“Entertaining Artist” with vision
“If you want to survive as an artist in times of declining record sales, you have to learn to look for your career beyond the beaten path.” The artist, singer and guitarist Phil Cornell is following up on this self-knowledge in the run-up to the release of his new studio album.
In order to shorten the waiting time for fans for the CD “Feeling A Moment”, which was created with Chris Lausmann, the producer of Voices Of Rock/Bonfire/Robin Beck, the “entertaining artist” who is known for his melodic rock-pop sound with an American touch is taking a multi-pronged approach: Among other things, a dedicated YouTube channel is currently being created, which will regularly provide Munich internet users with new content from autumn onwards.
The audience can not only take a look behind the scenes of an album production and stream current music videos, but also vote for themselves in the self-developed “Rock’n’Roll Democracy” format as to which of Cornell’s team’s current songs will be next (live and unplugged). Online presence is recorded. Furthermore, the ambitious culinary artist and wine connoisseur will soon be regularly offering his online community culinary and musical appetizers from his “Rock’n’Roll Kitchen”.
As a foretaste of the upcoming release, Cornell combines work with hobby in the clip series and combines Mediterranean or creatively refined local cuisine (including recipes) with acoustic live performances of new songs. TV presence complements the visionary media mix: The first single “Feeling A Moment” (available since March) is already in rotation on the music channel iM1, is shown on Sat 1 Breakfast TV, on McDonald’s Instore TV and serves as the accompaniment to the VOX format “Shopping Queen”. Fittingly, the thoroughbred musician is currently also working as a fashion designer: his artist logo adorns, among other things, a high-quality T-shirt collection that the singer/guitarist has produced in Portugal under the brand name “Phil Cornell Black And White Label”.
Despite this variety of supporting activities, music has always been in the foreground. This passion was literally born into the Munich native, who was born in 1977. He grew up under the influence of opera-loving parents, received classical guitar lessons at an early age and, as a fan of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, played in school bands in his youth. His singing talent only became apparent during his studies as a sound engineer.
Cornell leaves university with a degree and the certain knowledge that his place is not behind the mixing desk, but in front of the microphone. The result: singing lessons in the areas of pop, rock and classical. He receives the latter from, among others, the world-famous US soprano Felicia Weathers (“AIDA”, “Don Carlos”, etc.), who quickly teaches him how to use his voice correctly.
In 2009 the debut album “A Part Of Me” was released by Tokapi Recordings. Apart from a cover version, it only contains our own material. The songs are created at Cornell like flashes of ideas. He manages to sketch out the melody, vocal line, chord progressions and text modules in a very short space of time from a profound emotional moment. His preference for the poetry of the English language and popular music with rock elements develops a broadly effective sound that is noticeably influenced by early role models such as Bon Jovi.
Verses about love or interpersonal relationships packaged in ballad form sit alongside critical discussions of personal experiences in show business. At the same time, the songwriter is gradually working on a professional environment in order to be prepared for the shark tank of the music industry.
This resulted in a publishing deal with BMG Music Publishing in 2010 and most recently a management contract with Artists Only (Anja Lukaseder, since 2013). As a music manager and former jury member for “Deutschland sucht den Superstar”, she has years of experience in promoting artists. Producer Chris Lausmann (Bonfire, Jaded Heart) also joins the new team. It is he who gives the rocking touch to the guitar-driven pop sound of the second album “Feeling A Moment”. However, the second album, which again consisted largely of his own compositions, was only partially recorded in his recording studio (MS Productions).
The title track – the cover of a hit by the British rock band Feeder – was created in Franz Plasa’s home studios in Hamburg, the rest in the Munich area. Three songs were recorded by Harald Reitinger and Uli Fischer (Dionne Warwick, Eminem, Haddaway) in the premises of Beat Power Music, unplugged versions by Markus Escher in the Klangart Studio, a piece at Ammersee and also in the renowned Orange Sound Studio Recordings were on the agenda.
Despite private preferences for progressive rock bands like Muse or 30 Seconds To Mars, neither ballads nor up- and mid-tempo numbers were neglected in the production. Even classical elements are not missing from the CD’s versatile mix of styles.
Under the leadership of conductor Philipp Fabian Kölmel, known, among other things, for the film music for “Rubinrot” and “French for Beginners”, violinists, cellists and viola players from the Bavarian State Orchestra gave the title “Come Closer” a special touch with a special arrangement. The latter is often ensured by the visual implementation. Based on Cornell’s ideas, scripts are created for many of the songs and then, step by step, elaborate video clips. This also applies to the second release “Take Me” (release: October 11th), which is released a few weeks before the album release.
For Cornell, there is no question that sustainable success cannot be achieved overnight: “In a society in which music has become a disposable commodity, persistently going your own way takes time. Only those who believe in their personal strength and continually work on themselves have a chance of achieving their goals!”
