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Louis Cole

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Louis Cole
Cole performing with Knower at The Haunt, Brighton, England, 2018
Background information
BornLos Angeles, California, US
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician, producer
Instrument(s)Drums, keyboards, guitar, vocals, bass
Years active2009–present
LabelsBrainfeeder, Ninja Tune
Member ofKnower, Clown Core (speculated)[1]

Louis Cole is an American multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, best known as the co-founder of the electronic/avant-pop/jazz-funk duo Knower. He is also a solo artist and has released six solo albums: Louis Cole (2010), Album 2 (2011), Time (2018), Live Sesh (2019), LIVE 2019 (2020), and Quality Over Opinion (2022). It is speculated that he is a member of the avant-garde musical duo Clown Core.

Early life and education

Louis Cole was born in Los Angeles to a family with musical roots.[2][3] His father plays jazz piano, while his mother played bass. Cole started drumming when he was 8.[3][4] He graduated in Jazz Studies at USC Thornton School of Music in 2009.[2][5]

Musical career

After graduating from USC in 2009, Cole was encouraged by his friend Jack Conte to put music videos on YouTube, including one called "Bank Account", which showcased a split-screen of him playing keyboards, drums, and singing.[6][2] 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, and Björk.[3][4]

After doing several other short songs and uploading them to YouTube, Cole wanted to focus more on writing longer material.[3] He co-founded Knower with another Jazz Studies graduate, Genevieve Artadi.[7] In 2010, he released both his self-titled solo album and the debut album for Knower.[2][5] 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's Family Dinner – Volume 2. In 2017, he co-wrote two songs for Thundercat's album Drunk.[2] This led to signing a contract with Flying Lotus' label Brainfeeder and releasing his third solo album through the label in 2018.[6][2][3] The album featured appearances by Artadi, Thundercat, Dennis Hamm and Brad Mehldau.[2] Cole also appeared on Thundercat's 2020 Grammy Award winning album It Is What It Is, performing on a song called "I Love Louis Cole", which was dedicated to him.[8][9]

In 2020, Cole wrote an exclusive song for Grand Theft Auto Online called "Planet X", which was added to the FlyLo FM radio station through The Cayo Perico Heist update.[10][11] Knower's song "Fuck the Makeup, Skip the Shower" was previously featured on the same radio station.[12] "Planet X" was later included in Cole's fourth studio album Quality Over Opinion, which was released on October 14, 2022 via Brainfeeder.[13] Another song in the album, "Let it Happen", was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals.[14]

It is speculated that Cole and saxophonist Sam Gendel are behind Clown Core, a surrealist musical duo of two anonymous clowns who blend grindcore, jazz, and electronic music.[1][15]

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.[16][3][15] His work contains elements from a diverse range of music genres such as jazz, funk, pop, avant-garde, electronic, lo-fi (early) and grindcore (with Clown Core).[3][5][1] Cole is a "bedroom" musician who doesn't like working in a professional recording studio.[17] 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 [tries] to make [his] music accessible to anyone."[3] He is known for using strange and counterintuitive chord progressions.[6] 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".[3]

Influences and recognition

Cole's influences include his father, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, The Beach Boys, Boards of Canada, Nate Wood, The Beatles, and Skrillex, among others.[3][17][16] Cole is also influenced by science fiction and video game sounds and visuals, and notes that the music of classic Nintendo games and Tron shaped Knower's aesthetic:

"That music really dug its way deep into my developing brain. There are a lot of imaginative chord changes, pretty melodies, heavy funk grooves, modulations, insane synth trumpet hits and really cool sounds in those games. I still, to this day, strive to include those kinds of things in my music."

— Louis Cole[5]

Cole is best friends with Thundercat, who has called him "one of Los Angeles's greatest musicians".[18][8] Flying Lotus has also expressed admiration for Cole on Twitter, calling him "super inspirational" during the writing of his album Flamagra.[19] Bob Mintzer has described Cole as "the paradigm for today's musician".[5] Will Schube of Passion of the Weiss has compared Cole's "auteur approach" to that of another Los Angeles musician, Ariel Pink.[17] 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-like precision".[8]

Discography

Solo albums

  • Louis Cole (2010)
  • Album 2 (2011)
  • Time (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

References

  1. ^ a b c Kuhn, Sarena (October 17, 2020). "Clown Core's 'Van' is artful absurdity". The Daily Californian. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Kellman, Andy. "Louis Cole Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Richardson, Kitty (April 4, 2019). "The delightful deviance of Louis Cole". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Kalia, Ammar (October 3, 2022). "Louis Cole: 'Funk is fun but with jazz you can just go wild'". The Guardian. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e Hollins, Evan (November 15, 2013). "Louis Cole and Knower". USC Thornton School of Music. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  6. ^ a b c Sherburne, Philip (August 16, 2018). "Louis Cole – Time". Pitchfork. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  7. ^ Simpson, Paul. "Genevieve Artadi Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  8. ^ a b c Roller, Emma (April 12, 2021). "Monday Song: I Love Louis Cole". The Brick House Cooperative. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  9. ^ "63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards (2020)". Grammy Awards. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  10. ^ McGlynn, Declan (December 21, 2020). "Grand Theft Auto's musical legacy continued to push the boundaries in 2020 — here's how". DJ Mag. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
  11. ^ Louis Cole [@louiscolemusic] (December 16, 2020). "New Louis Cole song in the new grand theft auto. It's called Planet X. It's about how they will name Planet X after me (when they finally find it). It's a good song. It's on the @flyinglotus radio station. Go listen to it while you run over people or whatever you're doing" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  12. ^ Goble, Corban (November 17, 2014). "Grand Theft Auto V Reveals Expanded Radio Station Tracklists for Game Relaunch". Pitchfork. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
  13. ^ Murray, Robin (August 23, 2022). "Louis Cole Announces New Album 'Quality Over Opinion'". Clash. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  14. ^ "Grammy Awards 2023: The Full List of Nominees". The New York Times. November 15, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
  15. ^ a b Burks, Tosten (April 5, 2019). "Louis Cole Jam Sessions Look Fun As Hell". Spin. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  16. ^ a b Sidran, Leo (November 18, 2020). "Who Is Louis Cole". All About Jazz. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  17. ^ a b c Schube, Will (October 13, 2018). "An Interview with Louis Cole". Passion of the Weiss. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  18. ^ Shapiro, Ari (November 19, 2020). "Play It Forward: Thundercat Eases Loneliness With Trippy Music". NPR. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  19. ^ Flying Lotus [@flyinglotus] (April 3, 2020). "I love Louis Cole. I love Louis too. He's crazy. All the stories told n this song are true. Louis was actually super inspirational to me in Flamagra time. Check him out @louiscole and listen to @KNOWER_music" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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