Adam Cohen, son of one of Canada’s most iconic artists, Leonard Cohen, went home to find his muse for his latest album.
We Go Home, released in September, is Adam’s fifth album and by all definitions homemade.
In presenting this new body of work, Cohen comes home to Canada for a cross-country tour, having just completed the first part of his world tour in Europe.
The project is all the more remarkable for being the album that almost wasn’t. Cohen completed and then scrapped a previously-recorded album before starting afresh, choosing to heed the distant calling of his family and roots by recording in the living rooms of houses in which he was raised.
Cohen spoke to The CJN on tour from St. Albert, a suburb of Edmonton, about We Go Home:
“I came off my first success with my last album, Like A Man (2012), my first gold record, and watched audiences grow. I thought I was going to have great ease and success making a follow-up, but I had a difficult time.”
A gold record signifies sales of 40,000.
“I made a record that was over-eager and not a success. I had no choice but to start over.”
Cohen, 42, grew up in Montreal, but today lives globally, in the sense that he travels more of the year than not.
“I retreated into the homes that saw me grow up and I take refuge and comfort in the familiarity of these places. I recorded half the record in our family vacation home on the Greek island of Hydra and half the record in our family home in Montreal.
“It is in the comfort of these homes where I grew up that I conjured my dreams and what I wanted to become. It is where I lived that influenced me and the quality of music I was playing,” explained Cohen.
In We Go Home, Adam takes a more profound ownership and command of his own voice within a family tradition. He is the link between his father Leonard, and his seven-year-old “boy wonder” Cassius.
“My muse turned out to be my home life, my roots, my family. I think you can hear the camaraderie on the record. I think you can hear the walls and the floors boards of homes that saw me grow up. I am in my father’s house; I pass by his hat hanging on the coat rack, and the telephone with enormous buttons,” said Adam.
All of Cohen’s songs are original and described by him as modern folk.
“The songs on this record chronicle conversations I have had with my father, as well as conversations that I would like to have with my little boy, and basically my attempt to impart some kind of wisdom and humour to my little man.
“What’s different is the tone – richer and fuller this time, ” he said.
The album cover is a picture of Cohen’s son, Cassius, while the back picture is Adam as a five-year-old with his father who turned 80 this past September, and released his own album, Popular Problems, a week after We Go Home.
“Having a dad like Leonard Cohen has been deeply influential. He is not only my father who I look up to and take guidance from but he is also what I consider to be a remarkable, dare I say historic, figure. It would be impossible and a sign of absurd aloofness for me to not have taken immense inspiration and guidance from him,” said Adam.
“I would like to continue charting progress. It’s a wonderful thing to watch an audience grow and I’ve gotten very seduced by the idea of being able to chart even more progress,” he concluded.
Cohen will be performing in Toronto on November 17th at Harbourfront Centre Theatre. To purchase tickdets call 416-973-4000 or visit tickets.masseyhallroythomsonhall.com. For more tour dates and info visit www.adamcohen.com.