Colton Dixon: Glory Days

Colton Dixon is not catching glimpses of his glory days in the rearview mirror; rather, he can spot them just ahead. It’s been more than a decade since Dixon was a fan favorite on the 11th season of American Idol in 2012, walking away in seventh place, but with a recording contract in hand. Since then, he has released a number of studio albums and EPs, staked his claim in the Christian music genre, gotten married, and become a dad to twins. Yet, the singer/songwriter firmly believes the best is still to come. 

“You hear the term ‘glory days’ and you think of your past—you think of high school or you think of college,” Dixon tells American Songwriter, “but I firmly believe our best days can be out in front of us.”

He seems to have doubled down on that belief with his new faith-fueled EP, Canvas. “It has been quite a long time in the making,” he says, admitting the road to this release was not at all an easy one.

Canvasis a light in the darkness, lovingly crafted out of the bleak days of the pandemic. But even before then, the artist had found himself at a low. He had been dropped from his record label prior to 2020. 

“That was a dark period for me,” he says. “All I’ve known is music my entire life, so to have the very eminent thought of, ‘Maybe that was it. Maybe I’ve got to figure out something else to do,’ was really scary and not a fun season to be in.”

Dixon kept pushing and believing through that moment of uncertainty and was signed to Atlantic Records a few months later. “Keep pushing for the things that you believe in … it’ll work out,” he says. “I’m living proof of that, and it’s been even better than we even imagined it would be.”

From that season of life’s insecurities sprang Dixon’s 2020 self-titled debut EP. At the time, it wasn’t written for the woes that came with that year, but the songs ended up being a hand to hold through it all.

“Just coming out of the situation that I was in, losing my record label, I wrote from that place,” he explains. “But then we released the EP at the beginning of the pandemic and so many people were about to walk through that same season of life, of losing a job, not knowing if the world was going to get put back together again.”

When the pandemic hit, Dixon and his wife were also expecting twins. With his main income source from touring at a standstill, more uncertainty was at his door.

 But again, he kept the faith—an underlying theme in all of his music—and from this moment, Canvas was born.

“Something happened when my wife and I had twins,” he explains. “They just kind of brought some new perspective to life and kind of breathed some new life into what I do and why I do what I do. I feel like that really translates into this project.

“There’s this underlying message of hope,” he continues. “That’s what I try to instill into them—to always hope, to always have faith regardless of what the situation looks like.” It is a mentality that has proven effective for him in the past few years alone, and he says he is now mentally preparing his young twins for the trials and tests as they come.

“Kids are a beautiful thing and they have just rocked our world in the best way,” he adds. “They are the biggest proponent of why the new project sounds the way it does, says the things that it says.”

Canvas is made up of seven inspirational earworms and infectious hope-filled bangers that not only overflow with a loveable pop style but also harken back to Dixon’s rock roots. The tracks are muscular enough as standalone listens, but together they tell an intimate story of unshakeable belief.

Canvas takes listeners on a journey—first with the track “Build a Boat,” a swelling anthem about believing in rain, even in the driest of seasons, and closing with the powerful “Unbreakable,” a song about still being able to stand at the end of it all.

“These songs, I almost like to think of them as tools,” he says. “Different problems require different tools, and so I hope to just equip you with some new tools to take life face on.”

These tracks have acted as guides for him as well through the trials of the past few years. When asked if he would change anything about his journey so far, he says he wouldn’t. “If I could go back, I would probably just say, ‘Hey, it’s gonna work out. Just trust it. Just go with it,’” he says. “That’s what defines faith—believing in something even when you can’t see it.”

Dixon is going to continue to keep the faith, knowing that his glory days are the ones still to come.

Photo by Jimmy Fontaine