Daily Discovery: The Cathartic Breakup Song Everybody Needs— Kolby Cooper’s “Excuses”

No one wants the “it’s not you, it’s me” speech. Kolby Cooper’s song “Excuses” allows listeners to imagine telling someone off for pulling out the overused cliché. 

Videos by American Songwriter

“Excuses,” co-written by Jordan Walker and Brett Tyler along with Cooper, appears on his latest EP, Boy From Anderson County, which was released on August 6. The six-song EP is “doused in Kolby’s signature wailing guitar riffs, convicting vocals, flaming high-energy instrumentals, and overly relatable lyrics,” says the EP press release.

The inspiration for this track came from one of Cooper’s friends going through a breakup. It was an all-too-familiar “it’s not you, it’s me” situation, so Cooper penned a song dissing someone for their use of typical relationship-ending excuses.

“I wrote this song with Jordan Walker and Brett Tyler. When we got in the room, Brett pitched the title ‘Excuses,’ and I just laughed and said, ‘Man, we’ve got to write that today.’ It was funny to me because literally two days before one of my guitar players, Paul, had gotten broken up with because ‘he was just too good for her, and she would just break his heart anyways,’” Cooper tells American Songwriter. “I just figured we could try and write a song to make Paul feel better, and we wound up writing one of my favorite songs. So, thanks, Paul.”

Cooper, whose skill of turning life experiences into songs is remarkable, unleashed his overly relatable lyrics in this raw track.

So I’ll just stop you right there / ‘Cause all I hear are excuses / About everything that we had and why we had to lose it / Yeah, some bullshit that you said / ‘Bout how we fell too fast, too hard / And we’d just break each other’s hearts / And all those reasons why you said you had to do it / Sure sound like excuses, Cooper sings.

More than just a call-out, Cooper’s goal for this song is for listeners to understand and know that they’re not alone in their brokenheartedness.

“I want people to hear this song and know that it’s okay to have your heart broken and that you’re not alone because so many people share the same experiences as you. You’ll pull through the other side, just got to keep your head up,” adds Cooper.

Only 22 years old and four years out of high school, Cooper has already made quite the name for himself. He’s amassed more than 120 million streams to date and is selling out shows all over the country. He’ll make a stop in Nashville to play at The Basement East on November 12 with Palmer Anthony and November 13 with Corey Kent. Playing live shows brings Cooper’s favorite part of songwriting to life: building a community around his music.

“My favorite thing about songwriting comes awhile after the song is written. My favorite part is getting to play the song live and see all the people singing along,” says Cooper. “The feeling that so many people can connect and truly feel what you were trying to convey is honestly unmatched.”


Check out the “Excuses” visualizer below.

Photo by Gabriel Muniz

Leave a Reply

Dashboard Confessional Announces New LP & Releases Energetic Single, “Here’s To Moving On”