INTERVIEW: Gabriella Cohen releases third album 'Blue No More': "It was a long arduous process, but looking back I’m grateful for all the time I had so I could really articulate my vision."

Gabriella Cohen creates music that is like being embraced by your favourite memories and whisking you off to your happy place. While utterly, uniquely her own, there is an honesty, authenticity and connectivity to her music that feels instantly familiar and comfortable.

Today Cohen releases her third album, Blue No More, her first in close to four years. Featuring ten tracks, it spans rock, blues, roots, soul and country and is effectively an album of two halves. Kicking off with the rollicking first single ‘Frangelico Dreams’, the first five tracks are full-blooded, energetic rock tracks before the pace changes with fifth track ‘Son of a Gun’, a glorious, stripped back honky-tonk country track. The following five tracks are more introspective, quiet, tender and experimental, exploring a number of different sonic landscapes. ‘Water’ is a lush guitar and piano ballad which introduces elements of gospel, while the album’s title track plus closing track ‘Rewind’ introduce electronica to Cohen’s canon, more subtly on ‘Blue No More’ before ramping up into distorted sounds and vocals on ‘Rewind’.

Blue No More is Cohen coming into her own as an artist. There is a confidence and assuredness about her work and the growth from her first album, 2016 Full Disclosure and No Details is clear. She is a artist to watch who’s major mainstream breakthrough can only be a matter of time. We recently caught up with Cohen to chat more about her career and the creation of the album.

Hey Gabriella! So good to be chatting with you, thanks for your time. How are things in your world right now?
Hi there, thanks for having me. Things are pretty great at the minute; I’m in country Queensland with my family and the sun is shining… life is good.

Congratulations on the release of your new album Blue No More which is out today. It is a beautiful album, how does it feel to have it out in the world?
Thank you, it feels absolutely wonderful! A long time coming, and I’m so damn proud of the outcome. I can’t wait for the world to hear it.

Was there a particular, message or feel you wanted to project with this album?
I just wanted to make a relatively feel good, easy listening album that people can enjoy whenever. 

What was the creative process like for Blue No More?
The creative process was a bit of me being down and out in New Orleans, cycling around the French Quarter, listening to Aldous Harding’s Party on repeat and wondering when the hell I’d write something again. Then I moved to St Kilda where I did a lot of writing in the Botanical Gardens, premiered new material to the ducks. They were a pretty good indicator as to whether the songs were any good cos they’d just amble away if they weren’t into it.

I tell most people it was a long arduous process, but looking back I’m grateful for all the time I had so I could really articulate my vision. 

I recorded 4 songs myself in Crystal Waters in a cabin on my family’s property, and the rest, some with Sam Cromack, a few with JB Paterson, and one song with the good folk at Chaos Magick Studios. 

The album, like all of your music, has this fantastically earthy, organic, soulful feel to it. What or who inspires you in your musical journey?
Thanks so much, I’m sure the Permaculture village I grew up in would really appreciate that quote. I’m mostly inspired by music that makes me feel happy to be alive, elated, fantastic, but of course I adore music where your heart drops, almost as if the composer knows you better than you know yourself and has access to a part of you you’ve hidden away from yourself. Does that make sense? Harry Neilson, John Lennon, Leonard Cohen, Bob Marley, Julian Casablancas, The Strokes, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground, Natalie Bergman,  Sam Evian, The Beatles, Holy Hive, The Beach Boys, Karen Dalton…not in order, but that’s some music that’s been doing it for me lately. 

We really love the track ‘Son Of A Gun’, its got such an addictive beat and its sound transports you to another era. Can you talk us a little through the story behind this one?
Oh, I’m so glad! I had the first verse, ‘we used to go to the corner store’ swimming around in my head months after I left New Orleans. I had just bought this gorgeous upright piano at our place in St Kilda, so I was tinkering around with this honky-tonk motif I’ve been banging out for six years now (my one party trick, works everytime) and it kind of just came. I knew I wanted a big gospel sound to do the call - response part. I finished the lyrics and recorded that song at JB Paterson’s place, afterward I recorded more group vocal in Crystal Waters with my sisters, Kate Dillon and Rob Longstaff. Shoutout. 

The album closes with ‘Rewind’, which is probably the biggest outlier on the album in terms of its sound and structure, it is quite experimental in parts. Again, what was the inspiration behind this track and was it always intended to be the last track on the album?
I’m glad you asked ha ha I’ve been dying to talk about this song. I wrote and recorded ‘Rewind’ six  years ago, I remember it clearly. I had just gotten back from tour and was pretty wrecked, possibly nursing a tender heart. I opened up Logic, had about ten percent battery left, found some viola pads, and started singing through the little mic on my Apple headphones. The vocals remain untouched.  I adore recordings for this reason, memories can live forever in audio time stamps. It’s your own private nostalgia party for no one else but you. Anyway, so ‘Rewind’ sat around for some years, waiting to make the cut on my previous records to no avail. It’s had so many different versions, mainly due to my poor file management. I finally resurrected it as I was finishing the record, and then I lost the session! Which resulted in some painful surgery to piece it back together, so it’s a miracle that the song has survived. 

The string refrain that comes in at the very end was a new part I wrote recently, a kind of grand ceremonial closing to a six year limbo chapter if you will. ‘Rewind’ had no where else to go but to finish the album.

You have been releasing music for around six years now, how did your career develop? How did you get from there to here?
Great question. It’s all a blur really, but I’ve had tremendous support and help from my family, community, past managers and a very important human named Kate Babyshakes Dillon, who has been my right hand woman/partner in crime for a good four years, and with whom I recorded my previous two records with. That amazing support, coupled with some of my own relentless dedication has gotten me here.

For so long the music industry has been a difficult space for women to exist in mostly because it has been run by older, white, straight men for decades. What are your thoughts on gender equality and sexism in the music industry?
Oh, it’s changing ever so slowly, but I believe we are making progress. I want see a variety of genders in music related work spaces, as producers, engineers, musicians, bookers, CEOs of labels, publishing houses. I found Laura Marling’s Reversal Of The Muse Podcast fascinating. She interviewed women of different roles in the music industry, discussing feminine creativity, lack of women in studio spaces and the difference between how women and men perceive and hear music. 

What is coming up for Gabriella Cohen in 2022?
I’m going on tour! Come see my amazing band and I play around Australia through March - April. 

Blue No More is out now. You can buy and stream here.

To keep up with all things Gabriella Cohen you can follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.