On a recent Friday evening, a hooded figure in dark sunglasses climbed the pulpit at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. Just below, a few dozen singers gathered at the front of the packed sanctuary, conducted by a woman on stilts 鈥� elevated to see the choir in full.
This was a first for , the man in the pulpit. Cole is known primarily as a drummer, and his music over the past decade has fallen in the nexus of jazz, funk and rock, albeit with a flair that鈥檚 hard to categorize. But now, Cole had given himself a new musical challenge, which might be best described by the tagline he included on the poster for this concert: 鈥淟ouis Cole attempts to write new music for a choir.鈥�
鈥淚t is a new thing for me,鈥� said Cole in an interview with All Things Considered host Ailsa Chang. 鈥淚鈥檝e always stacked my voice for my own harmonies, for my own music. But that鈥檚 just me by myself. It鈥檚 so different having a group of people, tuning with each other, singing with each other in the same space.鈥�
The night of choral music wasn鈥檛 the only new musical territory Cole had been testing out recently. He also just released a new album of orchestral music, called nothing, which was recorded with the conductor Jules Buckley and the Dutch orchestra .
All Things Considered caught up with Cole in the sanctuary of the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles as he was prepping for his show of choral music, and probed the musician about his creative process, the challenges of arranging for an orchestra, and the classic look of a Halloween-style skeleton suit.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
Ailsa Chang: You never get bored. You鈥檙e always making sure you don鈥檛 get bored, it seems like.
Louis Cole: Yeah, I don鈥檛 have any vices, I just like making music. That鈥檚 how I grab鈥� I don鈥檛 want to sound pretentious, but it鈥檚 how I grab magic out of the boring air around me. I think that鈥檚 my vice. That鈥檚 all I do. I mean, that鈥檚 really what I enjoy.
Chang: This new album is unlike anything else you鈥檝e ever done. You worked with a Dutch orchestra, the Metropole Orkest, and the conductor Jules Buckley. Had you ever written arrangements for an orchestra before?
Cole: No, I never had. I鈥檇 written arrangements for little sections of, you know, string players or horns or something like that. But never a full orchestra, which is really a different thing. It鈥檚 like everyone, all the instruments playing at once. I鈥檝e really spent a long time listening to music like this, but I don鈥檛 really know how to do it. But I鈥檓 gonna just do it.
Chang: You鈥檙e also this really prolific collaborator. Like, beyond this album with Jules Buckley and the Metropole Orkest, you鈥檝e worked with , the pianist , your longtime collaborator Genevieve Artadi, loads of other people. And it made me wonder 鈥� you seem to have such a specific musical vision for each of your songs, how do you stay true to that vision while incorporating the musical brains of all these other people?
Cole: Because I鈥檓 a gigantic control freak [who鈥檚] really hard to work with. That鈥檚 how I do it. That鈥檚 my secret.
Chang: So the people you work with just put up with your dominance.
Cole: Oh yeah. Definitely. It鈥檚 like, "Oh I have this vision, it needs to be this, otherwise I鈥檓 just gonna do it myself." Usually when I鈥檓 collaborating with someone, like even in these orchestra rehearsals with Metropole, even if they changed one note, I鈥檇 be like "What鈥檚 that? What was that? Can we go back? What is that? Who did that?" You know? And then I鈥檓 like, "Can we change it back?"
Chang: But you keep working with bigger and bigger groups of people. Why would you do that, like include more and more minds and musicians into your world when, in this day and age, you could just manufacture all of that?
Cole: I still think that the energy of a group and the sound of a group can never be fully emulated with鈥� I dunno, I鈥檓 gonna sound like an old guy鈥� like computers, digital technology. Like, I think there is some magic in there that really does come across still. And I think there鈥檚 also the experience of doing it. Working with a group of people, it鈥檚 just like, "Wow, I really love doing this. This is fun. I spiritually feel good doing this." But the sound of it, too. I think there is some magic that鈥檚 actually tangible in there, and whether you notice it right away or not, I do think it is in there, and I think it鈥檚 special.
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