be in the music scene. The days of me and my college friends being in the scene every night and networking with other musicians at all the shows in town were gone.
I understood why it was called “a game for the young” and why so many of my peers and previous bandmates had given up. There’s a Window of time where you can exist in a music scene. When you are young and single, you can basically stay out all night in the scene, work any random job to pay the bills, and live off nothing. But when you progress in life and have a family that is relying on you, you have to provide and you have to be present. If that window of time passes and you have yet to make enough progress to make a living as a musician, devoting time to a musical dream that takes more than it gives becomes almost impossible.
I worked seven days a week for a year straight at the University of North Texas during the week and at Albertson’s grocery store on the weekends until had enough money to pay off some doctor bills, and afford production and promotional costs for our latest single ‘The Last Light’– a meditative power ballad for staying out late, looking for life, and coming to terms with yourself.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Maybe someday I’ll be an old man, still writing songs, still trying to find musicians to play those songs with, and still trying to find places to play those songs where they will be heard. And nothing may come of it except the fact that I was an average guy who had a dream that I never fully accomplished. I may never “succeed” as a musician, but I guarantee I’ll never stop.
My motivation comes from an old letter in an old book that was written to encourage perseverance in people–“things seen are temporary, only unseen things will Remain.”
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
You can visit our website weareremain.com to find streaming links, join our mailing list, visit our store, stay informed, and learn more.
We are on all streaming platforms and can be found on all social media platforms @weareremain.
Visit the ‘Contact’ section of our website for all booking/inquiries or to inquire about a personal unplugged show.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.weareremain.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weareremain
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weareremain
- Twitter: https://x.com/weareremain
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@weareremain
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/weareremain
- Other: https://tiktok.com/@weareremain
