Cobi is an American musician from

Grand Marais, Minnesota Grand Marais ( ) is a city and the county seat of Cook County, Minnesota, Cook County, Minnesota, United States, of which it is the only municipality. It is on Lake Superior's North Shore. Grand Marais had a population of 1,337 at the 2020 Unit ...

. A former original member of the

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

-based band

Gentlemen Hall Gentlemen Hall was an American indie pop band from Boston, Massachusetts. The band consisted of Gavin Merlot (lead vocals, guitar), Rory Given (bass guitar), Bradford Alderman (synthesizers), Phil Boucher (drums), and Seth Hachen (flute, piccolo ...

, Cobi released his solo single "Don't You Cry For Me" on May 3, 2016, under

300 Entertainment Theory Entertainment LLC, doing business as 300 Entertainment, is an American record label founded by Lyor Cohen, Kevin Liles, Todd Moscowitz, and Roger Gold. The label's roster includes acts across multiple genres such as hip hop, rock, pop, ele ...

Early life and career

Cobi became interested in music at about age eight. When a family friend visited their home with an electric guitar, then he began to teach Cobi and his brother a few chords. Once he was able to play them, his interest in music grew. That summer, he bought his first guitar, a Squier Stratocaster, by saving up money made from mowing lawns for $3 an hour. From then on, he taught himself to play guitar by ear, listening to songs over and over until he mastered them. Shortly after, Cobi and a long time friend formed a

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

band, playing covers of songs at local bars in

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. Cobi is an alumnus of

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

in Boston. In 2008, Cobi and five others formed the band Gentlemen Hall.Gomez, Adrian (May 19, 2017).
Getting Introspective: Up-and-coming Artist Cobi Lays It All on the Table With His Upcoming Music
. ''Albuquerque Journal''. (Albuquerque, New Mexico). The success of the band, which was signed to

Island Def Jam Records Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJMG) was an American record label group formed on December 31, 1998, by Universal Music Group. Before 2014, IDJMG encompassed labels originally established under the umbrella of Island Records and Def Jam Recording ...

, came rather quickly. In 2009, Gentlemen Hall won a

MTV Video Music Award The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

for Best Breakout Boston Artist, and the band performed at the 2011

Billboard Music Awards The ''Billboard'' Music Awards are honors given out annually by '' Billboard'', a publication covering the music business and a music popularity chart. The ''Billboard'' Music Awards show has been held annually since 1990, with the exception of ...

. In 2012, Cobi sang

The Star-Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written by American lawyer Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814, after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort ...

at a

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

game.

2015–present

On December 18, 2015, Cobi signed with

. In April 2016, he joined English

progressive trance Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged from Electronic body music, EBM in Frankfurt, Germany, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and quickly spread throughout Europe. Trance music is typically characterized by a tempo between ...

group Above & Beyond's international tour, providing vocals for many of the songs. The tour included dates running through June 2016 at iconic venues such as

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

, The Hollywood Bowl, and the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

. On May 3, 2016, Cobi released "Don't You Cry For Me", which premiered through

Interview Magazine ''Interview'' is an American magazine founded by pop artist Andy Warhol and journalist John Wilcock in 1969. The magazine, nicknamed "The Crystal Ball of Pop," features interviews of and by celebrities. Background In 1965, pop artist Andy War ...

. The track was later released through digital retailers and streaming services

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

, and

Amazon Music Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and digital music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers. It was the first music store to sell music without digital rights manag ...

on May 6, 2016. In July 2016, the track was trending on Billboard's and Spotify's Viral 50 list. A music video for the song was released in September 2016 and premiered through the

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...

. As of October 2016, the song had over 12million streams on Spotify since its debut in May. On September 29, 2016, Billboard premiered his second single "Prophet Story". Billboard also premiered the music video for "Prophet Story" on January 17, 2017. On January 23, 2017, Cobi performed "Don't You Cry For Me" on

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by actor and comedian Jimmy Fallon that airs on NBC. The show premiered on February 17, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. It i ...

with members of

The Roots The Roots are an American Hip-hop, hip hop band formed in 1987 by singer Black Thought, Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and drummer Questlove, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''T ...

, with the New Power Generation's Morris Hayes on keyboards. He released the EP ''Songs From the Ashes, Pt. 1'' on September 15, 2017. In November 2019, he released the single "Island In My Mind". In January 2020, he released the single "No Way Out". In March, he released the song "Keep Climbing". In May, he released the song "Don't Stop".

Artistry and influences

Cobi's

-like sound has been compared to that of

Hozier Andrew John Hozier-Byrne (born 17 March 1990), known professionally as Hozier ( ), is an Irish musician. His music primarily draws from Folk music, folk, Soul music, soul and blues, often using religious and literary themes and taking politica ...

. His single "Don't You Cry For Me" features a

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

choir providing background vocals, giving the song a soulful sound. Cobi grew up listening to, and found musical inspiration in,

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...

and

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician and producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the Rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin. Page began his career as a studio session musician in Lo ...

Discography

Extended plays

References

External links

Official Site
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cobi Living people Singers from Minnesota 1986 births 300 Entertainment artists