Cosmo Jarvis interview

Cosmo is a genuine enigma in the music scene - a multi-instrumentalist who can seemingly switch genres at will, and who writes more songs in a year than many artists manage in their entire careers. Not only that, but he records and produces these tracks himself, and makes his own videos.

His debut album ‘Humasyouhitch / Sonofabitch' surprised everyone by coming out as a uniformly tight and sharp 18-track double CD that left many listeners behind with its scope, causing some friction in the music press as a result. Regardless of this, Cosmo has picked up high profile admirers including Stephen Fry and Brian Eno, and now has a second album ready for release. Cosmo was kind enough to take time out of his schedule to chat to us about the journey so far, and where he‘s heading next.

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Your second album ‘Is The World Strange, Or Am I Strange' is due for release in the UK at the end of September.Given that you‘re such a prolific songwriter with a huge back catalogue of tracks already, did you feel a need to approach this one differently from your debut?

Well I always kind of just want to get as much out as I can. The opportunity to have an official album release does not come that often due to the amount of time it takes to plan everything and ensure the correct press is in place and everything… Its a real bummer. It really is. But, the volume of music on the first album was deemed a major factor in its s**t sales. The length and diversity of the double album ‘confused' potential audiences thus a decision was made (reluctantly on my part) that it would be more sensible to have less content on attempt number two. The music itself is not chronologically presented across albums. Instead, my management and I argue for weeks about what tracks (out of my catalogue) might sit well together and not confuse the apparently fragile minded audiences of today. The main difference between Humasyouhitch / sonofabitch and Is the World Strange Or Am I Strange are the recordings themselves. I feel my ability as a producer improved between the two and that the sonic clarity of the ideas presented in album two has improved some what. Genre-wise, there is still no set preconceived sound consistently running throughout the work. Again I am choosing the instrumentation that I feel (perhaps wrongly) best helps the song communicate itself to a listener.

When I reviewed your Chapter Two EP I remember the sense that I was listening to one of the country‘s few bona-fide creative geniuses. The diversity of the music left me feeling that many people just wouldn‘t be able to keep up though - how have your audiences responded to such diversity so far?

Terribly. One cross section of people will really relate to one idea and get into my stuff only to be hugely disappointed to find there isn‘t that much other stuff on the records like the stuff they initially related to and so that leaves them thinking I‘m a one hit wonder type… That, or they think I am trying to please everybody. Other people get it and just either like the record/songs or don‘t, but their ears are open to find out if they will or not.

On that theme, the latest album varies stylistically from folky pop to country jigs, via funk and spacey trip-hop. Thing is, each track feels absolutely comfortable in its own skin and all are absolutely convincing musically. What was behind the arguably risky decision not to let yourself be pinned down to one style?

I just don‘t see the damn point. I‘d consider myself a dick if I only listened to one kind of music on some kind of constricting principle and I‘d consider myself the same for creating music that way. I enjoy discovering music devices used in certain genres and I also enjoy employing them to assist me in creating a mood that my song is presented in.

Not only do you play multiple instruments on tracks you record & produce by yourself, but you also take charge of making the videos. Do you think the industry is at a point where artists can succeed by taking full control of their creative output? If so, is the industry as we know it even relevant any more?

I think what your saying is a nice idea, but there‘s just no point in doing everything yourself because nobody gives a s**t. I don‘t believe there is any excuse for artists not to make their own videos. A video is now an extension of the original work, to give someone else the task of coming up with something is a wasted opportunity to extend your original idea beyond the constrains of sonic media. The effect of music against visuals is something unexamined and, in my opinion, quite profound. The industry as we know it is now a free for all. Its all luck unless there‘s money, majors or you are f***g Fern Cotton.

The deluxe version of the new album comes with a bonus DVD featuring 18 of your short films. After watching the brilliantly unhinged ‘Dave Says Hi' a few years back I‘m looking forward to seeing more. Do you find anything in common between song writing and film making? Does the ability to do one fluently change the way you approach the other?

The films on the DVD are all the final cuts, because I rushed to get them uploaded to Youtube in case they became stale by the time I eventually did. Films are different, I don‘t know why. So far I can say that films are more difficult because the idea must be inarguably solid in every respect. A weak films cracks are more obvious than those of a weak song because behind a song, there is an idea. This idea maintains certain levels of anonymity (even if is is a personal song) because of the fact that it being a sonic idea leaves much more room for interpretation or joining the dots. Film leaves much less room for this because the movie is showing you things… “Why would the movie be showing me something unmistakable if if wanted me to interpret it?". So the idea behind a short or film has to be much more thought out than a song… Many musical artists write very abstract lyrics that, from a listeners perspective, can seem like they must have derived from a very certain idea. However sometimes they don‘t. Sometimes they are just words that when given a melody beg the listener to find the meaning with in, even if there was no meaning in the first place - the meaning is in the listener. Film has its abstract equivalent of course. I guess what I mean is, to organise ideas words into a song is much easier than organising an ideas into a video.

Through both of your albums there‘s a sense of taking on serious social issues, but always with a sense of humour that makes them easier to take in. Do you make a conscious decision to wrap reality up in something less brutal so people are more likely to listen?

Sometimes. Other times like in a song called he only goes out on Tuesdays - I just want things to be realistic (or my best effort at making something realistic with the precondition of self). I am learning though, that people don‘t like nastiness.

Following from that, you‘ve touched on subjects such as homophobia, domestic violence, broken relationships,emotional abuse and unrequited love, often in an honest and open way that hits pretty hard. Are there subjects that you think go beyond what you‘re prepared to communicate through your music?

Oh yes, and for those I hope to use film. Sometimes in songs though it is difficult to say things to an audience without wanting to put a footnote or something, detaching me from any responsibility to my words. People find extremist objective pretending hard to deal with because if I can conceive it and explain something that certain ‘bad people' think then that makes me, in part, just as bad as them because much like in acting - to truly understand reasons behind peoples inner workings and explain or sing or act an honest account of these ideas, you must empathise with them, and only a c**t empathises with a c**t… Right?

It feels to me that you wear characters on your records like you play instruments, picking out the right one to star in each track and give the lyrics the right voice. Fair observation, or are they all really facets of your own personality?

Absolutely. Everyone is capable of everything really. So getting into a person whose words I, as me, don‘t necessarily mean but am intrigued by requires a voice that will do their notions true justice.

You‘re about to start touring in support of the new album, including a date at The Musician here in Leicester on the 14th September and a couple over in Australia. Do you have any creative plans for when the tour is over?

I got this feature film I‘m still trying to f***g finish - its called The Naughty Room. Hopefully something on some level will happen with that like festivals or something. I don‘t know how good it is though, it was made cheap and suffered a lot throughout production at my grandmas house due to unavoidable compromise… Other than that - right now I am preparing final mixes of tracks from the next album ‘think bigger' and generally just going to carry on making stuff and stuff. Thanks a lot for this, and for listening and stuff.

Cheers Cosmo, much appreciated!

Here‘s the video to ‘My Day' from Cosmo‘s new album for you to enjoy. Visit his site (www.cosmojarvis.com) to download the MP3 free, and catch him live at The Musician in Leicester on Wednesday 14th September.

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