MM - Who is the real Frank Cotolo?
He is a lucky man. He has survived two marriages, numerous brushes with
death, the death of his parents and close friends, a nervous breakdown,
substance abuse, as well as other physical and emotional crippling
situations.
He is an adult who does not suppress the child within.
He makes work into play and lives very comfortably with his demons. Few
people cling to life with the white-knuckling grip he does.
On the surface, he is a professional writer, father of two boys and the
husband of a woman who is his dream companion.
MM - You've lived in many places throughout
your life, but where do you call home?
I live in rural Pennsylvania with my family. We are on a plot of land at
the foot of the Blue Mountains range, surrounded by a horse ranch, a dairy
farm and cornfields.
After growing up in Brooklyn, New York, fourth largest city in the world,
after living in the heart of Hollywood, California and in suburban San
Diego and Nashville, Tennessee, country life is a relief.
In the Chinese culture, the young boy goes to the city and as he grows
older and hopefully wiser he moves further away from civilization. I'm
like a 50-year-old Chinese man who has worked his way out from under the
stress of city life. And I feel wiser.
MM - Your music is extremely varied, but
for those people who haven't heard your music before, how would you best
describe it?
My music is melody-oriented, lyrically opinionated, lousy with attitude
and atmosphere. It's listening music. If a person enjoys spending time
with music and songs, then that person should enjoy much of what I do.
Most of my music is best appreciated when the listener puts on a pair of
headphones in the dark and allows the music to take over his or her head.
I produce all of my tracks with this kind of listening in mind. Each song
is a sound picture. Each one has its own identity, its own color and its
own life. If you spend time listening to my tracks you will hear many
things. Rarely does the same thing happen twice in any piece, while it
remains loyal to the main theme.
My music varies in style because I am not dedicated to any genre of music.
Few people enjoy everything I do because they like only this or only that.
I do this and that, sometimes within the same piece.
I am aware of short attention spans, so I try to create tracks that are
quick, to the point and that move around a lot in the atmosphere I
present. I know I am asking a lot of people to listen, but I have little
choice. I'm too eclectic to bow to one genre.
MM - Where do you get the inspiration for the
songs you write?
Inspiration is a starting point and writing music comes so naturally to me
that it's difficult to find any point where the process begins. It's as if
there is this never-ending piece of music going on in my head and every
once in a while I capture parts of it and mold it into a song or an
instrumental.
I have an affinity for titles, so a phrase or word will pop into my head
and I'll write it down. I have lists of song titles that are yet to have
lyrics or music. A title or word alone can be so explosive to me that I am
driven to put it to music.
Other times I just connect or am connected to that never-ending stream of
music going on in my head and melodies flow out. Sometimes I just sit down
at the piano and begin to play whatever comes to my head and without any
more effort than that, there is a song.
Other times a song comes out incomplete and I have to wait to find the
rest of it. I have a hand-held tape recorder on the piano and I document
every chord pattern that develops or seems to want to develop.
I
rarely work on music. I don't have the time or the energy. If a piece of
music doesn't come to me easily, I walk away and do something else. But
usually it all comes easily. Lyrics are a bit different. The concept comes
easily but if the words don't come quickly they usually need honing and
cleaning, tightening.
That's where Kristen comes in. If the lyrics don't flow out of me I hand
her a sketch of my thoughts and she works out the details, shaves off some
syllables and we get it down.
MM - You already have a good number of albums
under your recording belt, and will soon be releasing your newest offering
"Gear." Tell us a little about each of them, and how this newest album
reflects your mood right now.
Raw Material is just a random sampling of some of the music I first
released on the internet. This is quite eclectic and a number of the songs
were written in the '60s and '70s and produced in the late '90s with the
kind of technology unavailable 30 years ago.
SEVEN
SQUARED is a batch of songs that made personal statements about my life as
I was reaching 50. Seven squared, of course, is 49; that's how old I was
when I wrote and produced the album's songs. I invited many of my musician
friends from the '60s and '70s to give the tracks more flavors than I
could doing tracks by myself. It was also important to use them because
they were all a great part of my musical life and the blend of my personal
statements and their talents fit the theme.
The CD francois couteau is all instrumental, except for one tune I wrote
with John Amato that has voices. It's French music in theory; it's
melodic, orchestral, romantic and moody.
CotoloRama is a collection of some of the more complex four-track pieces
ever recorded. It's a psychedelic/pop/rock menagerie, if I must give them
a tag, again focusing on melody and soundscapes. A few of these tunes also
go back a couple of decades, but all in all I feel these tracks take the
four-track analog process as far as it can go. It's like an art gallery,
filled with my sound paintings, my expressions and impressions of life.
Gear is a gimmick CD. It is a fun batch of songs written and produced to
sound as if they came from out of the early '60s British rock invasion.
This CD does not reflect my musical mood right now; it just releases some
musical phantoms. My musical mood now is reflected in the work-in-progress
CD, The King Of Monkey Island. Aside from this being my first all-digital
project, it reflects properties of my heart that I have yet to express. In
humor, in sound and with more detail. This project has no boundaries and
although I am prepared to be criticized for creating a symphony for
myself, I have to break through another musical barrier. I have to grow,
even if growing at this point in my life is more like decomposing.
MM - Your
family is quite musically orientated as well, was this a natural
progression for them when music has played such a large part of your life?
Absolutely for the kids but not for my wife. Jack, now seven, has been
around my home studio all of his life, so it has to have an impact on him.
His brother, Ray, is almost two and shows much interest in music.
My wife Kristen's exposure to music goes back to the pre-Punk Rock days
but being a member of the punk generation she got heavily involved in that
movement, which was driven by the music. I introduced her to some great
things she missed, like all of The Kinks music and because she is so
literate and smart she could appreciate some of the more artistic music,
too. Like Pet Sounds.
She has a knack for expression and has been responsible for translating
many of my rough-edged lyrics into words that could actually be sung. She
doesn't play any instruments. However, I can show her things to do on a
keyboard and she has a natural ability to mimic it and get the job done.
Same goes for singing. So she has become a valuable component in a lot of
my work over the past five years.
MM - How do you feel about your son following in your footsteps?
I have no problems with either of the boys devoting their lives to
creating and playing music as long as that's what they want to do. Kris
and I feel the same way about this. If it's music that drives them, fine.
But if one or both of them decide they will be happier running a fruit
store, we'll support their doing that, too.
Our primary objective as parents is not to inspire them to do any one
thing as much as to support them in whatever they want to do. We feel as
long as we don't raise the kind of kid who winds up in a clock tower
picking off people with rifle shots that we have been successful. I know
that is an extreme way of looking at it but so what? Way after both of
their parents are gone, it is most important that Jack and Ray have the
primal understanding that they were loved. If that love moves them to play
music, that's great. If it moves them to sell shoes, that's fine, too.
MM - Which band/artist has influenced you the most over the years?
I have been motivated to write music by a score of artists who are mostly
composers and producers. The composers run the gamut of styles. Mozart,
Steve Allen, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Cole Porter, Leroy Anderson and Irving
Berlin strongly qualify as the foundation of my influences. Though I did
not pick up an instrument until the British invasion in the early '60s,
The Beatles do not fit into the picture as much as their producer, George
Martin does. I began to play rock and roll during The Beatles' thing
because I saw how it impressed one specific girl.
Once
I began to play, all the earlier influences kicked in. When I began to
analyze recordings I became enamored with how George Martin put a record
together. How that music sounded, I felt, was the key to how well the
group's songs worked. Without George Martin we wouldn't be talking about
the Fab Four the way we have and continue to talk about them. In the case
of The Beach Boys I studied Brian Wilson's recordings and those of his
main influence, Phil Spector.
Brian Wilson's music and especially his production had far more of an
affect on me than Lennon and McCartney music. Wilson's material leans far
more toward the foundation group of my influences, which are more pop and
more classical.
And when I found Jobim I was musically enlightened. His song construction,
thematic approach to lyrics and ability to caress melody freed me of the
limitations of rock and roll, which for all due purposes I find boring.
MM - Out of all the songs you've written and
performed over the years, what's your personal favourite and why?
Recently I wrote and recorded a song called Maybe for my first digital CD,
The King Of Monkey Island and it is by far the best piece of music I have
ever written. It is also my favorite because structurally it represents
everything I have learned about musical construction over the decades.
Also, lyrically it delivers a strong personal message. That is, the
acceptance that there could be something, as opposed to nothing, when life
as we know it, ends. I am on a journey of self-actualization that, of
course, can never be completed because no one becomes self-actualized. But
this song says it all about how I feel in my heart of hearts about
everything.
MM - Do you ever envisage a time when you
hang up your hat and wave goodbye to the songs and the musical life that
goes with it?
No. I did retire once. In fact, I wrote a song about my so-called exit
from the music world, called I'm Outta Here, just to document the
retirement. But after almost 20 years of a life filled with way too much
emotional and physical drama, I went searching for a solid foundation.
After I found the closest thing to a solid foundation in my personal life,
I fell into fits of depression that could only be expelled by diving back
into music, specifically recording. I wrote and recorded songs for a long
time before sending them out on the internet. Now there is no stopping the
music.
MM - What
one thing do you hold most precious to you?
My sense of being. It is all I have to allow me to love the most important
things-my family and my need to create. I say "need to create" because I
understand the place that the creative process has in my life. If I had
never gone public this time around-remember, I was a professional musician
and songwriter decades ago--all of the music I have produced since around
1995 would still have been produced. Nothing motivates me like my own
desire to do something. And no bad review-and I have gotten some lethal
ones-could ever stop me from creating exactly what I want to, and,
usually, in great volume.
MM - If you could do it all again, would you
want to do it all again, and is there anything you wished you had done
differently?
Yes. Although it is a moot point, I do regret not having become a circus
clown. I didn't realize this until two years ago when I saw a group of
circus clowns perform before the main ring events at the Ringling Brothers
Barnum & Bailey show. The traditional circus clown represents everything I
express in song and music. The clown, however, does it with motion, not
something intangible like music. Clowns express themselves with the
perfect motion. It is a motion of graceful failure, imperfection and
acceptance. They are not slaves to any form of behavior and they are
skilled at their own rebellion of all behavior. Their makeup and costumes
are not masks as much as they are caricatures of their real faces. Had I
learned the ropes to express myself in that form, I may never have had the
need to use music or words.
MM - What in your opinion has been your
greatest achievement?
I don't feel I have achieved anything through my music. My musical
endeavors are totally selfish. If they have any positive affects on
people, fine, but that is not their purpose and it doesn't affect me. In
other areas of life, I do nothing consciously to achieve anything, or to
make mankind better. I can't. I'm not inclined to and nor am I talented or
strong enough to shake humanity up. However, I have learned not to feel
guilty about being uninvolved. In fact, I am suspicious of any person who
campaigns to change the world. This, to me, is a person who cannot face
his or her own problems.
This
is the great myth of John Lennon, for instance. And I use him because he
is such a popular example. Everyone looks back on Lennon as this great
peace monger. Well, he may have inspired people who didn't know him but
that is not any great achievement. Self-help gurus, televangelists and all
sorts of conmen do that all the time. Meanwhile, Lennon could not put his
personal role as a father into a healthy condition, according to his
oldest son, and that role was far more important to achieve. And its
success would have had far more of a positive affect on the world than any
of Lennon's public peace endeavors.
What we each do personally defines any achievements we have. Take Jesus as
another popular example. He was a graceful failure, a grandstander, like
the clown. Pure and defined. He wanted to teach the message of surrender
to mankind. So he made the ultimate surrender and mankind missed the
point. Because they didn't understand they raped and corrupted everything
he taught for their own device. Today all we have is this cartoon image of
Jesus, one created by his publicists. So what I am saying is that I don't
believe in achievements. Great things, disastrous things, happen when a
conspiracy of uncontrollable elements come together and make them happen.
MM - Would you describe yourself as a
pessimist or an optimist? Is your glass half full or half empty?
I don't measure things that way. If I have a glass it is always
overflowing. To be able to wake up and get through a day, as painful or as
joyful as that day may be, and get a good night's sleep to start over
again is always enough. The object is survival and as long as one survives
one will experience the heights and the doldrums of life. Being able to
balance the good with the bad is the big dance of life. Learn those steps
and you are home free, so to speak.
MM - Lastly, do you have any plans to tour
when the new CD comes out?
No plans. Until further notice my days of playing live are gone. Besides,
I feel that no matter how well I recreated my recordings on stage that
there would not be an audience large enough to support a tour. The live
pop musical stage these days belongs to the new school of dancing
teenagers who don't play instruments. It does not belong to a middle-aged,
genre-jumping self-actualizer with unpopular opinions put to melodies that
are graceful failures.
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