Music that enters our lives before we are born is like eternal filtering of light that would continue to be with us. The nature of music consists of a creative power that enables us to immortalize a specific moment.
With the manifestation of music to the human soul, we grab an opportunity to freely shape our own inner values, and its dominance in waves of negative emotions enables us to discover therapeutic harmony. I call this the “harmonic healing emitted by the artist.” It is thanks to music that we are able to open doors into our inner lives among the random noises of life. We feel better, think better and gain the ability to love better with the art of sounds.
One of the artists that immerse listeners all over the world in his own music is Cobi, an American musician from Grand Marais, Minnesota. A former member of the Boston-based band Gentlemen's Hall, Cobi’s group, received the MTV Video Music Award for “Best Breakthrough Artist” for the Boston area in 2009. The musician then released his solo single "Don't You Cry For Me" in 2016, which was his very first step toward fame, and achieved a good break. With his highly successful songs such as “Goddess,” “Prophet Story,” “Nobody Opened the Door,” and “Underneath,” Cobi has conquered people's hearts.
Cobi is one of the most remarkable contemporary musicians who build bridges between cultures. He is able to listen to the hearts of all those who love his art and therefore hear their feelings. The metaphors of power he weaved into his songs became a voice for the inner laments that most people live at the bottom. This is the only reason why people say, “his music heals” or “he has planted the power to overcome life in his songs.”
His creative attitude in his songs also offers a source of inspiration as well as a calming power for the listeners. That's why we see a challenge to his sad past in transforming most of his poems into songs, which he calls “random writing.” He managed to illuminate the darkest sides of his life in-depth with his surreal narrative style in his music creations with the hope of being the muse of listeners.
He is a sad but emotional warrior who is not afraid to connect with himself and those who love him. In an exclusive interview, I learned that his interest in music came so naturally that he does not even remember making a decision. “This is just what I do,” he says. He thinks of music as a torch that illuminates his path and the path of many people throughout his life.
As many music connoisseurs in history have said, a musician cannot make others emotional without being touched, and therefore he must be able to enliven the emotions he wants to evoke in the listeners. Cobi internalizes the pain of those who listen to him so much that in his songs, he impresses his listeners from the blues-rock front among formal styles. He also reflects his fragile nature, fed by fear, love and inspiration, with his emotional guitar ballads.
Just as the water expands in waves with the effect of a stone thrown into the sea, an impressive sound begins to spread its own waves of feeling toward the hearts in the songs of Cobi. Those who listen to him say that his pieces allow them to get caught up in the ever-expanding circle of emotions and encourage the world to change in that moment.
But what makes the tunes of the musician so unique? What is the source of his miraculous songs that evoke diverse feelings in the listeners? It is actually his late father who built the framework of musical emotion that brought him to where he is today, according to Cobi. ''My dad mostly listened to the oldies station that played all the 50s music that he loved. But I think the memory that stands out the most was singing along to Bob Marley and records in his truck. This was actually the most important moment when I felt the magic of music inside me,” he explained.
Although many names that made history have been an inspiration for Cobi, the courage to share his personal songwriting with the world comes from his family again. Noting that his parents are the ones who showed him the doors of art, Cobi said: “My mother listened to Van Morrison, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchel, The Beatles, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray and many more, and these tunes fueled many things inside me.''
His brother also helped him to turn his attention to a lot of different music throughout high school. He grew up listening to The Doors, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Queens Of The Stone Age, Rage Against The Machine, Mars Volta, Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Peter Tosh and more. “It is a fact that music is the side that heals and elevates the human spirit. And I got to know all this through my family. I am grateful,” the musician said.
Although listening to music is an inspirational source for a musician, the main point is surely the moment he starts to make his own music. Cobi was 9 years old when a family friend brought a sparkly blue electric Fender Stratocaster guitar to their house. Telling that this was the most important moment of his music journey, the musician added: “He plugged it into a small amp and handed it to me. He showed me how to play my first chord and after that, I was obsessed."
Perhaps, this very moment gave the signals that we will hear the melancholic-romantic guitar ballads and the saddest form of the guitar in his songs today.
Getting the taste of making music with a guitar, Cobi started mowing lawns that summer to save enough money to buy his own guitar. “A few months later, I bought my first Squire Stratocaster from Schmitt's Music in Minneapolis MN and immediately started learning Nirvana songs,” he informed.
From then on, he started to master various songs with his guitar by ear. This self-taught musician crowned his musical training with an education at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. The periods of forming the Gentlemen Hall and releasing his debut solo single, "Don't You Cry For Me," came in the later period. Cobi, who also performed live on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” has been climbing up the steps of fame with over 5.3 Million views on his YouTube Channel and around 450,000 monthly listeners on his Spotify.
For an artist who appeals to large audiences, live concerts are very important for reinforcing their communication with their audience and establishing a deep-rooted bond with new audiences. During the show, the artist remains in the memories forever and uniquely at that moment, creating various motivations in the audience.
However, Cobi likes the studio more. “It allows you to create something that will outlive you. There's really nothing like the feeling of being tantalized by the muses to chase an idea all the way to its completion. With recording, you're trying to capture special moments and make them last forever,” he thinks.
According to him, “performing live is different.” “It's not meant to last forever. It's meant to be a special fleeting moment in time. I like to reserve parts of songs for improvising during my show to keep the music alive and fresh. To me, that's a key ingredient to making the experience truly LIVE.”
Noting he always wanted to go to Turkey, Cobi also said that he aims to tour Turkey and make some performances in the near future.
Cobi lastly stated that he is really proud of all his work. The musician, whose serenity and introspection we can see in his songs, said that he always focuses on improving himself. “I'm always striving to improve, but I've also learned to not be precious about it and let it out to the world despite any imperfections.''
Cobi is currently working on the next album scheduled for fall 2022. He will be making a European tour this summer. For his tour schedule, you can visit his website.
