Texan alt-pop artist colby! dives headfirst into the mess and magic of growing up on her sophomore EP ‘FINE!,’ unpacking its six emotionally charged, hook-laden songs in a candid conversation with Atwood Magazine. From infatuation and identity to friendship and fallout, colby! turns raw experience into sonically stunning catharsis – loud, bright, and beautifully unfiltered.

Stream: “Out of Sight” – colby!

“I’m just here, saying what’s on my mind and trying to make sense of it all.”

colby!’s rip-roaring FINE! EP burns as fast and as bright as our teenage years. There’s a palpable urgency to the rising singer/songwriter’s latest batch of songs – a need to speak, to sing aloud, to feel, to process life as it unfolds – raw, immediate, and unfiltered.

Whether she’s unraveling the weight of unspoken pain, falling headfirst into a crush, or reflecting on the fragmented friendships of her youth, colby! taps into a space of raw honesty and emotional immediacy. Her voice rings out with the clarity of someone feeling it all in real time – curious, defiant, heart-on-sleeve – and in doing so, she turns six intimately personal stories into something wholly universal and irresistible.

Follow me everywhere
Your school colors
I stand and stare at your car
They’re everywhere
I look around
But you’re not there

I go to a dark place
When I see your face I can’t erase
Oh dear you can’t be replaced
They’re not the same
It’s not your name

Out of sight, not out of mind
I look into your light
Hope I become blind

– “Out of Sight,” colby!

Released June 6 via Sony Music Entertainment, FINE! arrives as colby!’s sophomore EP, following her 2024 debut Dead Giveaway. Born Colby Leslie Johnson and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, colby! has been writing songs with her older brother RJ Johnson since she was fourteen – a partnership that continues to define her creative process, with RJ co-writing and producing every track on the new record. At just 19 years old, colby! has already carved out a bold, emotionally fearless brand of alt-pop marked by explosive hooks, candid lyricism, and a restless imagination. A self-described creative live wire with a background in everything from abstract painting to building doll furniture, she credits her dyslexia with helping to shape her distinct artistic voice – one rooted in curiosity, expressiveness, and gut instinct. With influences ranging from Gwen Stefani to Amy Winehouse, colby! makes music that’s as cathartic as it is wildly fun – and FINE! is her most vibrant, unapologetic offering yet.

If Dead Giveaway introduced colby!’s voice to the world, then FINE! blows it wide open. These songs stretch her sonic palette in exhilarating ways – swerving between electropop and alt-rock while anchoring everything in bold, infectious choruses built to be screamed from the car or the stage. And yet, despite its high-gloss production and genre-hopping energy, FINE! remains deeply personal at its core: A chronicle of one summer in motion, told as it happened by two siblings chasing what feels good and real in the moment.

“My brother RJ and I started writing the songs on this EP in the spring of 2024, and it took us a few months to finish,” colby! recalls. “We didn’t write them all at once – each song came at a different moment, so the EP ended up telling the story of how my summer unfolded. It’s about growing up and everything I observed, learned, and experienced along the way.”

“RJ and I are always writing – we don’t really stop,” she adds. “We just keep experimenting with sounds until something feels right and eventually, we end up with a group of songs that fit well together. That’s usually how an EP comes together for us. It’s not a super glamorous process, but we really care about each song and how they work as a collection.”

That care and attention shines through in the final product. Where Dead Giveaway first introduced colby!’s sound, FINE! sharpens the focus and expands the frame – pushing her songwriting and production into bolder, more dynamic territory. “I think FINE! puts me on a more vibrant and colorful path creatively,” she reflects. “The songs feel more cohesive – they really belong together – and I think the project as a whole shows a more refined and serious side of me compared to Dead Giveaway.”

When asked to describe FINE! in three words, she lands on “Very Vibrant Anger.”

It’s a striking phrase – not just because it captures the EP’s fire and color, but because it refuses to separate beauty from rage, or brightness from grief. These songs don’t suppress emotion; they erupt with it. Whether she’s processing heartbreak, confronting toxic power dynamics, or reckoning with the ache of growing apart, colby! gives each feeling its own volume, its own space to breathe and burn.

It’s that intensity – channeled, not chaotic – that makes FINE! feel like such a leap forward. There’s power in how colby! embraces confrontation without losing control, how she wraps turmoil in melody and delivers gut punches with a glittering grin. She’s not just venting; she’s shaping every feeling into something purposeful, precise, and sharp-edged. This is vulnerability with bite – pop music that doesn’t flinch.

The EP is named after its opening track, and rightly so – “Fine” sets the emotional tone for everything that follows. Raw and resolute, it’s a song about seeing someone you love shut down and shut you out, and not knowing how to help except by staying close. colby! builds the track around a slow-burning pulse, letting the weight of her words land with unflinching sincerity: “You can shut me out, but I hope you know you can call me now.” It’s a plea for connection in the face of distance – and a powerful reminder that even the most tightly guarded hearts deserve care. “We added the exclamation point to tie it back to my artist name – Colby! – and give it a little extra personality,” she adds.

If there’s one song that captures everything FINE! does best, it’s “Out of Sight.” An instant standout, this track delivers the kind of cathartic, emotionally charged pop that lingers long after the final chorus fades. colby! transforms the ache of infatuation into something explosive – sharp, vivid, and alive with tension. Every lyric pulses with the disorienting thrill of obsession: “I go to a dark place when I see your face / I can’t erase.” There’s desperation here, but also clarity; a recognition of just how much power a crush can hold over you, even when the object of your affection is nowhere in sight. With its irresistible hook and driving energy, “Out of Sight” is more than just catchy – it’s a release. A scream-along anthem for anyone who’s ever fallen too fast and felt too much.

“‘Out of Sight’ is my little crush song,” colby! smiles. “It captures the thrill and torment of having a crush that consumes your every thought. I wrote it last year when I was crushing really hard on someone (who is now my boyfriend), and everywhere I would go, I would see his car, or I would see someone who dressed like him. Even though he was out of sight, he was never out of mind.”

The energy dips slightly – but meaningfully – on “To Each Their Own,” a reflective, rhythm-driven meditation on growing up and growing apart. It’s a softer, more somber tune than the EP’s opening one-two punch, but no less catchy; a Latin-inspired, dancey backbeat keeps the track moving even as colby! delivers one of her most poignant performances. She sings of distance, disconnection, and the quiet grief that comes from watching people you once loved drift in different directions. “And the others go, and we never grow, ‘cause we never show,” she repeats, each time a little heavier than the last. There’s wisdom in her delivery – not bitterness, just an aching kind of acceptance.

You’ve been begging for my pity
But you’re so tied up in the city
You’ve been rotting in your clothes
You’ve been crying but no one knows
You don’t wanna help yourself
It’s too hard to be yourself
You want to see a change
You’re too tired anyway

And the others go
And we never grow
‘Cause we never show
To each their own
To each their own

– “To Each Their Own,” colby!

That ache turns electric on “Monster,” colby!’s blistering duet with Washington-based indie folk singer/songwriter Shaya Zamora – and the first collaboration of her career. “One of the biggest highlights for me on this EP is the collaboration,” she beams. “We’ve never had a feature on a project before. Shaya Zamora reached out to me with a song, and getting to work with her was a special moment. It felt like such a natural fit and stands out as a personal favorite on the record.” That natural fit is undeniable; the two artists play off each other with effortless chemistry as they trade verses in a high-stakes, no-heroes portrait of a toxic relationship. “Monster” is loud, volatile, and magnetic, charged with danger and desire. “Got the devil in your eyes / I know that you’re no good for me,” they sing, unable to walk away even as the damage unfolds before their eyes. It’s one of the EP’s boldest moments – a track that fully leans into chaos without ever losing control.

The final two tracks on FINE! offer a fittingly dramatic close to the EP’s emotional arc. “For the Record” is a post-breakup reckoning, heavy on reflection and self-awareness. colby! leans into clarity without closure, processing the lingering mess of what’s left behind: “On the record, I’m still spinning around in my room / Don’t want control to be my groom / Too soon, too soon.” It’s equal parts diary entry and declaration, steeped in late-night vulnerability (she later sings, “Off the record, I still care about you and everything you do…” – cleverly playing with words to reveal her innermost feelings in a fun, heartfelt way).

“You,” meanwhile, cuts even deeper. Written with Georgia Webster, King Henry, and her brother RJ, and blending acoustic and electric elements into one spellbinding, three-and-a-half minute reverie, it’s a tense and unflinching song about internalizing the traits of someone you never wanted to become. “When I look at me, all I see is you,” she sings, caught in a slow-burning identity crisis. Both these final tracks showcase colby!’s ability to turn personal spirals into gripping, resonant pop.

Lyrically, FINE! captures the push and pull of late adolescence with striking clarity. There’s a youthful frankness to colby!’s writing – not inexperience, but immediacy. She’s reflecting on what it means to grow up while still very much in the process. On “To Each Their Own,” she captures the need to move forward with the simplest of mantras: “Get on my bike, get out of the pity.” It’s her favorite lyric from the song, and it reads like a mission statement. Elsewhere, on “Fine,” she delivers a quiet gut-punch: “Shutting down, you can shut me out, but I hope you know you can call me now.” That same mix of care and confrontation runs through the entire record, from the sting of “I go to a dark place when I see your face” to the gutting confession, “Now I’m twisting the story, covered in lies, just like you showed me.” colby! writes like someone learning who she is by writing it all down – not just reporting on her life, but working through it as she goes.

FINE! is both a snapshot and a statement – a document of where colby! is right now, and a signal of where she’s headed next.

These six songs don’t just showcase her growth as a songwriter and performer; they reveal the emotional courage it takes to write through the mess, to be honest in motion. With hooks that stick, lyrics that cut, and a voice that’s equal parts fire and heart, colby! proves herself a force worth watching – not just for where she’s been, but for the unapologetic way she brings us along for the ride.

“I hope listeners can find something they relate to in FINE!,” she shares. “If even one song mirrors what someone is going through, I want them to be able to scream it, feel it, and process it – knowing they’re not alone. That’s the most meaningful part for me: creating something that helps people feel seen.”

“I don’t see it as my job to make my art tell me what to do – I’m just here, saying what’s on my mind and trying to make sense of it all,” she adds. “Honestly, I’m terrified to put it out… but here we are. Cheers!”

Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside colby!’s FINE! EP with Atwood Magazine as she takes us track-by-track through the music and lyrics of her sophomore EP! From youthful chaos to moments of clarity, this is growing up in real time – loud, bright, and beautifully unfiltered.

— —

:: stream/purchase FINE! here ::

:: connect with colby! here ::

— —

Stream: ‘FINE!’ – colby!

:: Inside FINE! ::

— —

“Fine”

The song “Fine” is about a friend of mine who was going through a really hard time but never opened up or asked for help – even though all of us would’ve dropped everything to be there. I wrote it to let them know they were seen, and that I was here whenever they were ready to talk. It’s my way of saying, “You don’t have to go through it alone.”

“Out of Sight”

“Out of Sight” is my little crush song. It captures the thrill and torment of having a crush that consumes your every thought. I wrote it last year when I was crushing really hard on someone (who is now my boyfriend) and everywhere I would go, I would see his car, or I would see someone who dressed like him. Even though he was out of sight, he was never out of mind.

“To Each Their Own”

This is my favorite song on the EP. It’s a song about growing up and is basically me reminiscing about the people I used to hangout with all the time that now I don’t even talk to, and how everyone went their own ways. Some went on to do good things, some went off the rails. It’s really about how I grew up observing how other people made decisions and how those decisions shaped what their life is now.

“Monster”

I wrote this song with Shaya Zamora. He sent over a little demo one day, and said, “Hey, I think you would sound sick on this”. From there we started messing with the idea of a very toxic relationship where no one is the hero, no one is clean, but neither one of them can step away from the relationship.

“For The Record”

For the Record” dives into the aftermath of a crazy breakup, where the emotions have settled, but the echoes of what was said still linger. It’s about holding onto the receipts, reflecting on everything that happened, and feeling the urge to tell them where you stand now, months later. It is just me saying, on the record I have said ‘this’, and for the record, I am still losing my mind.

“You”

Probably my second favorite on the EP. It is a very raw song that I wrote with Georgia Webster, King Henry and my brother, RJ Johnson. It is about me struggling with authority issues and my wanting this authority figure to be better than who they were, to the point where you despise them so much that you slowly start to become them.

— —

:: stream/purchase FINE! here ::

:: connect with colby! here ::

— —

— — — —

Connect to colby! on
Facebook, TikTok, Instagram

Discover new music on Atwood Magazine

 © Gina Di Maio

FINE!

an EP by colby!