As Pynk Beard, Grammy-winning songwriter Sebastian Kole turns the page

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By Alli Patton

Grammy-winning songwriter Sebastian Kole has accomplished a great deal in his career. As his alter ego Pynk Beard, though, he could achieve much more. The Birmingham native is stepping out from behind the scenes and into the spotlight to bring his brand of country music to the masses.

Ahead of a handful of hometown shows, the artist spoke with music journalist Alli Patton about his brightly bearded persona, his upcoming album, Sugar and Salt, and more.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Sebastian Kole is a vocalist, a musician, a Grammy-winning songwriter. Who is Pynk Beard?

Pynk Beard is who Sebastian Cole grew up as. Sebastian Kole is, you’re right, he’s a songwriter, and he’s this thought-evoking, deep-thinking philosopher. Pynk Beard is the kid that grew up to be Sebastian Kole. It’s really wonderful to be back in that child-like joy.

You’re venturing out from behind the pen and paper to into the spotlight now. How does that feel?

I am nervous. Nervous is a good word for it, but at the same time, I really am having the time of my life. It feels great because I’m meeting so many people and I’m getting to express myself, and that’s wonderful, but I don’t know what I’m doing. So I’m like, “I hope I got that right,” but it’s great.

You’ve come equipped. I don’t believe that you don’t know what you’re doing.

Songwriting, I feel like I know what I’m doing. As a songwriter, I’m like, “You put the hook here. You have some O’s here. This is how you make a song.” But like, again, wearing it as a face is a completely different skill set.

The songs that you’ve released or teased so far, they’re so bold and vibrant and bubbly. Do you think Pynk Beard gives you the power to be that way?

Yes. Young me, like the kid me, that’s who that kid is. He’s loud and he’s kind of funny. He doesn’t care what he says, and he just wants you to get him. Older me is more refined. You just learn to play a role, which is important. You don’t want to go off making the world mad all the time, or stealing people’s attention all the time, but young me loves that. Pynk Beard has kind of given me that back, to just get out and just have a good time and not take yourself too seriously. Pynk Beard has definitely given me that back.”

You introduced this year on social media as the season of Pynk Beard. What sparked that? Why now?

When this project kind of birthed itself, I kept hearing the same thing from everybody. It was like, “It’s your time to get in front. It’s your time to get in front.” People who don’t know each other were just like, “Oh yeah, you should get out in front. You should get out and do something.” And I’m like, “Okay, I guess it’s just that time.”

The creativity just kind of all came together at once, but I wasn’t intending on doing a project. I was really writing some stuff for other people, and every time I would send it to somebody, they would go, “Oh, no, no, you should just do this yourself.”

What was the moment you knew country music was the direction you wanted to take as Pynk Beard?

Sebastian Kole had a record deal. I was first signed to Motown, and my very first album was supposed to be a country album.  

The way I write has always lent itself towards country music, and so I’ve always wanted to do this … We ended up kind of doing a hodgepodge of it in the first project and called it SOUP, which stood for Southern Urban Pop. That was as close to country as I could get at the time. Now, things have kind of opened up a bit and it’s more fitting to what I do.

You’re working on releasing your debut album as Pynk Beard. Can you tell me about Sugar and Salt? What inspired its 14 songs and what can listeners expect from the project?

Sugar and Salt is a triple entendre about an actual relationship that I was in that didn’t work, and then my try to find love one more time. It’s also about my relationship with the music industry, like how some things worked and some things didn’t work and this is literally my last slow dance. This is my one more shot at this. Then it’s just about the ups and downs of life, just the sugar and the salt of life.

You grew up in the Hueytown area, in the town of Dolomite. How do you find your upbringing informing your work?

I spent a lot of time in church. Those influences are heavy in this. I went to the University of Alabama and I played in a southern rock band called Roshambo … I rapped for a while … All of that kind of comes together to make this. I try to tell the stories of what I’ve learned over the years, who taught them to me. I talk about my grandma, my mom, my uncle and my dad, just the people who helped shape where I am now.”

You’re playing a two-night showcase at Workplay here in Birmingham, the first of which sold out leading to the addition of a second show. How does it feel to receive that kind of hometown love?

Birmingham is the greatest city on earth for a lot of reasons. Birmingham has always been really supportive of me, and it feels great that they still support me. I can’t put into words how thankful I am for that. 

I don’t want to get emotional about that, but I absolutely adore this city for that. They’ve let me – my mom calls it being the soundtrack to people’s lives – and they’ve let me be that soundtrack for years. I’m so very thankful.

What can concertgoers expect from an evening with Pynk Beard?

There are not a lot of places in the world where a person can go and safely lose their mind. I grew up in a church where you could. I grew up in a church where you could go and cry, if you needed to; laugh, if you needed to; run, if you needed to; dance, if you needed to; pray, if you needed to.

Not a lot of places where you can get that and all spaces are important. They’re really important. They are even more important now, because a lot of people don’t feel safe for whatever reason. Sometimes you can’t talk it out, sometimes you just gotta feel it. What you can expect at a Pynk Beard show is a place to feel it. I just want you to feel safe to feel it. If you need to dance or cry or run or laugh or whatever you need to do, come to it, because that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna do all those things in abundance.