Meet Colton Snowden

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Colton Snowden. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Colton below.

Colton, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

Through a specific formula of attention-deficit hyperactivity, anxiety, and desire to achieve greatness in my passions. Haha, but really, when I pick something up, whether it’s a sport, hobby, or something more abstract and creative like music, I immediately fixate on it until I can reach a level of mastery that I’m satisfied with. Unfortunately, at times I’m very uneasily satisfied. Perhaps that’s better viewed as a blessing.

Music was always a place for me to go when everything else seemed all too intense and suffocating. Life is full of trials and tribulations that can make or break you on a day to day, and they don’t get easier or less intense the older you become. Growing up listening to blues, classic rock, and jazz with my Dad, I finally discovered electronic music in my early teenage years. Since then I have always found pleasure searching and discovering new music that can emulate and sample some of those blues and rock elements that I initially was exposed to. I think at a certain point we all graduate from being subjected to listening to whatever your parents, or older siblings are listening to in the car, and begin to play what we want to listen to, and shape that taste. Once that driver’s license is yours and you hit the open road, game on. The stereo is your oyster.

Music was always extremely prevalent in my upbringing. My father was, and to this day, is an extremely talented blues guitarist, who passed on that skill to my older brother Eric. Like most younger brothers, all I wanted to do was be better than my brother at everything. Sports, skateboarding, surfing, video games, didn’t matter. I always felt like I had something to prove, had to let big bro know I meant business. As I got older my father could see that I had the desire to play instruments as well. After one or two failed guitar lessons that ended with me in tears of frustration, we landed on the drums. Take your absolute natural of a guitarist oldest son casting a shadow over his can’t-sit-still little brother dying to prove himself and his report card with the words “has trouble focusing in class” on it.
Bingo, drummer.

I took to the drums quite naturally, and quickly started taking lessons in town with a local established drummer in his 40’s in the back of a music store in Edgewater, FL. Long black hair, mustache, full of energy, his name may as well was have been John Bonham. Perfect for a drumming mentor. “John” and I would go over fundamentals and theory for usually 5 or 10 minutes, and then usually pick a song or 3 to play together and just trade off on solos for the remaining hour and a half. I’ll never forget the day he introduced me to a band called No Doubt, we played Hella Good over and over again for an hour straight one day. Still and will forever be a banger.

Growing up my whole life playing sports, surfing, skating, there are a lot of memorable moments and feelings you experience that incite ecstasy. First time getting barreled, first time landing a kickflip in front of your friends, scoring a game winning run or goal, striking out the final batter to close out a game with your friends and family watching. Forming an idea in your mind and turning it into sound and rhythm with your hands and feet is a different level of ecstasy. No drug can compare. (Or at least I’ve been told.)

For many years drumming was a way for me to release, and to express some of the things I was feeling and going through in my early years. Somewhere along the line, I stopped. When I moved to Jacksonville from New Smyrna Beach to attend UNF, it was pretty apparent that I wouldn’t be able to bring the drum set along. I still continued to skate, surf, and participated in some intramural sports at school, but having known I wasn’t a talented enough surfer to make a decent living, education was at the forefront of my mind. Most people come to this realization. Get a degree, get a job with that degree, make enough money to do all the things that originally made your life enjoyable in the first place, ride the hamster wheel and hold on for dear life. So I got the degree, and was offered a potential job that was nothing short of my dream position. One catch, It would just take a few years for things to fall into place, and I felt that when the time came I was ready to dive in and commit my life to it, largely because I believed that many of the skills that I had been developing throughout my life and my experiences were shaping me up to kill this role.

One thing I’ve learned about life is that things are not always what they seem, and people are not always who they appear to be. You can spend an eternity feeling bad for yourself, and angry with others for the things they did to you, but all you’re doing is getting in the way of yourself and your true potential. Although I was going through challenging times, one thing remained constant in helping me push through, music.

Somewhere along the several years it took me to learn that lesson, I discovered the physical form of DJing. For a lot of us the journey starts the same, a house party, some speakers, turntables, and fading one song into another. Since I first was able to send music to buddies when I was 12 or 13, it always got me stoked to find a song, a remix, or some underground band and share that with someone and have them go “Dude this is sick! Please send me more.” So when I started actually DJing for my friends at parties and gatherings and seeing them trip out when I’d play some crazy remix of an old 70s or 80s rock track, but with a fat 808 kick and a crispy snare, I knew this was something I wanted to fixate on. Something that maybe I could master.

In a world heavily driven by social media and the idea of fame, it’s easy to lose yourself trying to emulate and cater your taste to align with what other people are doing and achieving so you can reach that point.
When I’m at a show, watching a friend perform, listening to music, or playing a set, my only goal is to immerse myself in that moment, let the music take control, and try to feel whatever emotions I think that artist, producer, or myself, is trying to emit. Just ride the wave.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Currently, I’m playing events in Jacksonville and Orlando, as well as planning, organizing, and DJing my own events in the New Smyrna/ Volusia county area, where I currently reside. After planning and playing my own events in 2023 in New Smyrna, I decided I needed something a little more concrete than just “hey guys I’m DJing this location at this time”, so Open Face Entertainment was born. My main focus is to create an atmosphere where people can come enjoy themselves, dance, listen to good unique music they may not have discovered themselves, and connect with themselves and others. The name comes from the open face of an actual wave in the ocean. As a surfer, your goal is to find a wave with an inviting, open, face to ride. I like to reference this when talking about a dance floor. Find a space for you and your friends to migrate to and make your own. Once you get comfortable and become one with the pulse of the “ocean”, then you can get up in the pocket and really rip. If you want to talk genres, I’d say the music I gravitate towards would be House, Indie Dance, Disco, and Melodic. Usually just anything with a crisp beat, good groove, and occasionally some euphoric vocals to get you in your feelings.

I think it’s worth noting that I’ve been working in the service industry since I was 14, my first job as a busboy at a local irish-mexican restaurant in New Smyrna, shout out to Clancy’s Cantina. My experience in food and beverage has been pivotal with working with venues, and convincing them to allow me to transform the atmosphere of their space into one that fits Open Face’s desired standards. Having been on the other side of the industry for so long, having that understanding and respect for what they do and the tasks they face has made it exceptionally easier to come to a place of unified agreement in expectations during and after events. I respect the hell out of anyone in the industry. In a world where people grow more and more particular and at times entitled, the servers, hostesses, bartenders and managers who facilitate people’s dining experience really are the unsung heroes of today’s society.
So when my event is popping off, the venues packed, I’m having the time of my life ripping tunes for everyone and dancing my a*s off and look over and see the bartenders getting destroyed, I don’t feel as bad when afterwards they mention that they crushed in tips and are walking away with an extra couple hundred bucks that they would’nt have made from typical service.

My current goals are centralized towards learning music production, establishing myself as a DJ and eventually a music producer, and continuing to plan and coordinate events and collaborate with other like-minded individuals and artists who have the same desire and passion to create. This weekend , on April 6th in Deland FL, I’ll be collaborating with a lifestyle-clothing brand based out of Deltona called 4th Files and throwing a pop-up show at a local restaurant called the Deland Eatery. I realize this article will come out after this event, but I’ve been visualizing and planning this event at this location for quite some time, so here’s to hoping it all goes well. I’m also looking forward to future collaborations with other groups in 2025 like Sunset Sessions(Jax Beach), Reach(St Aug), and Sedo(Orlando) to name a few.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Respect, perseverance, and sincerity.

Let the sincerity of your beliefs be unquestionable. I’ve always had a good sense of when someone is feeding me BS or being sincere about something. The moment I feel like someone is telling me something because they think it’s what I want to hear, they’ve lost me. Be direct, be clear, and above all be honest. We learned it in grade school and even younger, if you don’t have anything nice to say, say nothing. But there is a difference between insulting someone for no reason and giving constructive feedback. Your real friends and supports will always tell you the things you really don’t want to hear.

Continue your effort to achieve the goal you are working towards, no matter how difficult and long the journey can be. Being an “artist” and being paid to travel and “perform” for other people and to make their night or day or week by making them dance, or feel some type of emotion through your work is without a doubt one of the most rewarding things you can do. Nobody gets there over night. As someone still so so early on this journey, I constantly remind myself that all of the work being put towards my passion is all part of reaching the end goal, doing this for a living. if it were that easy, everyone would do it. Put on the blinders, be uncomfortable, cut your teeth, play to rooms of zero or 2 people, take every chance you get to be better, but make it worth it, no half-assery.

Always treat people with respect, until they disrespect you, then don’t treat them at all. I learned this from a young age through the surf culture. Don’t ever expect to just show up to a surf break, paddle out, and start ripping waves like you own the place. Do this, and watch yourself be put in your place quickly, by those who paved the way for young people like you. Watch the lineup, paddle out off to the side, see which locals are catching good waves, hoot and holler for them when they get a good one. Slowly insert yourself into the lineup, and wait. Have the right attitude and demeanor, look happy to just be in the water, and just wait. Eventually one of those guys will probably tell you to go on a good wave, and when they do, do your best and with good form and flow.

In other words, if you want to DJ a party you’ve attended that you love, wait your turn. Don’t ask to play right away. Show up early, lend a hand, give props, compliment the DJs and find the ring leader and express your appreciation to him for putting on such a fun event. Don’t even mention that you’ve played this venue or this club or this bar. Everyone has, nobody cares. Sit back, pay attention to the music, watch the venue, see how the dance floor breathes, there is always room to learn.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

Oh boy. Let me crank out 4 names real quick.

Mark Lowry: This guy sought me out at a happy hour set I was playing at Surfer The Bar in Jax Beach. He came out to see me, and then the next week I asked him to play with me for the last hour or so. We just clicked, another fellow drummer. He got me my first ever booking at a real venue, Myth downtown, direct support for Joshwa, spoiled me lol. He showed me the ropes, gave me a taste, and continues to support and connect me when he can, and for that I’ll be forever grateful.

Evan Cavallini and Andre Martins AKA Satellite Frank: These guys showed me what it means to be all in on music. Evan with his full commitment to the music scene, events, music production, and his family, and Andre. What can I say about Andre, an exceptionally skilled multi-instrumentalist who’s talent is only exceeded by his immensely kind and caring personality. These guys can squash a lot of my own self doubt with just a few kind words, and I look forward to all of our future collaborations. They are going to go the distance, I can tell.

Jacob Smith: A fellow service industry hustler and veteran who also co-founded Sunset Sessions and has been at the DJ and event game tirelessly for decades. I truly don’t know how the guy does it, just a powerhouse, and has been a big role model for keeping it pushing and never giving up. One thing he always tells me, be different. When I started attending his parties at Casa Marina for Sunset Sessions is when I started to realize that I didn’t have to play what everyone else was playing or conform to what everyone else is doing with my style of music. Can’t say enough good things about the guy. You’re my guy River.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coltonsnowden/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OpenFaceEntertainment
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/colt12

Image Credits

Patrick Ruddy Photo, Indian River Images, Brandi LaFleur, Linda Melnick, Sedo, Jordan Collins, Bacardipapi.foto