Christian acoustic duo CO3 has exploded onto the Christian music scene with their album Determined, released in July 2007. The band matches the talents of vocalist and acoustic guitarist Chad Little with those of vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist Dave Romero. CMT music critic Chet Flippo recently praised the group, and they have even more to look forward to this year, including a tour, a new album, and their first music video. I had a chance to chat with Dave and Chad on the last day of GMA Week in Music City, Nashville, TN.


How do you think you guys come together to create something greater than the sum of its parts?
Chad Little: Well, that’s a loaded question. The older you get, the more you want to leave something behind. You want to leave a legacy. So, it’s really important for both Dave and myself, we’re parents, we’re dads. We’re always concerned about the inheritance we leave our children –and not just our own children. We’ve been called to raise up a generation-or to be forerunners for a generation of worshippers that are going to dance to a different tune, if you will. They’re going to be kingdom builders on a level that our parents never saw. We want to be a pioneer for that next generation, so that in itself is a legacy.
The ultimate goal is for us to use what we make in this industry, we’re able to then turn it back into the kingdom of God by feeding the poor. Taking care of the least of these. That’s important to us. I want to stand before God and have Him say, “Well done.” I want to have some fruit. I think that’s pretty good fruit.


What’s the song writing dynamic like?
Dave Romero: We wrote some songs together but Chad’s primarily the song writer. He came out of the country world, working with Carrie Underwood. So he did that, and I was a worship guy. So we smashed those two things together and created our sound.
CL: I write a music riff and put some words to it. We get a song basically sketched out, and then go in the studio. That’s when these songs really come to life. Actually, for this next record that we’re getting ready to start, it’s going to be a lot more like that process because to me, there’s a lot of magic that can happen if you’re not totally concrete with your songs. So you can let them breathe a little bit. Get into the studio and let some things happen, let some magic happen. So with our next record we’re getting ready to start, we’re going to let that creative process flow all the way through to the final recording.
DR: Absolutely.
CL: That’s kind of a new dynamic we’re exploring.


When is the next record due out?
DR: Probably about January of ’09. That’s hopefully the release date. We’ll start it sometime in May.
CL: We’ll probably release the first single before Christmas. Probably October.


You already mentioned this, but Chad, you worked with Carrie Underwood. How was that?
CL: Well Carrie was 14 or 15 when I started working with her, and her manager had hired me to put together a band to work with her in the studio, write her songs. I didn’t understand in the beginning what it truly was until now, but for me, a young guy then – I was 25 then – it was interesting because you knew from day one she was incredibly talented. You knew she could sing anything and never go flat, just sing it perfectly. The fun thing I got to do was work with her on stage. I got to really work with her and teach her some things that I had learned about how to work a crowd, or how to make eye contact, and work a song. And of course writing her songs, going into the studio and seeing those things come to life was a lot of fun because, boy she can tear up a song with her vocals. She can just bring it to life


Do you think you guys will ever do anything with her again?
CL: Yes, we will.
DR: Absolutely.


So CMT’s Chet Flippo reviewed your album and wrote “If Tim McGraw or Kenny Chesney were singing Christian music, this is what it might sound like.”
DR: Oh, did you read that?
CL: That was pretty good.


How do you feel about being compared to such great country musicians?
DR: Oh my gosh, we know our music has that mainstream sound. Now where that takes us, we’re starting to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel on that. But just to be compared to those guys who have obviously done extremely well and coming from Chet Flippo who is the man on reviews… is awesome.
CL: You know, the great thing about that review was that he got the song.
DR: Yeah, he understood it.
CL: Which means he listened to the song. He got what we were trying to say, and that really tells you how objective he is. And coming out of the country world, I’ve known of Chet Flippo for years; who he was and what he does. So, when I found that, I found it before [our publicist Brian Mayes]. I was on vacation and my wife was surfing the net looking for stuff about us and that came up. She was like, “Have you read this?” and I was like, “Uh, no…” I called Brian right away and was like, “Uh… look at this. It’s a really good review,” and he said, “Ok, we’re going to go to the bank with this one.” I think right after that we delivered some donuts to CMT, we were like, “Go CMT!”
But really, we are who we are and we can’t deny it.
DR: And that’s the thing, really, according to CCN, we’re close to the box but we’re not in the box. But our genre –obviously country is the biggest genre around and what we do, I believe, is that we’re forerunners of it for the Christian industry. I think we’re on the verge of something pretty big.
CL: Honestly, I think its going to blow up. And we’re going to be standing there when the door opens, and we’re going to be fleshed out, ready to go. We have to believe that, because we have to stay inspired, but just according to what’s happening.
DR: We’ve got a lot of movement.
CL: It’s popping here, so it’s good.


Are those guys your influences?
CL: Not really. Our influences are diverse. Growing up I listened to country, like everybody did. But we also listened to Bon Jovi, the Eagles, they’re still a big influence. U2, Billy Joel, Dave’s favorite Tony Bennett.
DR: I love Tony Bennett. That guy is 80-something years old, and still can freakin’ rip it.
CL: James Taylor, so you mix all that stuff together, and I know I didn’t say a lot of Christian artists, but you mix all that together. This is very key: We are musicians. We are gifted to do music. We are gifted musicians who are Christians, in that order. We were gifted because God gave us that from the beginning. We chose to be Christians. So we’re gifted and anointed, I believe, and I’m not bragging, I’m just saying that’s what God did. And then we became Christian, so the real paradigm there, the real crux of that, is that to us it’s not Christian music. To us it’s great music. We’re Christians signing it, so we have a world view that’s going to reach out and be a light in the darkness. And that’s very important to us.


I read that you guys filmed a new video.
DR: Yeah, it’s for our title cut off of our album, Determined.
CL: Current single.
DR: The one that Chet Flippo liked. It’s in the editing process right now so it should be done soon, and hopefully we’re going to be pitching it. It’s going to be pitched to the Gospel Music Channel, which is looking really good, and we’ll probably pitch it to CMT.
CL: You know, all the outlets. It’s going to be our first video, and the first video is always special.


Can you tell us a little about it?
DR: Yeah! We did it in our hometown. It was cool, they brought all the camera stuff there, and the crew.
CL: We did it in downtown Fort Smith, Arkansas.
DR: It was awesome.
CL: And there’s some really cool things going on, some underlying themes that are in the video. But it’s mostly just a good chance for Dave and myself to put a face to a name. So we’re in it a lot, of course. We did some live, full band, performance stuff in the shoot. It’s the first video, so just some introduction stuff.


I’m excited to see it. So besides that, what can fans expect from you guys in the future?
DR: Well, touring. We’re working on some tours with other artists, so we’re excited about that.
CL: And the new record, of course. A lot of stuff we’re going to be doing on MySpace. We’re doing weekly webisodes on MySpace.
DR: It’s cool to stay connected with people.
CL: A lot of digitizing. Getting our blog going.


Ok, so what’s been the best part of GMA week.
CL: Being done. [Laughs]
DR: Monday night, we had a really awesome showcase at Fuel, and we got a really great response from not only peers, but also industry people. It’s amazing how far we’ve come in a year since the last GMA. It was just night and day. It was a pleasure to see, and we’re going to be doing a lot of follow up with those people in the next few weeks. It’s exciting because we know there was movement.
CL: Yeah, that’s what GMA should be. You should come here and get moved.
DR: Yep, and we did.


Are you going to the Dove Awards?
DR: No, we’re actually going to a place where they roast the Dove Awards, and then a party.

…Really?
[Laughter]
DR: No, we’re just joking. We’re going to go to the Dove Awards maybe next year, but not this year.
CL: There’s a lot involved with this industry, but the Dove Awards are what we really all want to get to. But we have to just be real. We all want to get nominated; we all want to be there. Until you’re nominated, we’re just kind of laying back. When we get nominated we’ll go. That’ll be fun.