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 — elevated to see the choir in full.
This was a first for Louis Cole, 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’s 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: “Louis Cole attempts to write new music for a choir.”
“It is a new thing for me,” said Cole in an interview with All Things Considered host Ailsa Chang. “I’ve always stacked my voice for my own harmonies, for my own music. But that’s just me by myself. It’s so different having a group of people, tuning with each other, singing with each other in the same space.”
The night of choral music wasn’t 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 Metropole Orkest.
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’re always making sure you don’t get bored, it seems like.
Louis Cole: Yeah, I don’t have any vices, I just like making music. That’s how I grab… I don’t want to sound pretentious but it’s how I grab magic out of the boring air around me. I think that’s my vice. That’s all I do. I mean that’s really what I enjoy.
Chang: This new album is unlike anything else you’ve 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’d 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’s like everyone, all the instruments playing at once. I’ve really spent a long time listening to music like this, but I don’t really know how to do it. But I’m gonna just do it.
Chang: You’re also this really prolific collaborator. Like, beyond this album with Jules Buckley and the Metropole Orkest, you’ve worked with Thundercat, the pianist Brad Mehldau, your longtime collaborator Genevieve Artadi, loads of other people. And it made me wonder — 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’m a gigantic control freak [who’s] really hard to work with. That’s how I do it. That’s my secret.
Chang: So the people you work with just put up with your dominance.
Cole: Oh yeah. Definitely. It’s like, “Oh I have this vision, it needs to be this, otherwise I’m just gonna do it myself.” Usually when I’m collaborating with someone, like even in these orchestra rehearsals with Metropole, even if they changed one note, I’d be like “What’s that? What was that? Can we go back? What is that? Who did that?” You know? And then I’m 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 in 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… I dunno, I’m gonna sound like an old guy… like computers, digital technology. Like, I think there is some magic in there that really does come across still. And I think there’s also the experience of doing it. Working with a group of people, it’s 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’s actually tangible in there, and whether you notice it right away or not I do think it is in there, and I think it’s special.
Transcript:
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
When Louis Cole was a kid, he seemed to have rhythm bursting out of his brain – sometimes, literally.
LOUIS COLE: I used to bang my head against my pillow to fall asleep. I would, like, hum Raffi songs and just bang my head on the pillow in some kind of tempo to the thing, yeah.
CHANG: Would your parents catch you doing that?
COLE: Oh, yeah, everyone. I mean, I used to not be able to hang at sleepovers because my friends would be like, what are you doing?
(LAUGHTER)
CHANG: Unsurprisingly, Cole gravitated towards drumming. After high school, he went to USC to study music. And there, he developed another nighttime routine to get better at keeping time – sleeping with a ticking metronome under his pillow for six months straight.
COLE: I was like, this is obviously the solution. Let’s put it under my pillow.
CHANG: Did it help?
COLE: I don’t know. I can’t, like, safely recommend that on a public radio program.
CHANG: Whether it was the metronome under his pillow or his obsessive practice regimen, Louis Cole became a ferociously awesome drummer…
(SOUNDBITE OF LOUIS COLE SONG, “FAILING IN A COOL WAY”)
CHANG: …And a prolific composer and arranger. He’s put out more than a dozen albums by himself and with his band called Knower. He’s picked up a couple Grammy nominations and drawn the admiration and awe of people like Thundercat, who has a song called, “I Love Louis Cole.” And for the past decade, his sound has been anchored by a uniquely Louis Cole-style of drumming.
(SOUNDBITE OF LOUIS COLE SONG, “FAILING IN A COOL WAY”)
CHANG: But lately, he’s been trying out some new sounds.
(SOUNDBITE OF ORGAN MUSIC)
CHANG: We met Cole last week at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, where he was setting up for a concert of choral music that he wrote.
COLE: I hired a married couple to play organ ’cause the chords are huge, so I need four hands.
CHANG: Are you kidding me?
COLE: Yes.
CHANG: So they’re going to be like an organ duet.
COLE: They’re going to be, like, fighting each other.
CHANG: (Laughter).
COLE: Yeah.
CHANG: I hope they don’t slap each other’s arms during the concert.
COLE: Yeah. The woman, Teresa (ph), she’s like, no, it’s not that note. It’s this note. You know…
CHANG: (Laughter).
COLE: …It’s – like, it’s funny. It’s, like, they’re married. It’s really a sweet vibe.
CHANG: I asked Cole what drew him to this elegant, gothic revival cathedral?
COLE: Yeah, it’s got a really high ceiling.
CHANG: Yeah.
COLE: And it’s not like if a Costco had a really high ceiling, where it would be just really insane reverb – out of control. It’s somehow, really, a controlled, nice, long echo.
CHANG: Do you think you would ever write music for a Costco one day?
COLE: Oh, definitely.
CHANG: (Laughter) I’m there. I will totally go…
COLE: Yes.
CHANG: …To your Costco concert.
COLE: Yeah. OK, great. Let’s do it.
CHANG: And Cole probably would write music for a Costco. He’s always juggling multiple musical projects. Like, the day of the choral concert, he also had a new album coming out called “Nothing.” That album was yet another departure for Cole, writing and arranging orchestral music.
(SOUNDBITE OF JULES BUCKLEY, LOUIS COLE AND METROPOLE ORKEST SONG, “THESE DREAMS ARE KILLING ME”)
CHANG: You never get bored. You’re always making sure you don’t get bored, it seems like.
COLE: Yeah. I don’t have any vices. I just like making music. That’s how I grab – I don’t want to sound pretentious, but that’s how I grab magic out of the boring air around me. I think that’s my vice. And that’s all I do. I mean, that’s really what I enjoy.
CHANG: That’s beautiful. Did you just come up with that phrase right now – that’s how you grab magic…
COLE: My phrases are all…
CHANG: …Out of the air?
COLE: …Canned.
CHANG: (Laughter).
COLE: They’re all ready to go…
CHANG: I love it.
COLE: …To use at NPR.
CHANG: I’m borrowing that.
COLE: Are you kidding me?
CHANG: Well, this new album is unlike anything else you’ve ever done. Like, 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’d 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’s like, everyone – all the instruments playing at once. I’ve really spent a long time listening to music like this, but I don’t really know how to do it, but I’m going to just do it.
(SOUNDBITE OF JULES BUCKLEY, LOUIS COLE AND METROPOLE ORKEST SONG, “THINGS WILL FALL APART”)
CHANG: OK, I really want to paint a picture for radio listeners who have not seen the videos of you playing with the orchestra because you guys are all wearing these, like, black body suits with white skeletons. I mean, it looked like Halloween onstage. Who came up with that idea? Is that a Louis Cole idea?
COLE: Yeah. And people are like, what’s the concept there? Is it, you know, we all look the same on the inside? And it’s like, no, man. It’s, like, I just think it’s a classic look. It’s just good. Everyone looks good in a skeleton suit…
CHANG: (Laughter).
COLE: …And it’s also widely available too. So it’s, like, you can get it in the Netherlands, you know? Like, they got 70 of them – or however much it was – you know? They’re easy to get. They look good. That’s really the reason.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THINGS WILL FALL APART”)
LOUIS COLE AND METROPOLE ORKEST VOCALISTS: (Singing) Yes understood. Things will fall apart just like they should. This little shred was good. Don’t think it through. Things will fall apart. They always do. At least something’s always true.
CHANG: You’re also this really prolific collaborator. Like, beyond this album with Jules Buckley and the Metropole Orkest, you’ve worked with Thundercat, the pianist Brad Mehldau, your longtime collaborator, Genevieve Artadi, loads of other people. And it made me wonder, 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’m a gigantic control freak that’s really hard…
CHANG: (Laughter).
COLE: …To work with. That’s how I do it. That’s my secret.
CHANG: Do the people you work with just put up with your dominance?
COLE: Oh, yeah, definitely. It’s like, oh, I have this vision. It needs to be this, otherwise, I’m just going to do it myself. I mean, a lot of times it’s that. But yeah, usually when I’m collaborating with someone, like, even in these orchestra rehearsals with Metropole, you know, if they changed one note, I’d be like, what’s that? What was that? Can we go back? What is that?
CHANG: (Laughter).
COLE: Who did that? You know, and then I’m like, can we change it back? You know?
(SOUNDBITE OF JULES BUCKLEY, LOUIS COLE AND METROPOLE ORKEST SONG, “WHO CARES 2”)
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 – I don’t know, I’m going to sound like an old guy – like, a computer’s digital technology…
CHANG: (Laughter).
COLE: …But, you know what I mean? Like, I think there is some magic in there that really does come across still. And I think there’s also the experience of doing it, just really working with a group of people. It’s just like, wow, I really love doing this. This is fun. I spiritually feel good doing this. But the sound of it, too, I just don’t – I think there is some magic that’s actually tangible in there. And whether you notice it right away or not, I do think it is in there, and I think it’s special.
CHANG: We let Cole get back to prepping his show of choral music. And the next night, we came back to the sanctuary to see it.
(CHEERING)
CHANG: No drums, just a few dozen singers, an organ, the occasional saxophone and Louis Cole, pulling magic out of the air.
