- Sun, 2007-10-28 11:57
Peter Cincotti released East of Angel Town, his Warner Bros. Records debut, on October 29th. East of Angel Town represents the first album of all new material for the 23 year-old native New Yorker following successful album releases for the Concord label.
I Like Music caught up with Peter to talk about his new album and to find out what he's been up to since last time we spoke in 2005.
"I Like Music because.... of what the world would be without it. It’d be a very scary place. I think we’d all be screwed." Peter Cincotti
ILM: We last caught up with you when your album On The Moon was due out back in 2005…Your new single, Goodbye Philadelphia is out now. Can you describe its whole vibe and how the track came about?
Peter: Well that track is similar to the other tracks in that it’s one of the songs I wrote on the record. It’s hard to describe music, which is the point of playing music. But this is my first record that I wrote and Goodbye Philidelphia is a song I wrote half way through. It’s just one of those songs I don’t remember writing the music too, it’s just like it was there. As far as lyrically, it has different meanings to everybody. And to be honest that song is unique in that way in relation to the rest of my record, because a lot of songs on the record are pretty direct in meaning. But Goodbye Philidelphia is more oblique.
ILM: Your East of Angel Town album is out now (October 29th), which track did you enjoy laying down the most?
Peter: They really were all fun. I’ve been living with most of these songs for a while. I had a pretty slick idea of how I wanted the songs to turn out in the studio. As soon as I met David he started to really get it, so when we got in the studio it was really a matter of executing them and also discovering some new things. Him and his team are very focused people and they were really key in bringing a lot of modern elements to it. It was just a great process in the studio, it was very honest, no bullshit.
ILM: …Which is what you want really. So what did you learn about music making this time round?
Peter: I learned a lot about production, I learned a lot about working in the studio that I didn’t know. I learned about how to get what you want out of musicians. I learned how to transfer what’s in your brain onto the tape in the studio. That was a very interesting process that I’ve always been a part of, including on my last record, but more so this time because it was my own stuff. And I wanted certain things to be executed a certain way, so I learned how to get that done.
ILM: Last time we spoke you said it was frantic and “sometimes you have to force yourself to stop and smell the roses. But I always have my eye on the music, so sometimes I don't allow myself to enjoy some of those moments because I'm always thinking about the next step musically and where I want to go and what I'm writing.” Are you able to smell the roses yet?
Peter: You know, it’s still a weakness of mine, not to smell the roses. I try whenever I can. But I feel like I’m always moving forward. I hate the feeling of being stagnant. I think that’s good and bad. But the down side is you don’t appreciate what’s there in front of you, so I think I’m still the same way. I haven’t made any progress.
ILM: What’s been a stand out moment for you since we last spoke?
Peter: Well, since then it’s been like, getting this record done has been highlight moment for me, because it wasn’t just me making another record. A lot of people were saying you’ve got to make another jazz record, what are you doing. I remember being fascinated that certain people would come out of the woodwork and suddenly have an opinion about what I play. It’s funny how, with some success, you’d think that kind of thing would diminish and people would sit back with it, but it was the opposite. So when I had some success people thought they had a say. So it took a while to surround myself with the right people who get it and, because of that, I now have more musical freedom and making this record was the record that I’d wanted to make for the last two years. So getting it from my brain into my hand was a long process. I wasn’t expecting any resistance, but there it was.
ILM: It’s funny because the more successful someone becomes, instead of trusting their judgment or praising them, people tend to want to voice their opinions or be critical of them. Like, how dare you be successful!
Peter: Yeah, I think that’s another different aspect of it.
ILM: What’s your advice to young people on following their dream career, not necessarily in the music industry but just doing what they want to do career wise?
Peter: My answer would be the same, music or not, you have to ask yourself what you need to do, not what you want to do, but what you need to do. This is something that I needed to do. You have to know that you need to do it. Once you know that you have to listen to yourself. As much as I want to benefit from expertise and people around me who know I lot, at the same time I never want to look back on my life and say, damn if I didn’t listen to that guy I would’ve done this the right way, or I would have made that record or whatever. The feeling of egret is something I’m most fearful of. I’m not fearful of mistakes because that happens, and you can learn from mistakes.
