Coby Brown’s musical education started early growing up in Boston, Mass. “My older brother had great taste in rock and roll. When I was around eight years old I heard his copy of the Police’s Outlandous D’ amour and it took hold of me like a fever. That Christmas my dad bought me my first electric guitar and I started trying to play along with those records.”
The Police, Stevie Wonder, Thom Yorke, Dave Mathews. These are some of the comparisons being drawn from Coby Brown’s first solo EP, Truth Shines, recorded with Gregg Wattenberg (Five for Fighting, Eve 6, Chantal Kreviazuk). “I’ve been waiting to make this record for awhile” says Brown. “Even though the band was doing well I felt like my music was at a plateau. I knew if I wanted to keep growing, and reach a wider audience, I’d have to take that step into the unknown.”
Having spent three years playing to packed houses in New York City clubs, Coby and his band, The Coby Brown Group, put out their debut album Homesick. The album received rave reviews in the New York press but Coby was already imagining where he might take new songs outside the democratic confines of the band. ‘Almost at once’ he met Gregg, left the band, and moved out to Los Angeles.
“I was sitting around, distraught at the prospect of telling my band I was leaving, and it reminded me of the feeling I had when I left Berklee (College of Music). I was surrounded by kids who were becoming virtuosos on the guitar but it seemed limited. At that point I was just starting to really write and sing my own songs. I was listening to Jeff Buckley’s Grace incessantly and I could see that record, see how it could be made, and that gave me the courage to really begin doing it. I left school just after that.”
Between Los Angeles and New York, Coby started working with Gregg in the studio creating a new sound. Their goal was to craft a bigger, bolder record that was also more ‘stripped down’ in terms of letting Coby’s strengths as a songwriter drive the process.
“I’m happy with how it’s all turning out. I’ve been playing down at the Hotel Café and meeting a lot of talented LA musicians. Leaving everything I knew, my whole fan base, was a bit daunting, but I knew this was ‘opportunity knocking’ so to speak, so… here I am.”
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