Louis Cole Announces New LP 'Quality Over Opinion'

Louis Cole proudly announces a new album, Quality Over Opinion, slated for release on October 14th on Brainfeeder Records. To celebrate the announcement, he shares a new single, "I'm Tight."

"I'm Tight" arrives hot on the heels of "Let it Happen" - "a timeless modern power ballad classic" - released earlier this month. In contrast, "I'm Tight" is a sleek, laser-focused Funk rocket, based on an utterly irresistible bassline.

"It comes from me recording about 100 different cells of funk, choosing my favorite ones and quilting them together into a song," says Louis. "I had to practice the bass part a lot for this one," he adds, smiling.

20 tracks deep, Quality Over Opinion was written, performed and produced on his own in his modest home studio, but Louis did invite a handful of close friends to contribute, namely Genevieve Artadi ("my no.1 music collaborator"); saxophonist Sam Gendel - Cole's friend for 17 years; pianist Chris Fishman; Nate Wood from the band Kneebody; Marlon Mackey ("a pillar of the Bakersfield music scene"); and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. "This album is a representation of me trying to make the best, most powerful and listenable music I can. For myself and also others," he says.

Louis's main instrument is the drums and he has a background in jazz although the music he writes bears little resemblance to jazz in any pure or classical sense. His connection to the movement is more conceptual: "The root of jazz is pure freedom... no limits... just what you're thinking right at that moment... a pure blast of limitlessness".

Accordingly Cole's touchstones for Quality Over Opinion include boundary-pushing composers such as Gustav Mahler and György Ligeti alongside jazz icons like Miles Davis, the Swedish extreme metal band Meshuggah, Morten Lauridsen (distinguished professor of music and American Choral Master) and Super Mario Kart.

"There is no continuous thread of a story on this album, each song expresses its own moment in my life and time," explains Louis. "I was inspired by joy, pain and the constant mission to pull something out of life around me".

Touring incessantly, Louis sold out two shows at EartH Hackney (1k cap) in London during his last UK tour. He has also appeared at North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Rock En Seine, Jazz a Vienne, Jazz à la Villette, Wonderfruit, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Maiden Voyage and more.

Last year Louis embarked on his biggest collaboration to date with the Grammy-winning Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley, for a string of unique shows in the Netherlands, with more to come in 2023. This October he will tour the US with his big band with special dates featuring his longtime collaborator Genevieve Artadi.

Listen to the new single here:

Louis Cole Live

19 Oct - August Hall, San Francisco, CA*

20 Oct - Sessions Music Hall, Eugene OR

21 Oct - Revolution Hall, Portland, OR

22 Oct - Earshot Jazz at The Town Hall, Seattle, WA

23 Oct - Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA*

*with Genevieve Artadi

Louis Cole is an LA singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with a penchant for wearing animal prints, silly t-shirt slogans and skeleton bodysuits. Sometimes he likes to film himself playing the drums topless and sporting a plastic waffle suspended on a rope chain.

These are all things that many of us would struggle to pull off with any style or panache, but Cole absolutely bosses everything he does because his off-the-wall style is matched, nay surpassed, by the sheer weight of his artistry.

Tipped by the likes of Quincy Jones and Red Hot Chili Peppers, Thundercat describes him as "one of Los Angeles's greatest musicians" and earlier this year invited him to play drums on his recent tour of Japan. The pair have frequently written together including on the aptly titled "I Love Louis Cole" from Thundercat's Grammy-winning album It Is What It Is.

Continuing his mission to create deep feelings through music, Louis is the figurehead of an LA jazz-adjacent scene that includes Genevieve Artadi (with whom Cole co-founded the alt pop / electrofunk band KNOWER in 2009), Sam Gendel, Sam Wilkes, Jacob Mann, Pedro Martins and more.

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