Cotillon is a man full of big ideas and bigger plans

Jordan Corso, who records under the name Cotillon, is a man full of big ideas and bigger plans. Cotillon’s second album ‘The Afternoons’ sees him striking out and upping sticks from San Francisco to New York to make an album full of the wonder of the city and the joys of a new relationship. In these fractured times, it’s the sort of considered, heartfelt and beautifully intentioned album that we need.

Jordan’s early exposure to music gave it a central role in his life and developing his psyche. “I got into records when I was a teenager,” he begins. “I had an older brother who played guitar who I looked up to and would give me lessons. I got passionately into music and tried writing my own songs. I realised that it could be a cathartic and medicinal thing for me.”

Cotillon began as more of a traditional band back in 2013 but things quickly became more fluid as Jordan began to write and record on his own with the help of a fluid cast of guests and friends. “I like to keep it impersonal. I have commitment issues at times,” he says about his increasingly solo writing.

Signing to California’s iconic Burger Records label, Cotillion’s self-titled debut quickly turned heads in 2015. ‘The Afternoons’ though is a far more developed proposition. The sound veers from glorious power pop to the sort of canyon wide, expansive country-rock that marks Cotillon out as something special. It’s a direct contrast to the themes of his debut album. “The last record was a break-up record,” he reveals. “With this record, I was in a happier relationship. I spent a lot of time enjoying that, I spent time writing about other things that are difficult in life. Growing up and finding your place in the world, sustaining happiness. A lot of questioning of your existence. Interplayed with philosophy and literature. I felt like it just poured out of me.”

A source of inspiration for Jordan was the idiosyncratic bruised pop of Sparklehorse: “I was affected by the death of Mark Linkous from Sparklehorse. I listened to a lot of Sparklehorse records and was reality into the style of recording. The idea of recording pop music but finding a way to destroy it but still keeping that pop charm and sensibility.”

Despite the happy circumstances in which the album was written there is still a subtle tone of melancholy to the album as Jordan reflects on leaving home and setting up somewhere new. Moving on and finding new friends is something we can all relate to. For Jordan, that sense of isolation though is intrinsic to his creative process. “There’s a lot of being in at night and reflecting on your life,” he explains about his songwriting. “I was a really social person when I was younger. Slowly over time you drift apart and people get married, people die. I think about all the time I’ve invested in relationships that have ended up as minuscule events in my memory in the grand scheme. You kind of wonder about those things. For me and my process, I have to isolate myself from friends and distractions just to focus. It’s an intense thing.”

Despite the obvious benefits to basing yourself in the biggest and most famous musical city in the country, there are hardships to settling in New York.

“The lifestyle in New York is hard,” he confesses. “New York is so expensive. It’s an extremely difficult place to live and play music. A lot of people in bands from US are moving to cheap artist hubs in random cities that are reality affordable, like Bloomington Indiana or Columbus Ohio. Places where you can live in a bedroom for $300 and not have the pressure that New York would give you. I need to be in a place where the feeling is the highest though. I want to take music a bit further and do scoring or acting. It’s important to be in New York or LA if you want to be bigger than a band.”

Those are big ambitions but you wouldn’t bet against Jordan Corso achieving those dreams. Cotillon are shooting for the moon and preparing to take this compelling and richly diverse record worldwide. Both intensely personal and full of desire it’s Cotillon’s crowning achievement so far. For Jordan though it’s even simpler than that. “The record was written as a gift for somebody who gave me happiness over a long period of time,” he reveals. “it’s a record that came from love and happiness.”

'The Afternoons' is out April 21st via Super Fan 99 and is Burger Records.