letdown. • August 15-16, 2026
Alone, Then the World Started Listening
Blake Coddington had just moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, for a new job when the country shut down in 2020. He knew nobody, lived alone and suddenly had nowhere to go. A longtime producer who had always written music of his own, Blake decided to put one of those songs online. He figured maybe a hundred people would follow him. Instead, he woke up to around 100,000. In his first conversation with LA Lloyd on the Rock 30, the artist known as letdown. talks about what happened when music created in isolation suddenly connected with people everywhere.
Do It For The Love
That connection came with a price. Blake says turning letdown. into a career has cost him relationships, time with people he wishes he could get back and a constant battle to balance the artist with the person. Learning to accept himself and why the success people see from the outside doesn’t always feel the same from where he’s standing. Those contradictions eventually found their way into “Do It For The Love”—a song Blake says had been sitting on the shelf for two years before its release.
Empty
When Lloyd asked Blake to choose another song to introduce a different side of letdown. to Rock 30 listeners, he picked “Empty.” It’s the song Blake once resisted releasing over concerns about its name. He eventually let it go—and now calls it the perfect 180 from “Do It For The Love.” Two very different songs, but both come from the same place that started letdown. in the first place: Blake writing honestly about what he’s living through.
HEAR SOMETHING YOU LIKE?
Click any song on the Rock 30 to watch the video right here without leaving the chart.