Basement Finds 005: Croozer
The Kentucky-born, Nashville-based artist continues to carve out his own sound with new single release, "Unfold" and announces upcoming EP, "touchNgo".
Welcome back to Basement Finds, a series where I dig deep on the internet to find new music and artists. All music deserves to be heard and shared, and The Basement is a vehicle for that.
Croozer may be a new name to some, but his creative energy, genre-blurring sound, and thoughtful songwriting catches ears quickly. The Kentucky-born, Nashville-based artist has carved out a space with heartfelt singles like “Shine” and “Hide and Seek,” blending stripped-back storytelling with textured and modern production.
I hopped on a video call with Charlie Greene, also known as Croozer, to talk through the journey so far. What followed was a candid, warm conversation about life as an artist, trusting creative instincts, and growing into a sound that’s still evolving. From his earliest inspirations to the release of his favorite track yet, “Unfold,” Croozer keeps things grounded, honest, and full of momentum.
This interview is edited for length and clarity.
TB. First, why Croozer? How did you come up with that name?
Croozer. That was my nickname that my closer friends called me in high school. When I was looking for an artist project, I felt like it was kind of like in an old shoe box or something, and I pulled it out, and it just fit. I felt like it matched the energy of a solo project, because I didn't want to go by my name exactly.
TB. You're based out of Nashville. Is that your hometown?
Croozer. I'm actually from Kentucky, Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was awesome. We're pretty much known for the Corvette Museum and then Cage The Elephant is from there. They were older than me in school, they popped off as a high school band when I was still in, like, middle school. So, that just made the whole town very cool.
TB. So, you moved from Kentucky to Nashville to go to Belmont University. What did you study, and was that your dream school?
Croozer. I don't even know if it was my dream school. Once I got so into music in high school, I just knew that it was what I wanted to do. It also just happened to be like, an hour away, which was super sick. I went to Belmont to study music business and to meet musicians. I wasn’t intentional with what I was studying. I just wanted to be around that community and everything that Nashville kind of lives and breathes.
TB. What did moving to Nashville do for your growth and journey as an artist, considering it's the music capital?
Croozer. I don't know, I played the Mellow Mushroom in my hometown and that was my exposure to playing live. It’s a pizza place, and it was an open mic thing. But here, thousands of kids are on that same wave with that same energy and also want to make music and be collaborative and creative and write songs. Going from a place where that wasn't the main thing to everyone you meet is trying to do that — it’s very infectious and very cool. And then even today, 10 years later, so many of those people are crushing it, household names, or just my best friends still, or collaborators. It was just a cool group of people, all in one place at a very formative time of your life, which is freshman year of college.
TB. We interviewed your newly wedded wife, artist Taylor Noelle a couple of months back, and she shouted you out. What's it like being married to another musician/artist?
Croozer. It's funny because we collaborated a lot before we started dating. The pickup line at our college — "Hey, do you want to write?" — is a very casual way to say, "Let's hang out." You know? Then I feel once we became an item, since that part is so heavily in our lives and other things, it was almost like we didn't do that with each other as much. But it's great. I feel we're just bouncing boards for each other. She's an incredible visual artist, and her whole brand and everything she does for her project and even for others’ projects is so great. I feel we collaborate more in that way with each other.
TB. Would you two ever put a song out together?
Croozer. We did this benefit Christmas show in college where we had to write a song for everyone to sing at the end, and it's actually a really dope Christmas song. We've always said we’re gonna record it and put out a duet Christmas song. At some point, maybe… maybe this year is the year. That'll probably be our first thing, and who knows after that?
TB. To date, you have four singles out. For many artists, the anticipation of releasing their first piece of work can be overwhelming, even a little scary. How did it feel to put out “Shine,” your first single, and then receive the reactions you got from listeners?
Croozer. It was cool. It was definitely nerve-wracking because it was my first time putting out solo music, but it was cool. For me, Croozer is more rooted in a songwriting-forward project, and “Shine” was a really good staple. It represented the foundation of the project more clearly and felt like something I could build off of. It was sick, through TikTok or other ways, just seeing something grow from zero, from absolutely nothing, to now, almost five songs later. It’s been a year of trial and error, just trying to figure things out.
TB. After “Shine,” you put out “Hide and Seek” and then “Spit” sequentially following. “Hide and Seek” is your top song on Spotify right now with 50,000 streams. How did that song come about?
Croozer. So that was with my homie, Jos. He has an amazing artist project called Nickname Jos, and he’s actually about to put out an album too. That was our first time collaborating with each other, and it just came across very naturally. I think every song we’ve done together since then feels the same. It’s one of those collaborative relationships that felt very easy and like it was supposed to happen. I feel like “Hide and Seek” captured all of our first instincts with each other. My songwriting combined with his production is just so sick, and it was a great blend of both our strengths, I’d say.
TB. Your songwriting paints these stories, and your lyrics are so authentic. The blend of guitars and live instruments mixed with synthesized sounds creates this feeling and atmosphere that’s very refreshing. This brings us to your latest release, “Overstep,” which gives me such nostalgia. Who are you drawing inspiration from when it comes to songwriting?
Croozer. I think Bon Iver is super big for me because he tackles all these different genres and different sounds but does it with this cohesion. His web of collaborators is so huge, and I think everyone he works with, I love just as much. His approach to making music in general has been huge for me. The Ryan Beatty record, yeah, especially when I was trying to, I think that record in general really made me want to take a deeper dive into more stripped-back songwriting. Then it found its way production-wise. Ben Howard is another one who’s like Bon Iver and Ryan Beatty. I love Dominic Fike, Hippocampus, and Japanese House is super great. Clairo is huge too.
TB. Congrats on your first show back in February! How was performing for the first time, solo?
Croozer. Thanks! It was great. I decided to do no tracks and no backing anything. I just wanted to get together an amazing all-star band, which is not that hard in Nashville. My homie John played guitar, my buddy Aaron played drums, and Blake Ruby played keys. They were all incredible. I just said, “Hey, let’s not worry about mimicking the parts exactly or studying songs to death. If we can get the vibe and present it in a completely different way from the record, that’s okay, like I haven’t done this yet with this project, whatever happens, happens.” That brought a looseness to it. I’m sure when I play shows in the future, I’ll maybe do tracks and try different forms. But that total freedom and not being locked into anything was really good for the first show.
TB. How was the response from the audience?
Croozer. It was definitely a lot more friends than fans. All my friends are super nice, so they had nice things to say. It gave me the itch, even this past week, I was like, “Man, I want to play some more shows.” I was going back through the videos and reposting some and was thinking “This is sick!” but I feel like when I do the live session—the full band live session— I will be like, “All right, we did all this rehearsing. Let's go play a show.”
TB. What's your favorite song to perform so far?
Croozer. “Spit” has been really fun. I've only played one show and then the live sessions with Jos, and then I'm about to do a full band live session here sometime this summer. “Spit” is kind of a very weird song. Rhythmically and melodically, it's very busy. So I’ll reinvent the songs live and stuff like that. I feel like that's one that in a live setting, it takes on different forms, which is cool.
TB. You've been teasing and performing snippets of a mystery song online. When can fans and listeners expect to hear the full song? What is it titled?
Croozer. It's called “Unfold” and it's going to come out May 30th. It’s probably my favorite one. I feel like Jos and I, especially on that one, really locked in on not like, what the cruiser sound is—I think it's too early for that still— but something that just felt like we were almost referencing the other songs more so than referencing an artist per se. I’m super proud of it and excited.
TB. Is there anything else you'd like to let fans, listeners and The Basement know? Anything upcoming?
Croozer. Yeah! I'm working on a project right now that I want to release later this summer, just putting the final pieces together. It’s cool because, as you said at the beginning, “Shine” came out almost a year ago, which I didn’t even realize. It’s crazy—it’s been such a fun year starting something new. In this new artist phase, it’s about throwing a lot of paint at the wall and seeing what sticks. That’s my vibe for the foreseeable future: trying new things, bringing in new collaborators, and seeing what Croozer shapes into.
TB. Who’s your Basement Find?
Croozer. Well, my wife Taylor. She is putting out a project and it's amazing and incredible. I have these buddies, Gabe and Trey, who have a project called Hours Too. They worked on “Shine” and “Unfold” with me. They're like, insanely gas at production and all things music.
TB. The Basement tries its best to dive deep and really research our interviewees. Was the nickname Chachi self-proclaimed?
Croozer. Wow, that's crazy. My family called me Chachi. Chachi was like a pre-Croozer nickname. That was probably what I was called, like 95% of the time, but it was one that definitely died when I went to college. Basically, I could have been Chachi or Croozer, and I went with Croozer.
TB. Lastly, you were born with a condition, bilateral microtia atresia, and have advocated and raised awareness through organizations. There are many trials and tribulations, as well as highs and successes, that one can go through experiencing such a thing. Are there any words of encouragement to that community?
Croozer. Yeah, from ages like four to 10, I was having major ear surgeries, and I don't think at any point in that process I thought, “Oh, cool, I'm gonna full-time pursue music growing up.” That'd probably be at the bottom of the list. But it just all worked out. I did so much speech therapy growing up. I feel like, in a sense, that maybe has led to my singing voice sounding different, you never know. My advice would be to lean into the things that make you different, that can be a superpower in its own sense.
Croozer’s EP, “touchNgo” will be released, June 27th, 2025.
Keep up with Croozer here.