IN CONCERT
Adam Cohen with Ash Koley When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
Where: St. Ann's Academy Auditorium
Tickets: $22 at Lyle's Place, Ditch Records, and ticketweb.ca
Gratitude is an easy sentiment to express, given that thank you is one of the most oft-used expressions.
Much harder is the ability to be genuinely grateful for what has come your way, to give thanks and actually mean it.
It took singer-songwriter Adam Cohen many years to arrive at such an understanding. The Montreal-raised performer is big on gratitude at the moment, having been through the record-label wringer at various points in his career.
"I'm so starkly and acutely aware of an opportunity before me that hadn't been before," Cohen says.
"People have come to my aid that I owe a debt of gratitude to."
Cohen, the son of legendary songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen, seems to have developed a better understanding of himself, especially with regard to his father's career. And it couldn't come at a more crucial time in his professional life.
Cohen, 40, became a cog in the major-label machine around the mid-'90s, when a copy of his demo recording made the rounds. He released his self-titled debut in 1998 on Columbia Records, longtime home to his father's work, but the recording had very little impact.
Having just moved to Los Angeles, where he still resides, Cohen was eager to make a reputation for himself, one unconnected to the folk music of his father. But he wound up making pop music that wasn't true to his roots.
"It's pretty simple," he says. "I was preoccupied with being successful, rather than being a good artist. I was a victim of an appetite for commercial success that didn't make the best of my writing. It was clouded and diluted by my interest in participating at the highest rungs of the business, rather than the art."
A pair of recordings in 2004, the French-language M脙漏lancolista and Ex-Girlfriends, his debut with the group Low Millions, didn't do much to reverse the tide.
Cohen says he would have given up entirely were it not for two life-changing events. His father's "triumphant and unexpected return to the stage at the height of his powers" in 2008 was a big one, according to Cohen. The other was the birth of his own son, now five.
Those hallmarks prompted Cohen to re-evaluate the way he looks at his job. At one time, the pursuit of art caused him grief. Now he's in a much better place.
"I was ready to give up. I was thoroughly disillusioned. I had been given chance after chance, and essentially blown them all. There is a beautiful quote that I live by, and that is: 'A career is dreams of your youth realized at a more mature age.' Where I was a few years ago is not what I had dreamed of. Where I am now, it's starting to resemble the dream."
Last year, he released a new solo recording, Like a Man, the first of his career made without the inherent need to stand apart from the music of his father. Cohen used to wonder if his musical talent was a byproduct of his charmed life, or simply the result of a rich gene pool. He no longer concerns himself with such things.
Having such a creative father is neither a burden nor a gift, Cohen says. It simply is what it is.
"I've only ever known my reality, and my reality is really quite privileged. I really can't and won't complain. I share a genetic code with someone who I think is not only admirable but maybe even historic. I have access to that person's support, love and encouragement, and because of that person, have always had food on my plate, have travelled, have met colourful, intriguing, charismatic people. I've probably gotten laid just because I'm his son. Bottom line, I'm terribly privileged."
He arrives in Victoria this weekend for a performance at St. Ann's Academy, part of a tour that takes him from sa国际传媒 to Quebec. He is booked to play 20 shows in 23 days, a breakneck pace that would give seasoned pros pause.
Cohen is lapping it up. He's happier than ever, and with a recording that he considers the genuine article, he's ready to re-start his career on his own terms.
