Meet Matt Koziol

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matt Koziol a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Matt , thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?

I had a very valuable lesson taught to me when I was about 15.

I was starting to play shows locally and writing songs. I was doing my best to emulate my hero’s. I would play guitar like them, and sing like them. So around that time, I was given the opportunity to record a demo. It was the first time I really stepped foot into a studio and heard myself.

I took that demo to my Junior High School music teacher, Reggie Turner. He listened to the demo and asked me if he could use it for something he called “listening time.” This is where he would play music for the students and have them give a blind reaction. He did that with my music and let me read the reviews. Needless to say, if you ever need to be humbled, let a bunch of 10 year olds review your music.

When I asked him why he would let me see those reviews, he gave me the one piece of advice that has made me realize the power of being the only one in the room that looks or sounds like me.

“Matt, everyone has their own unique fingerprint. There is not one in the world like another. So if you’re trying to emulate someone else’s style, you’ll always be number two. If you always stay true to who you are, your sound, and your words..you will always be number one. It’s your fingerprint.”

That lesson has always stuck with me.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m a Country/Americana artist based out of Nashville, TN.

I moved here 10 years ago to follow a dream of writing songs. I attempted an artist career in my early 20’s being based out of New Jersey, and felt like at the time my calling was to write songs for a living. in 2020 I recorded a record call “Wildhorse” with my great friend Matt Odmark, and it pushed me back into being an artist and led me to release a record called “Last of the Old Dogs” in 2023.

So what I’m doing now is touring professionally as an artist and still working full time as a songwriter. I spend time traveling and performing my own music, as well as getting in writing rooms with friends writing songs for their projects or my own. The latest songs I’ve had sung by friends are “Yearnin’ for You” by 49 Winchester, and “Cost of Life” from Colby Acuff.

As of now, I just released a new album called “Cowboys In London” that came out November 7th, 2025.

I think what’s exciting about where I’m at musically is that over the last few years I let too many “cooks in the kitchen.”
I was trying to write and perform songs that I thought would “do well” instead of what moved me.

over the last year, I took some time to get back to songs that made me feel something. I said on a post about my new album that I made it for me, and recorded it for me. Now everyone can have it.

The true thing I love about music – be it writing, recording, or performing – is there is no limit to learning. I’m always finding new ways to discover myself better. The payoff is hearing from people. Listening to their stories about how your words changed them, or how it helped them through a tough time.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The first would probably be confidence. I know that sounds pretty broad, but to work in music, you need to have confidence that your product is good. I feel like that’s a given for any business. There’s no room to second guess yourself with performing something that means the world to you.

The second would be, Individuality. The one thing I’ve learned is that following anyone else will only leave you in second place. It applies to everything from the way you sing, to the way you write, the way you dress, the way you present yourself. It all should come from a place of individuality. Let who you are and where you’re from shine through.

Last would be persistence. Whenever someone would ask me “what’s your plan b?” my answer was always the same. If you give yourself a safety net, you’ll always know it’s there. You won’t work as hard as the person who doesn’t. I never saw myself doing anything but music. I wouldn’t give myself the choice because that would give me the excuse to not put all I have into it because there’s always something else that could take care of me. Don’t stop, and make sure it’s the one thing you thing about when you wake up, and go to bed. If what you’re doing has that part of your brain and heart, then give it every part of those to make sure it happens.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

If I had a decade left I would create as much and release as much music as possible. Almost to the point of exhaustion. Knowing there’s an end date would only make me want to pack in as much as I can say as possible. If I send every day of a decade focused on creating and releasing things that didn’t serve me, I would feel accomplished.

I feel like most of that would be accompanied by time with family and traveling to places I never knew were possible to see.

I would write things constantly. I would photograph everything.

I would want to leave no stone unturned when it came to what I saw or experienced.

Writing it all, photographing, and singing it all would leave people with a grand collection of how I experienced the world. I feel like that would be the ultimate gift.

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Image Credits

Keiser Cunningham, Alex Wieland

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