From performing in the Piedmont Middle School talent show to appearing as a Season 20 Quarterfinalist on America’s Got Talent, 23-year-old singer-songwriter and producer Cole Swensen’s career has spanned from local stages to national television.
Swensen said he grew up in a musically talented family, with both parents working as professional musicians, and that living in Piedmont gave him constant opportunities to be involved in music.
“In sixth grade, I would bring my ukulele to school. Unfortunately, I was that guy. I would just sing in the hallways and luckily no one roasted me so hard that I stopped, but I just kept up with it,” Swensen said.
Cole Swensen’s mom Judy Swensen said she loved raising her kids in Piedmont because it was a very accepting and welcoming place.
Swensen said that environment gave him access to a wide range of arts programs, including Acapella that he took freshman year with retired Acapella teacher Joe Piazza.
“He was really encouraging, I remember being so nervous to sing for him. When I just got there, he was like, ‘Cole, you have a pretty nice voice,’” Swensen said. “He was a tough critic, so I was like, ‘dang, thanks,’ and it kind of gave me some inspiration.”
Swensen said that in high school he often felt lost and thought that the traditional college path was not right for him.
“I was 16 [when] I got Logic Pro Production software and started writing about these struggles I was having with identity and figuring out my purpose. I felt so connected with myself whenever I played music,” Swensen said. “ It just felt like this beautiful outlet from all the struggles we have in school, meeting the right community of friends, figuring out what we’re going to do for [college.]”
After high school, Swensen said he took a gap year to focus on producing more. He then moved to Los Angeles to study audio engineering at The Musicians Institute in Hollywood. He began recording guitar, producing arrangements, consistently posting two or three videos a week on Instagram, and started putting singles out.
“[My music is] kind of like a cross between Lizzie McAlpine and Bon Iver. It comes down to finding sounds I really like, making guitar arrangements and recording a bunch of layers of guitars and vocal harmonies all basically self produced in a bedroom studio,” he said.
Swensen said his journey as a musician has been independent, he would put out singles every month, be constantly producing and writing, learning about audio engineering and mixing so he could improve his own records. Once he released his first three singles, he was contacted by his manager, Kyle McEvoy, who he has been working with for four years.
“The response that I got [when I started releasing singles] was that people all over the world also feel the same struggles,” he said. “And maybe I can serve someone by making music that connects them to themselves, and that was when I was like ‘This is what I have to do.’”
Swensen said he first auditioned for America’s Got Talent (AGT) in 2021.
“I probably wasn’t ready to take on what the process really is then, but at that time, I was just like I’m just gonna make this happen. And then it just didn’t happen,” he said.
Four years later, Swensen said one of the AGT producers sent him a DM and told him he should send in an audition video because they really liked his stuff. So he sent an audition tape in and on the first round of zoom calls, they told him they were going to take him right to the shows.
“I was like, ‘What’s a unique thing that I could do so that if I went on stage and they just shot me down super hard, I would still be like, That experience was worth it,’ Swensen said. “The only thing I could kind of think of was that my mom plays cello and she plays on a lot of my records and then if I get totally rejected, at least I’ll have the memory of playing with my mom on the show.”
He said he drove back to the Bay Area from Los Angeles to rehearse with his Mom for two weeks and they were planning to choose between ‘The Only Exception’ by Paramore, and ‘The Middle’ by Jimmy Eatsworld but five days before the audition, the producer called and said they didn’t like those songs and they thought Swensen should perform “Viva La Vida”.
“Cole is really great at putting together arrangements pretty quickly. Luckily, he’s very, very flexible, I’m not so much,” Judy Swensen said. “So it was very nerve wracking, putting the work in and then them saying, no, we’re going to change the song so he was able to just wing it, be flexible, and figure it out.”
“I think it was a huge learning curve for me that the music business just works like that. You can’t let things funk you out, especially in LA and with these shows, they have no mercy for you,” Swensen said.
Swensen said he had mixed feelings about playing Viva La Vida because when first listening to Viva La Vida, he said it represented the story of this King who lost everything but he found joy even with losing all those things. But for him, Viva La Vida meant finding joy when you lose people and things don’t go well in your life.
“My Grandpa, my Mom’s dad, passed away three weeks before our audition, and that was tough. I went to Ohio with my Mom, and he was in the hospital on life support,” Swensen said. “He had cancer and he was so excited telling everyone in the hospital “Cole’s gonna win AGT,” and I wasn’t even 100% sure I was getting on the show at that point, and two and a half weeks later, we were trying to prepare for the craziest, scariest thing I’ve ever done. ”
Judy Swensen said it was an incredible place to have such a scary experience and that initially walking on stage takes so much pride.
“By the time we got on stage, we just had to just send it,” Swensen said.
Swensen said that the loss of his Grandpa was at the core of their performance and he and his mom had an incredible experience and moment together on stage.
“I actually wore his pants and his shirt as my clothes for the audition. So it was really a bummer he wasn’t able to see it. And now that incredible moment we had, I think at this point it’s reached over 25 to 30 million people on YouTube, Tiktok and Instagram,” he said.
Judy Swensen said playing with her son Cole was the most exciting musical experience she has ever had.
“It’s been incredible to watch Cole’s journey, because he was pretty amateur when he moved to LA, he had taken a gap year, but then when he moved to LA he learned so much, and he’s grown into this incredible musician in these four years so quickly,” Judy Swensen said.
Swensen said performing on AGT was such an amazing experience and being on the stage in front of Simon Cowell—who he had looked up to his whole life watching American Idol, X Factor, and AGT—was crazy.
“I’m really proud of how brave he’s been, especially with AGT, which is 15 million people viewing a live show. So it takes a lot of guts to get up there and to be a singer too,” Judy Swensen said. “With an instrument you can hide behind it, but as a singer, you can’t.”
After the audition, Swensen said AGT notified them that their audition was going to be released early on Youtube which was an incredible honor. In just three months the video has gained seven million views and more than 102,000 likes and since then it’s been lots of rehearsals, wardrobe, filming and early mornings but even though it has been busy, it’s been a very joyful experience.
“I think I realized that we have to do hard things to get to the next level. We’re our own worst critic and you just have to keep moving forward, even when you have negative thoughts,” Swensen said.
Swensen said in the next few years he hopes to go on tour and maybe open for an artist as well as write and produce a song for a film. But for now, he is focused on making a positive impact in the most honest way by writing songs, sharing love, authenticity, and vulnerability to a large number of people.
“[My advice for] anyone at Piedmont is if they have a really strong feeling in their gut, to see that 100% through, don’t go halfway. And if you have a good feeling about something, don’t let insecurity or what other people will think hold you back, just let yourself post videos of yourself singing and just be cringe and just go for it,” Swensen said.”Don’t give up on that dream.”
