Austin Snell released his new EP Colors on May 1, 2026, via River House Artists/Warner Records Nashville. The seven-song collection follows the Georgia-born artist’s recent personal EP, Home Sweet Hell.
Arriving just in time for Mental Health Awareness Month, Colors gives listeners a deeper look into Snell’s personal life, exploring themes of love and heartbreak, personal growth through old mistakes, family struggles, and the fear of loss, Colors serves as a true testament to surviving difficult chapters and coming to a turning point that prepares Snell for the next chapter, both personally and professionally.
Of having new music out, he tells Music Mayhem, “It’s a relief for sure. It’s been a long time in the process of making it, so it’s always good to have a piece of work that you’ve worked on for a while to make perfect. It feels good.”
For the U.S. Air Force veteran, opening up his life to the public isn’t just a career strategy, it is the core of his creative identity.
“That’s really the only way I know how to write songs. That’s kind of how it started,” he explained. “I started writing songs to get my thoughts and emotions out, and it is something that somewhat comes naturally. I love writing songs that mean something.”
The singer-songwriter co-wrote all of the songs on Colors, and wasted no time digging into the backstory that shaped his world growing up. Looking closely at where he came from, he opens up the EP with a deeply personal track called “Daddy’s Eyes,” which takes a look at family and fidelity, and finds him relating to his father in every aspect except in how the two of them saw the world. The lyrics cut deep, painting a vivid picture of generational differences and personal growth.
“I don’t see the world the way he did / I don’t look to put me first / Couldn’t see that girl, watch that kid / Go through so much hurt / And there’s a list of things / Ain’t hard to trace / The apple back to the tree / But the man I saw in him / Sure ain’t the man I see in me,” Snell sings throughout the chorus.
Reflecting on how “Daddy’s Eyes” came about, Snell notes that it set the tone for the entire creative process going forward.
“I think it was the first song that we wrote in terms of songs on this project,” he shared. “And that was my turning point as far as just knowing that I’m capable of writing something like that. It’s super deep and personal to my own life.”
“I feel like, as a songwriter, sometimes you try to put yourself in other people’s shoes a lot and tell a story that you think that someone else would enjoy….And I think that I kind of hit this little passion in my career where I wrote that song, and I was like, oh, okay. I can write songs that literally are for me, and then can help someone also through a certain situation. So that was kind of my turning point. That was probably, like I said, the first song we wrote. And that’s kind of what took us into the realm of putting out this entire EP of all these songs.”
Snell says he was intentional in opening up the project with “Daddy’s Eyes” as well, wanting to make a bold statement right out of the gate.
“Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to get it out of the gate,” he confirmed. “We have ‘You Being You,’ and it’s kind of just a fun song about meeting someone out, but with the project being centered around the mental health aspect and my personal story, ‘Daddy’s Eyes’ was definitely intentional, and I wanted to start off the gate with what the album is going to be like and what it’s supposed to be about. And then after that, we just let it take you on a little rollercoaster ride.”
As listeners buckle up for that rollercoaster, they quickly encounter “Circles,” written alongside Michael Whitworth, Austin Nivarel, and Andrew Baylis. The track deals with the highly relatable subject of having a relationship stuck in a toxic pattern. Despite the heavy theme, Snell says it was an easy write with the guys that he considers his close friends, serving as a necessary tonal shift for the project.
“We just wanted to write something fun, and my writes were getting pretty serious and my writing process was getting pretty serious. And you have to find a healthy balance of always writing this topic or this style or tempo or whatever and mix it with some stuff that’s not so sad all the time, I guess, for lack of better words,” he said. “But it’s a toxic relationship song. We wrote it in a way where it feels like a fun song you can listen to just wherever and have a good time too. And I definitely wanted to have a mixture of both of those on the project.”
The inclusion of “Circles” showcases Snell’s versatility as an artist, proving he can navigate the dark, somber corners of the human experience while still delivering the kind of rhythmic, engaging country-rock anthems that get crowds moving during his live sets.
Closing out the project is the title track “Colors”— a song Snell wrote for his girlfriend of three years, turned fiancée, Ally Klein. The track provides a fitting and emotional anchor for the EP.
Adding a visual aspect to the lyrics, Snell got engaged to Klein and featured the touching, real-life moment in the music video for the song, shot at Nashville’s stunning Scarritt Bennett Center.
“I wrote ‘Colors’ for her last year… I feel like I’ve tried to write her love songs in the past, and it just has kind of felt a little too, I don’t know, polished and perfect,” Snell said, explaining his idea behind “Colors.” “Love is just never polished and perfect all the time. There’s always something that you’re going to be working on, and it’s like, why do I need to make this seem so perfect when it’s not? And I feel like part of being in love is going through all the ups and downs together and choosing each other, and that’s kind of what the whole essence of the song’s about.”
He continued, “So I wrote a song and definitely felt as soon as I wrote it that it was a little different than your average love song and definitely different for me. I’m usually not writing love songs. It was something super special, and I was already planning on asking her to marry me at some point, and it timed itself out to where this was perfect. I’ve never been more nervous in my entire life than proposing in a music video, but it was super special for sure.”
The elaborate plan required absolute secrecy, and keeping a secret from the person you share your life with is no small feat. Snell credits his team for pulling off the ultimate romantic ambush.
“I genuinely don’t think she had any clue,” he said of the moment he asked for her hand. “So we did a good job, and the director, Emma Kate Golden, was the one who made the entire video, and we bounced ideas off of each other. We kind of had it down to a science, so we figured it out and made it happen. But it was definitely a moment that I’ll never forget my entire life.”
Though the song serves as the definitive bookend to the project, Snell didn’t initially know “Colors” was going to be the title track for the EP. The concept evolved naturally, refusing to be rushed until the pieces fell into place.
“I didn’t even know what the song was really going to be. I had the title in my phone for, I mean, probably a couple of weeks, and I didn’t really know what it meant. I knew that it had something to do with mental health, but when we walked in the room, I told Johnny Clawson, one of the guys I wrote it with, I was like, I want to write this song for Ally. And I always knew it was going to be about mental health, but I want to write it to her about mental health. And so when we wrote it, and I feel like you write a song as a songwriter sometimes, and you finish it, and you get out of the room, and you’re like, oh, this is definitely something special, more special than just your normal. And so we wrote it, and the title Colors just kind of kept coming up in song meetings and talking about the EP. And I don’t honestly think with an album or EP about mental health that we could have picked another song for the EP to be the title track. It just made the most sense for us. So that’s kind of how it happened.”
While he’s enthusiastic about sharing his new music with the world, Snell emphasizes that his absolute favorite part of his career is the face-to-face interactions he gets to have with people at his shows.
“I mean, meeting fans at shows is always my favorite part about this whole thing because music was such a huge part in my life and bringing me through certain moments in my life and stuff, music was always what helped me through that. So all of my favorite moments are meeting fans and hearing the same stories from them,” he said of the deep fan connection he has through his music. “That’s kind of just all I really wanted to do in this music thing was help somebody through something because music was kind of there for me.”
Snell isn’t alone in opening up about mental health. Many artists lately have been sharing a similar dialogue, with figures like HARDY, Lainey Wilson, and Ella Langley leading the charge. Furthermore, the Academy of Country Music’s Lifting Lives organization had a segment, spotlighting these issues at the 2026 ACM Awards.
When asked why he thinks these conversations have become so much more common and accepted in Nashville and the wider music industry in recent years, Snell acknowledges the shift as an undeniable force for good.
“I think it’s awesome that they are sharing… I couldn’t give you an answer on why people are sharing more about it these days, but I do know that it’s a good thing. I think one of the first things that people tell you to do if you’re going through anything is just to talk to somebody and have somebody that can be there for you and talk you through it,” he said.
“And so I think from a fan’s perspective, it’s always going to help a fan hear someone they look up to talk about some of the things that they’re also going through. So I think it’s always a positive thing that people are being more open about how they feel…. people are going through things all the time. So I think it’s a huge positive.”
With the new music out in the world, Snell is eager to look toward the future. Having recently wrapped his Home Sweet Hell tour and celebrated a major milestone by debuting Colors on the legendary stage of The Grand Ole Opry, he is ready to completely re-energize his live set.
“I’m just excited to build these songs into the new set. And with the music changing and taking a new life, I’m excited to just kind of revive our live show,” he shared. “We’ve been playing not the same show every year, but a lot of the same songs and a lot of the same energy. And I’m excited to dive into it and kind of see how we can come out of the gate for whatever the next tour is that we do, and do something that shocks a crowd. And that’s kind of where we’re at, but we’re doing festival season and fairs, and so we’ll do that and debut the songs here and there. I’m sure we will do some sort of touring around the fall.”
