Universally hailed as a thrilling new figure in music for his edgy, lo-fi debut, The Headphone Masterpiece, back in 2002, Cody ChesnuTT is a soul troubadour whose frank, socially conscious ruminations on life continue to challenge popular notions of what modern soul music can lookand sound like: a raw storyteller for the people wearing a guitar and a toothpick-chewing smirk; a wide-eyed, intense soul brother in a crazy-fly get-up singing about bedraggled love in the land of Lost Angeles – he’s all of that, but wiser now while still wearing poetic license on his skin like a battle scar. Cody’s first full album of new material in a decade, Landing On A Hundred, was released last year. Here Cody catches up with Danielle Muir.
TOM: I wanted to start off by asking — your music has been labelled from R&B to gospel to classic rock and punk. How would you personally describe your sound?
CC: Wow, I draw from everything that I hear. Anything that moves me I draw from, if it inspires me. At the root of it all I would say soul, and I say that because it comes from a deeper place. Anything can have soul, so I just would call it soul music more than anything.
TOM: Could you name some of the artists that have really inspired you along your musical journey?
Cody: Sure, I’ll go back to the beginning. The biggest impact in my early childhood was the Motown, of course, and the Jackson 5. Everybody wanted to be Michael Jackson. Then Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye. Michael, in his later years. Then I go over to Bill Withers, the Beatles, the Stones… the list goes on.
TOM: Your first album was The Headphone Masterpiece. And it was wildly successful when it was released in 2002. What was it like being dropped into the spotlight like that?
CC: It was really interesting and cool. It was everything I expected it to be. It was such a fantasy. Once you see it, you’re like okay, this is what it is. And I got to the point where I was ready for whatever was next. It was pretty cool to experience it and see that. But you can only take so much of that.
TOM: After its release you actually decided to take a hiatus from performing and recording. What were the reasons behind this?
Cody: A few reasons actually, I felt it was time to evolve and grow as a man and as an artist. The funny thing about it is that I guess it depends on the individual, but if you stay inside that machine too much, you may lose sight of things. So personally I felt I needed to be in a different place because my train of thought was shifting. I was growing deeply in my faith, and I wanted to get a better understanding of how it was affecting my everyday decisions.
And to top it all off, I became a father. So I wanted to get to live life and to gain a new perspective on life, because Headphone Masterpiece was so much of my early adulthood, all those experiences just thrown up against a canvas and I pretty much put everything out there. So I had to go out and get some more life experience.
TOM: What made you return to the recording studio ten years later?
CC: The fact that I felt I had something substantive to offer, something that was sincere. And I felt like it was the right time to offer something to a beautiful landscape. It was the timing for me.
TOM: You’ve recently released your second album, Landing On A Hundred. How’s it feel returning to the music scene?
CC: It feels great. I really enjoy the energy of the material that I’m sharing, and expressing every single night, which is something that I want. And I want to be able to go out and share this music sincerely. I want to be really sincere about it, and really give my soul to it, and invest everything within me intimately. I’m totally committed to what the music. So I’m enjoying it right now. The biggest drawback is being away from my son.
TOM: The total of your second album refers to “telling the whole truth,” which is a continuous running theme throughout the album. Why is it so important for you to express this musically?
CC: That’s what I grew up on. I grew up on music that was rooted in some type of truth. That’s why I really don’t spend time listening to a lot of records. I don’t feel it. I think a lot of it is very superficial.
What I love and need to do for me, I have to feel it. It has to be something and there’s nothing like a truthful story or a truthful experience, something that you can share emotionally. It’s extremely important for me too to have that element in my life.
TOM: What was it like recording in a ten-piece band?
CC: It was amazing. It was a whole new experience for me because I had a hell of a band before that – it was amazing to transition to a larger one like I recorded it. It was amazing because all these different ideas came that.
TOM: Yeah, as you said just before, the Headphone Masterpiece was recorded in your bedroom, and then you’re recording Landing On A Hundred in Royal Studio, which has been used by Al Green and Tina Turner. What does this mean for you?
CC: We want to make a contribution. And having been there, recording our music at Royal Studio, I feel like we made a contribution to a great body of work that has inspired so many people. I hope we can continue to inspire another generation the same way all of those others, those great artists before us did.
TOM: You’re quite often compared in sound and style to Prince. Do you feel any added pressure to deliver from this comparison?
CC: I’m just thankful that my music touches people.
Cody ChestnuTT plays:
MELBOURNE FESTIVAL | FOXTEL FESTIVAL HUB | WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 16 & THURSDAY OCTOBER 17
SYDNEY | THE METRO | SATURDAY | OCTOBER 19
BRISBANE | THE HI FI | SUNDAY OCTOBER 20
