Adam Cohen: Birth of a Ladie's Man

[jarkko]

From Marie:


http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen ... 2374c.html

New York Daily News - Entertainment

Birth of a ladies' man

Singer-songwriter Adam Cohen
is proud to be a chip off the old block


When most songwriters pen odes to ex-lovers, they usually have the courtesy to change their names.
Adam Cohen, however, makes a point of putting their real names in his song titles.

"I find that the actual people are so happy to have their names used, I would never steal that pleasure from them," Cohen says. "Who doesn't want a song written about them?"

For Cohen's new CD - recorded with his L.A.-based band, the Low Millions - he has bestowed that honor on no fewer than four women: "Eleanor," "Julia," "Jane" and "Nikki." Lest the pattern elude you, he titled the album "Ex-Girlfriends."

Cohen would like to qualify that these relationships didn't occur in too narrow a period.

"I don't have that much energy," he says. "They were gathered over an appropriate time span."

Cohen's career has also progressed in a leisurely fashion. The 32-year-old son of legendary rock bard Leonard Cohen released a critically admired but commercially doomed self-titled solo album in 1998. He also worked for a while as a songwriter, with one number covered by Bette Midler and others used on demos by k.d. lang and Mandy Moore.

In the last few years, Cohen has hedged his bets by cutting spirited pop-rock CDs with the Low Millions and simultaneously recording more languorous solo work in his second language, French. Born in Montreal, he lived for many years in France with his mother, who parted from his dad when he was young.

Clearly, the Low Millions have more commercial potential in America than Cohen's solo project. Though EMI released "Ex-Girlfriends" last fall, its single, "Eleanor," has lately been gaining traction on Adult Top 40 and Triple A radio formats.

It's a pop song with a capital P, festooned with lots of canny little hooks and savvy wordplays. "Pop songs invite the listener into their chambers in the most unobtrusive way," Cohen says. "You need to get the hook in without the listener knowing it. You have to plant your flag in the chest cavity of every listener without them saying, 'Ooch!'"

Cohen began crafting songs with the Low Millions several years ago. The other players are all in-demand, L.A. musicians-for-hire who've toiled for acts like John Mayer, Alanis Morissette, Five For Fighting and Ricky Fante.

He admits that, when making the Low Millions album, "it was tough to convince everyone in the band that this was a project that would have legs. But as soon as the album came out and it picked up momentum, the fidelity of the people involved became more apparent. They became less like ex-girlfriends and more like current ones. Of course there's still the pesky phone call from John Mayer saying, 'I want my guitarist back.'"

The singer admits his father's advice came into play on the album, "whether I invited it in or not," he says with a laugh. "But, trust me, I invite it all the time. No one can pay enough money to have Leonard Cohen stand over your shoulder and say, 'This is good work, this is not good work.' I am the beneficiary of his taste and wisdom and experience."

Cohen maintains a close relationship with his dad, avoiding the self-consciousness of other offspring of famous parents.

"I've been present at commiserations between the 'Sons of' club," he says. "And I've managed to refrain from commenting. I pride myself on that. It must be frustrating for them. They're always waiting for the sob story from the Cohen kid."

Clearly he shares his dad's wit and flair for language. In a song that's actually called "The Low Millions," a verse reads, "I'm an alien in my own skin/Fishing where the ice is thin/I'm holding it all up with safety pins/I'm sitting on nitroglycerin."

On his French solo CD, Cohen goes for something more "sumptuous and cinematic," he says. He describes that album as sounding like "Sade - if she were a Frenchman."

The bilingual songwriter enjoys the contrasts in his two sounds and languages. "If you learned to pronounce the phrase 'I love you' in 10 different languages, you would marvel at the different ways it sounds and feels and resonates in the room," he says. "You can express the same thought in a different language and it has an entirely different slant."

Inevitably, that thought relates to relationships. Which leads to the question: Does Cohen consider himself a romantic?

He hems and haws.

"If the light is right, and the barometric pressure and temperature and acoustics in the room are right, yeah, I could fall in love," he says. "But if the light quality is wrong, and the pressure and temperature and acoustics change, I can fall desperately out of love."

"Does that mean I'm a romantic?" he asks, rhetorically. "In truth, I don't know. Whatever it means, I'll keep trying to figure it out and document it in songs."

No doubt keeping the real names intact.

Originally published on January 16, 2005

[linda_lakeside]

I've never heard a song from Adam Cohen so I can't comment on his music but it certainly sounds as though he's interested in following in his Father's footsteps with regard to lifestyle. His seeming self-assuredness sounds a bit vain, to me anyway. I think I'll find a listen clip on the net and see if he has any of his Father's tender/brittle songwriting talent. Not to mention the 'golden voice'. I don't think a nice wardrobe and a collection of ex-girlfriends does a songwriter make. Hey, I didn't know I could speak French!