Coby and the Prisoners began in 2012 during some downtime between projects for songwriter and founder Coby Hartzler. Having grown up in a fairly conservative small town, with religion starkly at the focus, Hartzler began to question what he was being fed. Similarly, small-town America rejects the idea that a grown man can continue to pursue the art of music as something more than a teenage hobby. For Hartzler, his music is a way of clawing back at some of these ideas.
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Hartzler’s latest album, I Imagined A Window, was born at the end of a year-long transition for his family. He quit his day job to stay at home with their 3-year-old. They sold their house and bought the cheapest house they could find to fix up. Hartzler was cutting a deal with the world; one where he will trade money for more time for the things he cares most about. It was a hectic period, but it ultimately bore one of the most freeing and creatively productive times for Hartzler.
Oh No
This song was just a few nice chords I came up with shortly before a recording session we had booked . I didn’t have anything else written for the one, but we went ahead and recorded it anyway. Later I would try and fail a few times to put words and melody to it. One day I pulled the song up and I allowed it to go in a slightly different direction than I had previously been pushing. Turns out that was where it wanted to be.
I Don’t Even Wanna Know
Every once in a while you get lucky and a song just falls in your lap. I recall the chord progression and melody happening almost simultaneously, and most of the lyrics following not far behind. It was like learning a song that was already written. Tracked at Postal Recording in Indiana, the lead guitar is plugged directly into their MCI console and overdriven for my version of the Beatles “Revolution” guitar sound. The drums were played with no cymbals.
Sad Eyes
I wrote Sad Eyes where most of these songs began. On my couch, strumming a guitar while I watch my son play. It’s about seeing the end but before you’re able to accept it. It was tracked mostly live to tape in Indiana and has my favorite Organ Solo of the album.
Wednesday at Noon
Wednesday at Noon was one of two songs that were written right around the beginning of the pandemic. We were a few weeks into full on stay at home quarantine and had just crested over the “this is sort of fun, and a nice change of pace” part of lockdown and into the depressing part (one of many). It was written on my couch, on a Wednesday, bored and slightly bummed out.
Spillway River
Spillway river is sort of a memory and sort of a feeling. Sometimes I try to put myself back into a moment in time and then describe the things around me. This is one of those songs. It features some nice sounds from a cheap piano/synth I have and it really helps set the mood for this one.
Lonely All the Time
Our first recording session for what would become I Imagined a Window was around the end of October, 2019. It was a 3 day weekend session at my studio space in Dover Ohio. It was a pretty magical weekend that had a lot of friends from out of town randomly home again and all together. But unfortunately I came away from the recording part not feeling great about the songs I had written. This was one of those songs. I let them all sit for a couple months and I finally came back to this one with some new energy. It didn’t end up changing too much from what we originally recorded. I just needed some time away from it and it ended up being one of my favorites on the album.
I Know the Rules
I wrote this song a few days after going to a Jayhawks concert. I’m pretty sure it influenced this song, but I don’t know if anyone would ever really connect it to sounding like the Jayhawks. It also went through an entire lyric rewrite at one point, which is often where my songs end up getting scraped, but this one survived. The hammond organ makes it into this record a lot, and practically carries this song from start to finish.
Better Than A Comeback
There always seems to be one song on every record that I keep trying to crack the code to, but can’t seem to get it just right. This is that one. There’s something i really like about this song, but i couldn’t quite capture it right on the recording. I kept tearing it apart and reworking it. I ended up with something I’m pretty happy with but i still feel like there is a better version out there. Maybe we will find it when we are out playing live (whenever that may be).
Don’t see it that way
I’m particularly happy with the drum sounds on this song. I tracked it at my home studio space. We used a snare drum with the snares turned off, but they still rattled enough to sound like a super dry thick snare. That mixed with an open roomy kick drum sound was just right. I wanted this song to be a straightforward simple rocker. When live music returns i think it will be fun to play.
Daydreaming
Where “Sad Eyes’ is not wanting to accept the end. This song is embracing it. Knowing it’s inevitable and trying to drift away in what makes you happy. I like that it feels slightly doomsday but yet slightly hopeful. I think it’s the space that a lot of us are living in right now.
