Cobi: The Passing of Cobi’s Father, Honing His Craft in Dive Bars, and The Power of Fasting

Today on Auxoro, I speak with Cobi (@cobimusic), a singer, songwriter, and producer hailing from Minnesota who is signed to 300 Entertainment. Cobi burst onto the scene as the guitarist and vocalist in the band Gentleman Hall and later left to pursue his own solo career.

His 2016 single ‘Don’t You Cry for Me’ has over 36 million streams on Spotify alone. And he just released a new single titled ‘Island In My Mind.’ Last year, Cobi’s father passed away while Cobi simultaneously became a father himself. According to Cobi, “A lot of people ask me where I’ve been lately, The answer is I’ve been crafting new material while going through some of the most profound changes in my life. 19 months ago I became a father. While I was adapting and learning from that, I watched my own father’s health deteriorate.”

In this conversation, you’ll hear about the intricacies behind Cobi’s creative process, how he handled the passing of his father while also becoming a father, the early days as a performer, intermittent fasting, and more.

Here are a few highlights from the conversation:

Falling in love with the guitar (3:50)

My uncle from Portland, Oregon, he was a Reggae drummer and would jam with my brother and I. He took us under his wing. (5:40)

As soon as I picked up the guitar, I knew that was what I wanted to do. From then on, it was just about figuring out how to do it. (6:10)

Joe Rogan and the magic of podcasting (6:30)

The process of recording the music while writing it - I can lay down a guitar part, a keyboard part, I can go jam on the drum part and build on top of it which obviously you can’t do all at once. It gives me the ability to be the whole band, the producer, and the songwriter. It’s really about jamming out shit until the gold comes out. (8:30)

The transition from a band to solo career (10:14)

The days of Gentleman Hall - There were six of us in the band. We all lived together and turned our whole house into a recording studio. That’s where I caught the studio bug. (11:25)

I was playing in bars a lot. We would play all night, from 9 am to 2 in the morning. You’re doing three to four sets a night. If the first set didn’t go as well, or the second set didn’t go well, you get a chance to get back at it and do it again. (13:00)

Differences between bar shows and bigger venues - Bar gigs are like a rotating door, people are coming in and out. It gives you a limited opportunity to grab their attention. It’s helpful in transitioning to the bigger stages and doing shorter sets. You figure out, where do I lose people? And what works? (14:04)

Working jobs other than music (18:45)

Andrew Schulz, blowing up on YouTube, and Kevin Hart’s rise to fame (15:30)

Taking care of my Dad was one of the hardest, saddest, most depressing things I’ve ever done. Going home to my daughter who would be so happy to see me - smiling, wanting me to read to her...that made it bearable. (25:38)

Losing my father, it’s the death of my own childhood in a way. You’ll never get that back. But the beauty of having a daughter is that I get to relive a lot of my childhood through her. I get to be more childlike than I’ve been in a long time. (29:25)

Shotgun wedding and having a miscarriage (32:15)

The importance of exercise to the creative process (40:15)

The power of intermittent fasting (42:21)

Lessons learned from his Mom, the blue-collar mentality - (52:20)

Learning what NOT to do from his Dad (53:00)