Artist Feature – Eddie Cohn – Returns to Amnesia – Sunday, July 17, 2011

Eddie Cohn’s EP Lights On was featured on iTunes singer/songwriter page for a full month before his caravan 7 day tour up to Seattle he will be playing at Amnesia. Eddie is heading back into studio to record a new EP next week hoping to have done by end of year and also heading into studio to do sexy club remixes of  tracks off of Stay With Me…

From Eddie Cohn:

Art is always in flux, changing and evolving with the tenor of the times or changes within the artists. Or things can change out of sheer necessity. Just ask singer/songwriter Eddie Cohn.

Eddie’s life has always been one of mutability. He fell in love with music as a child, teaching himself the piano at age three, and moving to a variety of other instruments. But his musical career almost came to a halt when he was diagnosed at the age of 12 with rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic disorder that causes painful inflammation throughout the entire body.

“It kept me out of school for two years and the pain was debilitating,” Eddie remembers. ”It was a frustrating and scary time for me. I remember days when I couldn’t move my arms or nights when I would sit in front of my drum set just praying I would be able to play music again. When I could play, I remember going down into the basement to pound on my drum kit just out of anger.”

This intense period of time has left quite a mark on the young musician, what he describes as a “scar.” But, says Eddie, “that’s where I write from. That’s where I go to when I write songs. Those feelings of pain, loss, death will always inspire me.”

You can feel this intensity and fire in everything he’s done since, including his acclaimed second album Stay With Me (from 2010). The self-released disc has garnered comparisons to artists like Jeff Buckley and Radiohead, and praise from bloggers and reviewers, alike, including John Soeder of The Cleveland Plain Dealer who called it “a rewarding collection of intricately crafted tunes with emotionally impressionistic lyrics.”

While Stay With Me overflows with lush arrangements, the live versions are a much different animal, both by choice and due to the economic realities of being on the road. “Touring with a full band is expensive,” Eddie says, “and I didn’t want it to be just me onstage strumming a guitar. So, I had to decide what instruments were absolutely necessary, and to me, it had to be drums.”

Eddie and his drummer Adam Gust retreated to the studio to rearrange the songs from Stay With Me for this stripped down live setting, with Eddie learning how to utilize loop pedals alongside his work on guitar and piano. Inspired by this, and the response they got from audiences form his home in L.A. to the SXSW Music Festival and beyond, the two recorded these new arrangements, resulting in Lights On, a three-song, self-released EP that brings out even more of the melancholy, joy, and fervor of his already-emotion rich songs.

“Watch You (Walk Away)”, an intense, tribal drum-heavy plea on Stay With Me, has become a quiet reproach featuring nothing but Eddie’s stirring and sexy vocals, Fender Rhodes, and strings. Too, the title track from his last full-length, all downtempo Zero 7 grooves, is rendered even more haunting when held to just piano and a light pulsing drum beat.

While Eddie has already seen the effects of these new songs when he plays them live, the new EP is also having an impact on the folks at iTunes, who have featured Lights On on both their Indie Spotlight and Singer-Songwriter pages.

While traversing the often-unstable waters of the music industry, it is clear that he is on his own path, one that is going to take him even further when he returns to the studio this coming fall. The goal is to record a new full-length that will be taking elements from both his new and his old approach to songs.

Says Eddie, “I am going to try and have it not be overly produced. My last record, I love it, but I think it bordered on too much production. And this new EP has so little. Now, I just want to find a happy medium between the two. Ultimately, it’s about writing a great song.”

For this new album, Eddie is already looking at new instruments to learn and bring into the mix, including violin and trumpet. And he’s looking beyond that, hoping to take his music into as yet unreached corners of the U.S., including the Northwest and the South.

The evolution of Eddie Cohn is far from over. You won’t want to miss one minute of it.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Kamp Camille and Songbird Festival Presents:
Kamp Americana with:

Ad hoc Brass Band featuring Freddie Price

Kamp Camille

Eddie Cohn

Eliza Rickman 

853 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 970-0012
www.amnesiathebar.com
21 and Over

www.songbirdfestival.org
9pm $7-10