Interview: The Jon Cohen Experimental

Posted on 16th Jan 12 by Connor Moloney | 1

“People travel all the time and it is for some people a daily event, but for me it has always been a special thing, a ritual.” So begins Jon Cohen’s latest blog, speaking in anticipation of his upcoming European tour. And it’s just as well, for this will be the third tour that The Jon Cohen Experimental will have undertaken in little more than a year. On the last one, a fifty-date jaunt across North America, Cohen travelled from show to show exclusively by Greyhound Bus. This time he’ll be sampling all that European public transport has to offer, as he takes ‘buses, trains, ferries and cars’ for thirty-seven dates across twelve countries in just two months, hitting these shores Thursday for a gig at The Grand Social in Dublin. Despite the gruelling schedule, Cohen comes across more Happy Wanderer than Weary Traveller. ”If I stop to think about all the logistics of what I’m doing I may go mad,” he tells Drop-d. “So I don’t. Instead, I just keep focusing on the tasks at hand and the goals I set out for myself.”

A native of Montreal, Cohen benefited from having been born into one of the world’s most thriving indie scenes, the blend of European and North American cultural influences which informs Canada’s Quebec giving birth to a a range of sounds as diverse as Arcade Fire, Islands and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. “Montreal has always been a hub for artists and bohemians because of the cheap rent, and the easier conditions of life. But the cold weather is always what keeps people at bay, what keeps it from becoming the next Los Angeles or NYC,” he says. “This works to its advantage because it makes the city constantly in a state of rejuvenation.It  has a very tangent population, artists come and go. The city is always being refreshed with new blood.”

A talented multi-instrumentalist, Cohen spent more than a decade as a member of various local acts such as The Social Register and, notably, cult heavyweights The Dears, before going solo in 2006. While Cohen has been very much at the heart of the Montreal scene, he was still taken by surprise by the extent to which the Canadian indie renaissance has caught on worldwide in recent years. “I had no concept that we as a scene would ever be on the world stage as innovators. I just thought this went on everywhere, struggling musicians, small shows here and there, bands, etc etc. And then one day it caught us by surprise. The bubble burst and there was this outflow of all this great music. The only difference from before is that this time, it worked. The music industry and music media was listening and caught the wave.”

The decision to go solo was borne from a need for a more personal fulfilment in his musical projects. “I see it like this example; How long can I work for a large company? Lending my skills, time and energy when I can put that time and energy into a small humble business that may not generate as much, but at least I can say it’s mine, its something that fuels me and something I can be proud of .” An eponymous debut was released in 2006, followed by the album Behold in 2010, a brilliant psychedelic indie collection on which Cohen’s oblique song structures and David Gilmour-esque vocals are complimented by the talents of a plethora of musical guests such as former Dears’ bandmate Murray Lightburn, Broken Social Scene’s Evan Cranley and The Stills’ Liam O’Neil.

The album was well received and three tours of Eastern Canada, as well as dates at Pop Montreal and SXSW followed. But, just as a three month North American tour loomed, Cohen’s dream faced potential disaster as it became apparent that the rest of his touring band (bassist Ken Martin and drummer Seb Cote) would not be able to join him. “They (Martin and Cote) are top notch players and amazing tools for composing. They are also good friends and amazing people. We toured half the country for a few months after the record came out, but it quickly became evident that their involvement on a professional level was limited. I had ambitions to do these mega tours that keep us away on the road for months on end. But they had full time jobs and families. I didn’t want to hire new musicians because quite frankly I didn’t have the time and couldn’t afford them, so the new solo one-man-band set came out more of necessity. They say necessity is the mother of invention and boy what an invention this mother made!”

Indeed. Faced with the prospect of cancelling the tour, he instead opted to transform it into a one-man show, using looper pedals and Casio-like keys to recreate his material in a new, strange widescreen sound, and embarked on the tour as planned using the cheapest mode of transport possible. “I did the entire tour on a greyhound bus, about fifty stops. To be honest I didn’t find it so difficult, at times I did get sick of the long distances sometimes, but I have built up my tolerance from years of travelling and backpacking through India, Central America, Southeast Asia, Europe and Japan, using everything from high speed trains and hovercrafts to shitty old school buses with no seats and chickens on the roof climbing up treacherous mountain peaks.” With little funding, cost-cutting was a necessity, but Cohen appears to have found a sense of abandon in living from a suitcase. “I like the idea of not having everything at my disposal, of having to make do. I didn’t even use a cell phone, I did everything by pay phone.”

Speaking of these experiences, you get the sense that Cohen has assigned them a deeper philosophical meaning. “I feel that if you or anyone out there can be comfortable with the idea of not being in control, if you can feel comfortable with the notions that the only thing you can be certain of is that nothing is certain, then I think you can enjoy your life more. You are not fighting against the nature of what is anymore. You’re not swimming against the current anymore. I was swimming against my own current for years, trying to be in control of every outcome, of every scenario. That was when I realized that you cannot control the things that drive your life. You cannot control even the things you create in life.”

“I create songs, but every night they are spooled out in totally different ways. I can’t try to recreate a feeling if it’s not there. It would just come off as fake and weak. Same with the touring experience. It’s always unique, never the same. This is an exercise not in self-control but rather in being comfortable in the total loss of control.”

Liberated by what he came to dub The Pilgrim Tour, Cohen set about taking his show to Europe, raising funds by working as a manual labourer, renovating an old hotel back in Montreal. “I’ll be totally honest with you, it was a necessary evil. I don’t mind using the other skills I have. Apart from music I’m also a residential window washer, a Thai masseuse, an ESL Teacher, a soundman, a stage technician, a music teacher, business owner, renovator and boom operator.” Nonetheless, The Jon Cohen Experimental remains his only priority. “The more I evolve as an artist that is coming into his own, the harder it becomes to do these other jobs without feeling like I am going off-track. I just keep reminding myself that it all serves the greater purpose, which is to make beautiful positive music and to spread this remedy as far and wide as possible.”

Another album is also in the works, demos for which were recorded in Nashville in late 2011 in typically dramatic fashion. “I had planned to arrive one day prior to the recording and was to stay and sleep on the studio floor. But I decided to stay in Columbus Ohio and did a second show there instead. When I arrived, to my shock I found that a drunk driver had driven his car in the middle of the night through the studio. It had completely gone right through like in the movies. the control room was intact but the studio floor was completely destroyed. I was lucky because I would have likely been sleeping on that couch when the car came through but I wasn’t. Instead I was on a comfortable bed in Columbus.”

“The drunk driver was arrested but left a gaping hole in the house wall. So Dan, the producer, put a giant floorboard and painted a giant Kool Aid man crashing through a brick wall just like in the ads! Dan begged me to bring new energy to the destroyed studio or to be a part of the rebirth of the studio by recording my songs amidst the rubble, which I did. It was an amazing recording and a surreal experience. Recording it was a beautiful moment and I’ll always have this vision of performing in that rubble, with microphones around me etched in my memory.”

While Cohen’s newly adopted one-man-show approach will inform the next record, he doesn’t rule out contributions from a guestlist similar to the one which graced Behold. “I don’t like to record alone. I find it too lonely. I feel its best shared with others, but I will be writing and recording in the spirit of the one-man orchestra. I love guests though.I think of musical guests more as ingredients in baking an amazing recipe than just guests. It’s like I think along the lines of ‘what personality would best fit this part of the song,‘ instead of thinking ‘what instrument should I use here,‘ so we’ll have to wait and see.”

Then, of course, there will be more touring. “I’ve got my eyes set on an Australia tour, a walking tour across Canada and a South America tour also.” While this gung ho approach to his career displays an admirable fearlessness, he is keen to stress he didn’t always possess this kind of positive abandon. “Sometimes it takes longer for people to get over a cemented idea or limited belief. For me it took ten years to reach this positivity in both my music and the shows. This attitude of ‘whatever obstacles come my way I will leap over immediately.’ Its a process I went through and we all go through it at different speeds.”

Cohen’s story as once unique and increasingly common: the technological implications of the information age has limited the investment powers of traditional arms of the music industry, but has also afforded tools to musicians in possession of a DIY ethos. Record deals and big tour budgets are harder to come by, but no longer a prerequisite to getting your music heard. As a result more and more artists are going their own way, making themselves heard whenever and wherever they can, perhaps not enjoying the traditional commercial rewards of the rock star, but able now to make great music and continue doing so simply because it it what they love doing.

For Jon Cohen, it’s a future he’ll happily embrace. “I feel a little scared, a little nervous, but terribly excited that I’m living the life I want, that I’m daring to live the life I’ve only dreamt of. It’s like I have been starving for years to do this and now I’m doping it with a vengeance.”

The Jon Cohen Experimental play The Grand Social, Dublin on Thursday 20th January

Tags: jon cohen experimental, Montreal