Chance Peña has spent the better part of five years being the songwriter people recognize without knowing they know. His name is in the credits of John Legend’s “Conversations in the Dark” — Gold-certified, premiered on This Is Us, remixed by David Guetta. “Up, Up & Away” is in Five Feet Apart. His music has run under scenes in Virgin River, Nashville, Roswell New Mexico. He’s done the sync game about as well as a 26-year-old can do it.
Now he’s trying to get people to show up for him directly. The When I Change My Mind I Don’t Mean It headline tour hits Emo’s Austin on Friday, July 31, doors at 7:00 PM, with Ronnie and the Redwoods opening.
The album that shares the tour’s name landed in 2025 on Columbia Records — 14 tracks recorded in a California mountain cabin with collaborators Hayd and Sarcastic Sounds. The record has range: “West of Ohio” is the road-worn ballad, “Wolves of Worry” is the anxious one that swells and cracks open, “Collapse” is the stomp-and-clap anthem that tends to work live. The 2026 single “Rivers and Roads,” featuring The Head and the Heart, is Peña consolidating the indie folk lane he started building when “I Am Not Who I Was” became the streaming moment that landed him on Columbia in 2023.
He’s 26 now. The Voice was eleven years ago — Season 9, Adam Levine coaching, a Tyler, Texas teenager with his whole training still ahead of him. That version isn’t who’s on this record.
Emo’s is the right room for where he is. The 1,700-cap Riverside venue books into the mid-tier touring circuit that Columbia artists cycle through on a first real headline run — and this is a 34-show tour covering North America and the UK. He’s played Austin more recently (about nine months back), but that was a support slot. Different stakes on Friday.
Ronnie and the Redwoods opens. Pre-doors patio access begins at 6:00 PM. Tickets available through Ticketmaster.