About the Artist
Certainly So is a four-piece built on a long friendship. Colby and Tanner Gray grew up together in small-town Alabama, learning to play in the same church band, and later found Zach and Chase at Mississippi State in Starkville. Their sound is rock with Southern and country roots and a melancholy streak the band once leaned into so hard they called themselves The Indigo. Their latest album, Probably Not, arrived in 2024, and with help from booking agency Wasserman they have grown to around 65,000 monthly Spotify listeners and slots at Shaky Knees, 420 Fest, and Bourbon & Beyond.
Certainly So
About the Episode (Episode 132)
Certainly So: Bittersweet by Design, and the Line to Going All In
Jason English catches the band backstage at Bourbon & Beyond in Louisville, hours before the biggest set of their career. What follows is a conversation about a group that writes sad songs on purpose, still works day jobs to keep the lights on, and is trying to figure out exactly where the line sits between a band you love and a band you can finally do full time.
Key Conversation Points
Sad on purpose: The band started as The Indigo for a reason. As Tanner puts it, "there's always a bittersweet aspect to the stuff that we write," and Colby chases the feeling because "we can get more outta the song" when they let themselves be vulnerable.
The financial line: Going all in is not about belief, it is about math. "We all feel like we're all in on this anyway," Tanner says. "We're just doing the side stuff to make ends meet." The band agrees they have "turned a corner in the six months to a year."
Where they want to be: Today it is 2:30 on the third stage. "Hopefully in five years we're playing at 7 PM on the biggest stage," Tanner says, before adding the quieter truth: "as long as that keeps happening, we got no reason to stop."
There is a childhood basement story, a Joshua Tree writing trip, and a running band debate about whether the moon is real. It is the rare interview where the jokes and the honesty sit in the same seat. Watch the full conversation below.