Singer/Songwriter Cobi Mike Speaks With GGB About Leaving Gentlemen Hall, Rediscovering His Sound and More

Cobi Mike is a singer songwriter formerly of the very popular Boston breed band Gentlemen Hall with an authentic haunting sound that reaches the depths of an indie soul.

Mike helped form Gentlemen Hall back in 2008 and the band soon skyrocketed to success. The “Sail Into The Sun” artists landed a MTV Video Music award, performed at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards, had songs featured in Target and Samsung commercials, along with hit shows like Pretty Little Liars and 90210. 

The band also toured with the likes of Young The Giant, Cee Lo Green, All American Rejects, One Republic, and Beyoncé. Following the success Mike had with Gentlemen Hall, he decided it was time to embark on his own journey as a solo artist.

Cobi Mike’s self-titled EP features four tracks that speaks on a very personal level and redefine’s the Minnesota native’s sound. I got to speak with the “Walking Through the Fire” singer and he gave me some insight on his music influences why he chose to leave Gentlemen Hall, his new sound and more! Check out some excerpts from my chat with Cobi Mike below.

On Getting Started in the Industry: “I got into music at a pretty early age. I started playing the piano when I was about seven or so, but once I picked up a guitar that was really the moment where I realized this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I knew I wanted to do music forever after that. A friend of the family came by my house with an electric guitar one time, brought it inside, plugged it in, and let my brother and I play it. After that my brother and I just taught each other guitar from there on out. My mom actual had an old acoustic guitar in the closet, she was like ‘if you can teach yourselves how to play, I’ll let you save up money and buy one for yourself.’ So that’s what we did, we learned how to play acoustic first, and we worked mowing lawns all summer long and then we eventually brought our own guitars. That’s kind of how we got into it.”

On Music Influences: “So many. At any early age it was guitar players like [Jimi] Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, all those kind of 60’s, 70’s rock bands like The Beatles. Now I listen to all kinds of stuff. I’m always listening to Spotify radio trying to find new music. Some of my favorite bands right now are Little Dragon, alt-J, Alabama Shakes, there’s so much great music it’s really hard to name it all.”

On Leaving Gentlemen Hall: “I guess you just reach a point in your life where something just kind of clicks and it feels right to just do something else, it feels right to move on. I kind of just hit that point where it felt right to move on. We had a really good run, it’s just time for me to do something different.”

On Rediscovering His Sound: “It has definitely become more of a personal message for me. My song writing has become more personal and my live performances are way more personal. I’m stripped down to acoustics for my live shows at the moment. I hope to expand out from that but for now it’s just acoustic guitar and me. I’m self-producing all my recorded material, so it doesn’t get more intimate than that, as far as sharing your art.”

Photo: Fiorella Occhipinti

On Being Solo vs. Being in a Group: “It’s a lot easier to make decisions as a solo artist because it’s all on you. If you want to do something you can do it. It’s a lot easier for travel, but more than anything it leaves an open palette for more creativity”

On Writing Music: “For me it’s really I hear the medley and I hear the track first, or I’ll even record a beat, before I even dive into vocals, and then I would come up with the medley on top of that. Whatever medley I want that’s when I’ll dive into the lyrics.”

On His Self-Titled EP: “Walking Through Fire” the inspiration behind that was, it was kind of just a song about going out on your own or finding your own path in the rest of the world and staying true to that because sometimes it’s easy to listen to all these people around you, but it’s really important to stay true to yourself, so that’s what that song is about. Another track called “We Are Who We Are” is a love story about accepting someone for who they are. The song called “First Snow” is about a yearning to go out into the world and overcoming the fear of all the possibilities out there, like what would happen if you just went out into the world and said fuck it, I’m going to go out into the world and find my dreams. It’s a yearning about finding your dreams. The last song is called “I Don’t Want To Lose” and that song is just about a relationship falling apart at the seams.”

Catch Cobi Mike on tour and see him perform live this Thursday In New York at the Rockwood Music Hall Stage 1 and on Saturday, April 25 at the Red Room, Cafe 939, Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Be sure to follow Cobi Mike on Twitter and Instagram @CobiMike, on Facebook at CobiMikeMusic, and check out his Soundcloud page at CobiMike for all new music. Listen to two tracks from Cobi’s self-titled EP below.

Follow Glambergirlblog.com on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @glambergirlblog