Biography

Five years ago, George Collins hadn’t recorded or performed since the 1980s. Back then, he was a career musician who played in a funk group with future members of the Dave Matthews Band. By 2020, Collins was blissfully unaware of the new music business landscape and the artistic autonomy available at his fingertips. In a short time, Collins went from not having Spotify to emerging as an internationally acclaimed singer/songwriter wielding an impressive profile. To date, he has amassed 1.1 million cumulative plays on Spotify in over 150 countries and over three million video streams on YouTube. 

Now, Collins is releasing his ambitious, genre-defying fourth record, New Ways of Getting Old. The 14-song album showcases his restless creativity, his emotionally intelligent lyrics, and his remarkable development as a singer/songwriter. Boasting more hooks than a tackle box, this eclectic collection of tunes might best be described as the wide-ranging Revolver or White Album in Collins’s oeuvre.

“I came out of nowhere with my first EP, and it did really well. I thought, ‘Amazing, how can I top this?!’” the Prague-based artist says with a good-natured laugh. “Each release kept going that way. So, for my new album, I decided to do something outrageous. I deliberately set out to create a sprawling, potentially messy collection of tunes across a wide variety of genres and styles that have influenced me as a songwriter.” 

Previously, Collins released a dozen singles collected in two EPs, an acoustic album of fan favorites from his catalog, and numerous lyric videos. He was selected as a semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition out of more than 15,000 submissions for the title track from his debut EP, “It’s Been a Long Time.” Collins is a fixture on the local Prague music scene where he performs regularly, often at the Hard Rock Café – the largest of its kind in Europe. Outside of music, Collins is a novelist, an award-winning screenwriter, a husband, and a devoted father to two young daughters. 

It may seem like Collins appeared out of nowhere, but he has deep roots as a professional musician. He came up playing lead guitar in an Earth, Wind & Fire-esque band with founding Dave Matthews Band members, drummer and backing vocalist Carter Beauford, and the late saxophonist LeRoi Moore. In addition, Collins put himself through graduate school performing three nights a week as a solo artist in clubs around Charlottesville, Virginia.Yet, Collins left behind his youthful musical ambitions to move to Prague, Czech Republic and embark on a lucrative, 20-year career as an investment consultant and financial executive. Approaching the age of 50, he made the bold decision to bow out of the corporate world. A short while later, he became a first-time dad. Since then, Collins has dedicated himself to being a family man while tirelessly working on his music and fiction writing. 

“Launching a new career as an indie musician hasn’t been a learning curve – it’s been more like a free vertical climb straight up Yosemite’s El Capitan!” Collins says. “People sometimes ask me, ‘Are you enjoying your hobby?’ Hobby? This ain’t no hobby – it’s my passion. I’m working longer hours than when I was a partner in my investment firm, but I feel this is what I am called to do and it’s an honor and a privilege to finally get to do it.” New Ways of Getting Old evidences a profound growth spurt for Collins as an artist. His dedication to voice lessons shines through in his dynamically expressive singing. Collins has expanded his songwriting sensibility to include more of a riff-driven approach, harkening back to his early love of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and Eric Clapton. In addition, the album showcases a bevy of songwriting collaborations, including co-writes with multi-platinum, award-winning songwriters Charlie Grant (Spice Girl Melanie C, Michael Patrick Kelly, and Simply Red) and Rob Wells (Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, and Selene Gomez).The album is finely crafted and meticulously sequenced. It has plenty of the heartfelt Americana that has come to define Collins’s output, but the record also indulges the many talents and impulses of a seemingly boundless artist. Collins branches out into burly riff-driven classic rock, tender balladry, euphoric New Orleans-style funk, reggae, alt-rock, and atmospheric pop.New Ways of Getting Old opens with the anthemic single, “New Way,” a swaggering, guitar-driven riff-rocker punctuated by horns, Wurlitzer organ, and piano. “It’s a song about looking at the world in the broadest sense, and saying ‘Here’s what needs to change,’” Collins says. He spells it all out in the chant-like bridge with the lyrics: Politicians, television, everybody’s on a mission / Competition, blind ambition, every day an inquisition / Opposition, terrorism, every word creates division / Cynicism, pessimism, no no no to nihilism.The lush and emotive “Open Up” recalls Peter Gabriel’s ethereal pop, featuring layered vocals, rich sonorous textures, and exotic World Music instrumentation. 

Collins the fiction writer comes forth on the gritty, done-wrong Americana of “By the Time.” “It’s an f-you breakup letter, but it has nothing to do with my marriage, thankfully,” Collins laughs. “The line ‘By the time’ popped into my head when I was noodling around with this very cool riff, I let my imagination run, and the rest of the lyrics flowed from there.”“My Tomorrow Is Already Missing You Today” is a tender, bursting-with-love missive to Collins’s daughters reminiscent of Paul McCartney’s finest ballads. He slinks into a funky New Orleans state of mind on the joyous “Happiness Looks Good on You,” which features a soaring gospel choir, big brassy horns, and a hooky, energetic chorus. New Ways of Getting Old concludes gracefully with the wistful acoustic ballad, “A Quiet Life,” a reflective tune which recalls Tom Waits and is elegantly embroidered with slide guitar, organ, piano, flute, French horn, and Collins’s smokey vocals. 

Collins’s second act in life makes a statement perfectly aligned with his album, New Ways of Getting Old. “I am 63 years old. I know people in their 70s and 80s who are completely shut down, and I know people the same ages who are very youthful – it’s all about attitude,” Collins says. “If there is a message to this album, it’s ‘Live life to its fullest.’”