Louis Cole is an American multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, best known as the co-founder of the
electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
/
avant-pop
Avant-pop is popular music that is experimental, new, and distinct from previous styles while retaining an immediate accessibility for the listener. The term implies a combination of avant-garde sensibilities with existing elements from popular ...
/
jazz-funk
Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat ( groove), electrified sounds, and an early prevalence of analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creat ...
duo
Knower. He is also a solo artist and has released six solo albums: ''Louis Cole'' (2010), ''Album 2'' (2011), ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' (2018), ''Live Sesh'' (2019), ''LIVE 2019'' (2020), and ''
Quality Over Opinion'' (2022). It is speculated that he is a member of the
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
musical duo
Clown Core.
Early life and education
Louis Cole was born in Los Angeles to a family with musical roots.
His father plays
jazz piano
Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instru ...
, while his mother played bass. Cole started drumming when he was 8.
He graduated in Jazz Studies at
USC Thornton School of Music
The USC Thornton School of Music is a private music school in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1884 only four years after the University of Southern California, the Thornton School is the oldest continually operating arts institution in Los An ...
in 2009.
Musical career
After graduating from USC in 2009, Cole was encouraged by his friend
Jack Conte
Jack Conte (; born July 12, 1984) is an American musician and co-founder and CEO of Patreon. He is one half of the band Pomplamoose, along with his wife Nataly Dawn, co-leader of the band Scary Pockets, and leader of the band Magaziine.
Career
C ...
to put music videos on YouTube, including one called "Bank Account", which showcased a split-screen of him playing keyboards, drums, and singing.
This video catapulted him into the public awareness, as it was posted on social media by various celebrities and musicians such as
John Mayer,
Charlie Day
Charles Peckham Day (born February 9, 1976) is an American actor, writer, producer and podcaster. He is best known for playing Charlie Kelly on the FX comedy ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'' (2005–present), which he co-created with Rob ...
, and
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...
.
After doing several other short songs and uploading them to YouTube, Cole wanted to focus more on writing longer material.
He co-founded
Knower with another Jazz Studies graduate, Genevieve Artadi.
In 2010, he released both his self-titled solo album and the debut album for Knower.
After releasing his second solo album, he focused more on Knower, producing three other albums. In the meantime, Cole co-wrote "Padded Cell" for
Seal's 2015 album ''
7'', and together with Artadi, got featured on
Snarky Puppy
Snarky Puppy is an American instrumental band led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won four Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalis ...
's ''
Family Dinner – Volume 2
''Family Dinner – Volume 2'' is an album by American jazz fusion group Snarky Puppy that was released on February 12, 2016.
Track listing
All songs arranged by Michael League.
Bonus DVD and digital download tracks
Personnel
* Michael Leag ...
''. In 2017, he co-wrote two songs for
Thundercat's album ''
Drunk
Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main ...
''.
This led to signing a contract with
Flying Lotus
Steven Ellison (born October 7, 1983), known by his stage name Flying Lotus or sometimes FlyLo, is an American record producer, DJ, filmmaker and rapper from Los Angeles. He is also the founder of the record label Brainfeeder.
Flying Lotus ha ...
' label
Brainfeeder and releasing his
third
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute''
Places
* 3rd Street (d ...
solo album through the label in 2018.
The album featured appearances by Artadi, Thundercat, Dennis Hamm and
Brad Mehldau
Bradford Alexander Mehldau (; born August 23, 1970) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.
Mehldau studied music at The New School, and toured and recorded while still a student. He was a member of saxophonist Joshua Redman's Qua ...
.
Cole also appeared on Thundercat's 2020
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
winning album ''
It Is What It Is'', performing on a song called "I Love Louis Cole", which was dedicated to him.
In 2020, Cole wrote an exclusive song for ''
Grand Theft Auto Online
''Grand Theft Auto Online'' is an online multiplayer action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 1 October 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 18 November 2014 for PlayStation 4 and Xb ...
'' called "Planet X", which was added to the ''FlyLo FM'' radio station through ''The Cayo Perico Heist'' update.
Knower's song "Fuck the Makeup, Skip the Shower" was previously featured on the same radio station.
"Planet X" was later included in Cole's fourth studio album ''
Quality Over Opinion'', which was released on October 14, 2022 via Brainfeeder.
Another song in the album, "Let it Happen", was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals
The Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by ...
.
It is speculated that Cole and saxophonist Sam Gendel are behind
Clown Core, a
surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
musical duo of two anonymous clowns who blend
grindcore,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
, and
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
.
Style and songwriting
Cole is a classically-trained jazz musician and multi-instrumentalist who plays drums, keyboards, guitar and bass, sings, and produces his material.
His work contains elements from a diverse range of music genres such as jazz,
funk, pop,
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
, electronic,
lo-fi
Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...
(early) and grindcore (with Clown Core).
Cole is a
"bedroom" musician who doesn't like working in a professional recording studio.
He practices drums for four hours a day, and writes music for seven hours a day. Cole feels his mission is to write his own favorite music, and he "never
ries Ries is the German word for a unit of paper ream, derived from the Arabic word ''rizma''.
The term can refer to:
Geography
* Nördlinger Ries, a large circular depression in western Bavaria, Germany.
* Ries (Graz), a district of the city of Gr ...
to make
ismusic accessible to anyone."
He is known for using strange and counterintuitive
chord progression
In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...
s.
His lyrics often include humor and vulgarity, and his music features home-made videos. Cole is more creative during the early hours of the day, and documents this phenomenon on his song, "The Weird Part of the Night".
Influences and recognition
Cole's influences include his father,
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...
,
James Brown,
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...
,
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...
,
Boards of Canada,
Nate Wood
Nate Wood (born October 3, 1979) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist. He has performed with Wayne Krantz, Kneebody, Tigran Hamasyan, Louis Cole, The Calling, and Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders.
Background
Nate learned to p ...
,
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
, and
Skrillex
Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead si ...
, among others.
Cole is also influenced by science fiction and video game sounds and visuals, and notes that the music of classic
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
games and ''
Tron
''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action- adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer ...
'' shaped Knower's aesthetic:
Cole is best friends with Thundercat, who has called him "one of Los Angeles's greatest musicians".
Flying Lotus has also expressed admiration for Cole on Twitter, calling him "super inspirational" during the writing of his album ''
Flamagra
''Flamagra'' is the sixth studio album by American record producer Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison), released on May 24, 2019 by Warp Records. It is his first album since 2014's ''You're Dead!''. The lead single, the spoken-word "Fire Is Coming" feat ...
''.
Bob Mintzer has described Cole as "the paradigm for today's musician".
Will Schube of Passion of the Weiss has compared Cole's "auteur approach" to that of another Los Angeles musician,
Ariel Pink
Ariel Marcus Rosenberg ( ; born June 24, 1978), professionally known as Ariel Pink, is an American musician, singer, and songwriter whose work draws heavily from the popular music of the 1960s–1980s. His lo-fi aesthetic and home-recorded alb ...
.
Emma Roller of The Brick House Cooperative has described Cole as "a dopey yet cerebral jazz composer and percussionist who whaps out brain-meltingly complex beats with
Terminator
Terminator may refer to:
Science and technology
Genetics
* Terminator (genetics), the end of a gene for transcription
* Terminator technology, proposed methods for restricting the use of genetically modified plants by causing second generation s ...
-like precision".
Discography
Solo albums
* ''Louis Cole'' (2010)
* ''Album 2'' (2011)
* ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' (2018)
* ''Live Sesh'' (2019)
* ''LIVE 2019'' (2020)
* ''
Quality Over Opinion'' (2022)
With Knower
* ''Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi'' (2010)
* ''Think Thoughts'' (2011)
* ''Let Go'' (2013)
* ''Life'' (2016)
Purportedly with Clown Core
* ''Clown Core'' (2010)
* ''Toilet'' (2018)
* ''Van'' (2020)
* ''1234'' (EP; 2021)
As a guest
* ''
7'' by
Seal
Seal may refer to any of the following:
Common uses
* Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly:
** Earless seal, or "true seal"
** Fur seal
* Seal (emblem), a device to imp ...
(2015)
* ''
Family Dinner – Volume 2
''Family Dinner – Volume 2'' is an album by American jazz fusion group Snarky Puppy that was released on February 12, 2016.
Track listing
All songs arranged by Michael League.
Bonus DVD and digital download tracks
Personnel
* Michael Leag ...
'' by
Snarky Puppy
Snarky Puppy is an American instrumental band led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won four Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalis ...
(2016)
* ''
Drunk
Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main ...
'' by
Thundercat (2017)
* ''WILKES'' by Sam Wilkes (2018)
* ''
Hill Climber'' by
Vulfpeck
Vulfpeck is an American funk band founded in 2011 by Jack Stratton, Theo Katzman, Woody Goss and Joe Dart. The band has released four extended plays, five studio albums and a live album, having released all of their music independently. The ba ...
(2018)
* ''
It Is What It Is'' by Thundercat (2020)
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Louis
American multi-instrumentalists
Jazz-funk musicians
American male jazz musicians
American electronic musicians
American pop musicians
American funk musicians
American drummers
American jazz drummers
American keyboardists
American male singer-songwriters
21st-century American musicians
American YouTubers
Jazz-pop musicians
Living people
American singer-songwriters
Music YouTubers
American male jazz composers
American jazz composers
21st-century jazz composers
Year of birth missing (living people)
Brainfeeder artists
Ninja Tune artists