Meet The Como Brothers: American Songwriter Road Ready Talent Finalist

The Como Brothers are stepping into the spotlight.

The duo was recently selected as one of the three finalists in American Songwriter’s 2026 Road Ready Talent Contest, which is designed to spotlight unsigned performers who are already built for live performance, going beyond songwriting alone. 

Brothers Andrew and Matt Como started their musical journey in a Beatles cover band alongside their dad and uncle. Eventually, though, they broke off on their own to form The Como Brothers. Their band later gained social media traction thanks to their own Beatles covers, and it was their take on “I Feel Fine” that garnered the notice of the Road Ready judges.

On Oct. 20, The Como Brothers and the other two Road Ready finalists will perform at the contest’s finale at 3rd & Lindsley in Nashville, Tennessee. Tickets for the show are available now.

Ahead of the big performance, fans can cast their vote for their favorite artist. Online voting will remain open until Oct. 20.

In the end, one artist will win the Grand Prize package, which includes $20,000 in cash and additional prizes.

Read the Q&A below to learn more about The Como Brothers.

The Como Brothers Road Ready Q&A

Why did you guys enter the contest?

I wish I had an artsy reason or a cool artist type of thing to say, but, honestly, our mom entered us and we had no idea we were in the contest. She put the song in. We realized that we were finalists when you guys reached out to us, and then mom was like, “I put you in for that.”

We were really excited to be chosen and that our performance really resonated with so many people. It’s gotten millions of views across the social sites. We never expected that. We’ve been playing music together for twenty years, grinding at gigs and doing hundreds of gigs every year. We started posting these songs on our social media for the first time actually this year. We found something that worked, and we were excited about it.

We’ve had supportive parents all along, which has been really cool. Our dad always played music and our mom loves music, so they always pushed us to chase our dreams. .

Do you have a strategy for the performance?

I think we just want to be ourselves, give it our best. We’re going to play, obviously, the song that got us into this whole thing. We’re going to play some songs from our album, Whisper in the Wind. It’s going to be a mix of covers and original music. We try to capture people, get people’s attention, with an “I Feel Fine,” and then you play something from our album.

We’re just excited to play for people. I know there’s going to be a lot of people in the audience that have never heard us before, and we’re just going to bring who we are to the stage. We’re not going to change anything and try to be something we’re not. Win or lose, we’re going to have a fun time. I mean, $20,000 would be nice, but it’s a great experience as well.The other contestants that we’ve heard, they’re amazing, too. It’s all three very different acts, so I think it’s going to be a really fun night just across the board.

If you were to win, how would you spend the prize money?

We’re constantly reinvesting into our act and stuff. We live off of our music career, so it definitely will help us to continue forward living day to day. It helps. You never know what’s going to happen. Last summer, our van broke down on the way home from a gig. A $15,000 nbump in the road happens here and there, so [the money] would definitely help. It would be amazing. It’s a competition where you have a prize that can make a real difference in your life, which is an amazing thing.

What initially made you post your cover of The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine”?

We had heard gurus on TikTok and Instagram saying you got to post every day at the same time, every day, to get a following. We only had, on Facebook, I think it was five thousand followers for years, for over a decade. And me and Matt said, “Let’s try to do that. Let’s try to post every day.” So we started in April 2024, and we did it every day, and we didn’t get any traction. I said, “I’m gonna keep doing it and just see what happens.” We kept doing it until November 2025. We said, “Let’s just do a Beatles cover.” When we posted “If I Fell” it got a 112,000 views. We’re lucky if we got a 100 views every day, so we’re like, “Holy crap, this is insane.”

We love the Beatles. We hadn’t played a lot of Beatles songs in a long time, because we’d been focusing on our original music, but we knew them like the back of our hands, so we just played a new song every day. So we said, “Let’s just keep doing it, live from our home studio.”

“I Feel Fine” was a month into posting a new Beatles song every day. This was one that just came natural. Everyone thought we put our own spin on it and did something so unique. That’s always been one of our favorite songs. It has an awesome riff. We always played that with our dad and our uncle. It’s the perfect song. That one went like mega viral. I think on the first day it got millions of views. We started at like 5,000 on Facebook, 5,000 on Instagram. They all exploded to 115,000 on Facebook, seventy-something [thousand] on Instagram, which is crazy for us. We were very grateful for the traction.

The Como Brothers Musical Journey Q&A

How has your family shaped your musical journey?

We started in a Beatles tribute band when we were, you know, like, 14 years old. My dad and his brother, they were in an original group in the late ’70s, early ’80s out of Queens, New York, called The Words. Dad and his brother, they said, “We want to get back out doing it.” They had stopped, they had families, they just started doing life and they put the music on the back burner, and then they brought us into it. Once we were in high school, they started this band where they decided they wanted to just play Beatles songs. We would do that every weekend with them at bars. For us, it was the coolest thing. And were making money.

Our uncle and our dad were always our heroes. They would play at family parties. They would all jam together, and we always wanted to jam with them. We always envisioned, like, “Wow, that’s the ultimate goal in life, to join them in these family parties.” So when they gave us the opportunity to be like, “Let’s learn these Beatles songs and play them live,” it was the ultimate bootcamp number one, but it gave us the itch to start writing our own music, especially ’cause we wanted to be like Uncle Lawrence and our dad.

It just went from there, and then we just started writing our own songs. Flash forward, our Uncle Lawrence passed away at 62 from lung cancer. He was one of our role models and brought us into music, so that’s one of the things that is a driving force for us.

It’s such a loss for us. Him and my dad would come to every gig, and my dad still does. It was part of the reason why we did it in the first place, so that’s kind of a hole still.

How long have you guys been writing?

I would say writing probably almost 20 years. Andrew started a little bit before me in middle school and I was into high school. I would see them playing Beatles songs, different types of songs. I always wanted to join in, so I picked up the guitar and my first song I ever played was “Day Tripper.” It just gave us the bug to write songs like Lennon and McCartney used to write. They just seemed like they had so much fun doing it. I remember skipping class in college—don’t tell my mom—and trying to write a good song.

Did you guys always know you were gonna get in this together?

We grew up doing everything together, and that just extended into music kind of naturally.

We’re two years apart, so it was really great growing up. We have two younger sisters too, so it was a full house all the time. We would be having friends over, jamming all the time when it came to music, or just getting outside, playing with a ball in the backyard. Como Brothers is a big family affair.

If you guys could describe your sound in one sentence, what would it be?

Rock and roll. That’s it.

The Como Brothers Future Plans Q&A

What are your short- and long-term goals as a band?

It’s just making songs that we’re really happy with, songs that not only resonate with us, but resonate with people. I think that’s always been our goal, and the most rewarding challenge. That’s my short and long-term goal, to have that song written that we love, and we’ve done that.

Also, we have a song on the album called “Halo or Wings.” I came up with a pretty good TikTok dance to that. I’m not a dancer, I can’t dance, but it’s pretty damn good. Short-term goal is I want this dance to take off.

What advice would you guys give maybe a younger version of you guys or to other aspiring artists?

Find what you’re good at. For us, we were naturally good at Beatles songs, and we naturally had the inclination to want to write songs and then play them out at shows, so that’s what we did.

Being hard on yourself is what is going to get you better, I think, because you’re going to want to constantly improve. Maybe it’s a catch-22 type of advice, but if you keep at it, you’re going to get better. Just have fun while you’re doing it.

You don’t have to be too quick to post when you’re not ready. We’ve been doing it for almost 20 years together. I feel like there’s always a rush right now to just post everything that you’re doing, but you can do it whenever you’re ready, and see what works.

What have you learned amid your musical journey?

The work itself is rewarding. When you’re younger, you’re always are looking at the goals, but I think the act of actively trying to get better, just writing the song in itself, the work is rewarding.

Even when we were in bars playing with our uncle, you’re always thinking of what’s next, could we be playing on a bigger stage or whatever. But you look back and it’s like, yeah, those are the best times.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Photo by Sinnerman Photography