Location: Fonda Theatre, 6126 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90028
Date: Nov 8, 2025 – 8:00pm
Richy Mitch, The Coal Miners, Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners—Mitch Cutts, Nic Haughn, and Jakob Ervin—draw inspiration from their friendship as they balance folk lyricism, rock ‘n’ roll energy, raw instrumentation, and musical wanderlust.
What started as a passion project in high school in Colorado Springs has quietly evolved into billions of streams and packed audiences.
“We were always friends who spent time together and shared jokes, but music provided us with a way to connect on an emotional level and express ourselves,” Mitch reflects. “This is a safe space where we can all gather, exchange ideas, and create something from nothing.”
Having grown up in Colorado Springs, their friendship predated the formation of the band. During high school, Mitch and Nic engaged in as many collaborative projects as they could. They joined various sports teams, created YouTube channels, embarked on hiking adventures, filmed home movies, and ultimately decided to produce their own album. Their shared musical tastes drew from a wide array of influences, including Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes, Gregory Alan Isakov, Peach Pit, Bon Iver, DIIV, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Cage The Elephant, and Portugal the Man. In 2017, they released their self-titled debut album, RMCM, which was recorded in a closet beneath a staircase at Nic’s home. Despite attending different colleges (with Nic at the Air Force Academy, Mitch pursuing engineering in Denver, and Jakob studying in New York and England), they maintained their writing and recording efforts remotely and during breaks.
“Music was intended to be a means for us to maintain our connection during college,” Mitch observes.
Relocating the studio to Jakob’s residence, Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners launched Solstice in 2018, followed by Subliming a year later. In the interim, Nic, Mitch, and Jakob moved to Montana, where they balanced their time between day jobs, music, and skiing. Unexpectedly, the one-minute and 27-second introduction to “Evergreen” gained significant traction on TikTok. The outdoor community was the first to embrace the track, and soon after, numerous prominent endorsements followed. This excitement surrounding the song translated to digital streaming platforms, as “Evergreen” has amassed over half a billion streams on Spotify, with the group averaging more than 20 million monthly listeners on the service. It has notably reached the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Rock Songs Chart, and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs Chart.
From the very beginning, “Evergreen” held great significance for Mitch. “I undertook a 300-mile backpacking journey through Colorado when I was 16 years old, and that’s when I composed most of the first album,” Mitch reminisces. “Initially, the song was about hiking. You are challenging yourself to keep moving forward. It was an exciting way to commence the album, as you are looking ahead and must keep your feet moving. Now, it symbolizes stepping into music, collaborating with friends to create a record, and taking the risk to share it with the world. There is immense power in uniting a group of individuals to produce something meaningful.”
Jakob concurs, “I perceive it as a crucial step to gain entry into the industry, to set aside everything else, and to dedicate ourselves to this endeavor full-time.”
The song “Evergreen” decisively broke through barriers. Among its many achievements, “Lake Missoula” has amassed over 100 million streams on Spotify and continues to grow, while both “Wet Socks” and “Subliming” have also garnered tens of millions of streams. In 2023, they embarked on their first significant headline tour, participated in renowned festivals such as Lollapalooza, Under The Big Sky, and Hinterland, collaborated with Mt. Joy and Caamp to create new renditions of “Lake Missoula” and “Evergreen” respectively, and continued to produce music with tracks like “Signal Sender,” “Careful,” “Northstar,” and “Sierra Vista.” As they maintain this momentum, they will conclude 2024 with their largest tour to date, performing to sold-out audiences from coast to coast.
Regardless of what the future holds, the bond of friendship and the music remain intertwined for Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners.
“We have managed to overcome numerous challenges, and the band stands as proof of that,” Mitch concludes. “We began this journey as children. Sustaining it through college, employment, and relocations has been a significant achievement for us. It is quite astonishing that we have transformed this into a career over the past year. For me, it symbolizes our ability to collaborate and create authentic music filled with vulnerability.”]} }}]}
