Louis Cole to Release 'Quality Over Opinion' Album Featuring Genevieve Artadi, Sam Gendel, & More
The album will be released this Friday, October 14.
By: Michael Major Oct. 10, 2022
This Friday, LA maestro Louis Cole returns with his new album, Quality Over Opinion (Brainfeeder). The album was preceded by singles "Let It Happen," "Not Needed Anymore," "I'm Tight," and "Dead Inside Shuffle."
20 tracks deep, Quality Over Opinion was written, performed, and produced by Louis in his modest home studio with contributions from a handful of close friends, 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; and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel.
The videos, too, largely came from Louis's hand, including the 7-minute funk rocket and accompanying wild dance video for "I'm Tight," directed and choreographed by the artist himself. Meanwhile, "Not Needed Anymore" shows his creative side in action, where you see Louis build an entire song himself.
"This album is a representation of me trying to make the best, most powerful and listenable music I can. For myself and also others," says Louis. Accordingly, his 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," he explains. "I was inspired by joy, pain and the constant mission to pull something out of life around me".
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 *
5 Dec - Nagoya Club Quattro, Nagoya, JP ^
6 Dec - Umeda Club Quattro, Osaka, JP ^
7 Dec - Shibuya O-East, Tokyo, JP ^
+ with Makaya McCraven
*with Genevieve Artadi
^Louis Cole Big Band show
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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