Country artist Dylan Gossett on 'Coal,' bringing Westward tour to Pittsburgh and more

Rising country artist Dylan Gossett has turned “Coal” into platinum and more.

The 26-year-old from Austin, Texas, first teased his song “Coal” on TikTok, releasing it fully in 2023. With lyrics like “They say pressure makes diamonds. How the hell am I still coal?,” the song has hit RIAA double platinum status while also racking up more than half a billion streams.

“It definitely has changed (my life) quite drastically, obviously being on the road and being able to quit my job and chase this dream that I’ve always dreamed of chasing, just being able to pursue music and be able to be creative every single day,” he said. “The places that we’ve been able to go see, just every single day, it’s something new.”

Gossett is touring in support of his debut album, “Westward,” which features “Coal” and 16 other songs. He’ll make a stop Monday at Stage AE in Pittsburgh — his first time in the city — with Kingfishr and Buffalo Traffic Jam opening on his Westward tour.

In a call Thursday from Charlotte, North Carolina, Gossett spoke with TribLive about expectations for “Coal,” his hands-on approach and more. Find a transcript of the conversation, edited for clarity and length, below.

This leg of the tour kicked off last week, so how’s it been going so far?

It’s been going great. We have a whole new production so we’re bringing lights and stage techs and hands and rises. It’s kind of the whole thing. It feels good so far; it feels like we have more of a complete show.

You’d been out on the road earlier this year, so what’s the best thing about touring?

The best thing about touring, you have to say the live show, being able to do that. But I would also say just being able to hang with your buddies, you kind of feel like you’re in college, in a dorm room on a bus. Just getting to hang out with everybody and just chill out.

Could you have ever imagined as a kid that you’d get to visit all the countries that you’ve been to while touring so far?

No, not at all. It’s pretty incredible. We find ourselves very, very lucky. Lots of times, you don’t get to really soak in the city. I just woke up and there’s a Dumpster outside my window. So I don’t know how much of Charlotte I’m gonna see, but whenever we go to the really cool places, we make sure to get out and go check it out.

What’s been the most surprising moment of these past few years?

Honestly, maybe the traction overseas, being able to go to London or Dublin and sell out shows, it’s pretty wild, or a show in Australia, being able to go and see that our music has made it that far overseas. It’s pretty incredible. That was definitely a pretty surreal experience. Just meeting people from 17 hours away with a plane, it’s pretty crazy.

When you first put out “Coal,” what were your expectations for it?

I had no expectations at all. (laughs) I put it out by myself. I made it on a laptop in my bedroom, and I was just hoping for the best. I was hoping for some people to listen to it, and then millions of people tuned in. So it was not something that I was expecting at all.

Is it hard to wrap your head around that that song has around half a billion streams?

Yeah, it is very hard. It does not make sense to me at all. So it’s pretty incredible. It’s a great feeling.

Are you still recording songs on a laptop in your bedroom, or have you made some upgrades since then?

Funny enough, I’m still doing both. There’s lots of songs that I still record in my house. I love doing it that way. But whenever we want to put drums on a track, we’ll bring them to the studio and be able to do it in a more professional way. But I definitely still record a lot of the music at my house.

The new album “Westward” was still almost self-produced and written by you, so how important is it to keep that independence or control over your own material?

It’s super important. I think the main thing for me is it’s just creative freedom that I have with it. I think it’s really important for artistry to really have your hands on your own art. A lot of times, you don’t see it as much nowadays. It’s just really important to me that I’m all over it. That’s kind of my reasoning behind it.

Does it also feel maybe more personal and relevant to you if you’re the one doing the writing?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it definitely does. Every single song on the “Westward” album is a personal story or a personal thought that I’ve had or a story that I came up with, so it’s a very personal project to me.

This album also had three songs co-written by a bandmate, so could you see yourself being open to working with other writers in the future?

Yeah, I mean, nowadays I like writing with some of the bandmates. So yeah, Colton (Forrest Hardy), he’s part of our band, and we’ve been playing music now for a couple of years. I always go to him for chord progressions and stuff like that to help with the songs. But I don’t really see myself really going the Nashville route and sitting down in a room and writing with a ton of people, but I don’t mind bringing the people that are close to me or people I really believe in and trust as writers to collab with in the future.

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Did this full album feel different compared to your earlier singles or EPs at all?

I feel like in every single way, the way we recorded it was different, the way we rolled it out was different, the reaction is different. It’s a little bit of everything, but it was great. I love the process of it. It was very hard at times, but it was also rewarding at times as well.

What was the best part of putting together that whole album then? Does it feel like there’s a theme, a statement throughout?

I feel like the great things were those light bulb moments, where you figure out what the song is supposed to mean or what the song is supposed to sound like and you just get it, that’s the best feeling. But I feel like the overall theme of it is just being on the road, chasing your dream, going for opportunities that you wouldn’t have had elsewhere. So that’s kind of what the whole “Westward” album stands for.

With “Westward,” what have been your favorite tracks to play live and have there been any that connected with the audience in maybe a way that you weren’t expecting?

I love playing “Cicada Choir” live. I like playing “Tired of Running” live. It’s a super different song for us than I’m sure the crowd was expecting as well. So I’ll say those two kind of stick out to me a little bit, as far as the live show.

You said about maybe not wanting to write with other people, but are there any dream collaborations with other country artists that you would want to work with?

Honestly, I’ve not thought of it too much, but there definitely probably are. I would have to probably put some more thought into it. I know, like Charles Wesley Godwin, I think we’re hoping to do something sometime in the future. That’d be really, really cool. I’ve always really looked up to his songwriting and everything, so that’d be really cool for me.