Photo Credit: Niklas Nyman
The wonderful thing about inspiration is that it can come from anywhere. A chirping bird, an experience in our lives, or the songs we grew up with can provide the spark to create something new. Sandro Cavazza is an artist with an eclectic sound and taste, creating tracks that combine elements of acoustic instruments, pop music, and EDM. With such an expansive purview, Cavazza draws from a wide range of sources and artists to search for things that influence his sound. Today, he joins us for his very own Take 5 to talk in his own words about five tracks that have inspired him.
Coldplay – Violet Hill
“I obsess over songs and this has been one of them. It isn’t perfect in my opinion, not a fan of the guitar solo and some of the song structure, but that chorus is one of the best I have ever heard. This is one of the two songs I had on repeat when I biked across Sweden from Stockholm to Gothenburg. I’m a big fan of Brit pop/Rock in so many ways. The way Chris Martin sings is amazing, his dragging voice, and lyrics (that to any other writer would be corny or plain, but he really makes everyone feel it’s real). Who else could have made ‘Yellow’ a hit? ‘Look at the stars, look how they shine for you.’ No one else but Chris Martin can pull that off, I mean it.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Minor Thing
“Such a hit song in my opinion, though it never became one from what I know. I was such a big fan of them, Kiedis’ lyrics and singing and the funk/pop they wrote was all I loved when I was 6 years old. The guitars are just amazing, the underlying melody of it, love the pace of the song it just has such a motion to it.”
Kurt Elling – Resolution
“The best jazz singer in my opinion. What Sinatra would want to sing like; all keys, all styles of Jazz and Bel Canto timbre. The lyrics for this song are so profound and it’s such a great take on a Duke Ellington Solo. He interprets it and makes it 10 times better in my opinion. He gives such life to the song and the part in the middle of the song when he is singing with only percussion, changing between keys, shows he’s a vocal master.”
Bon Iver – Blindsided
“This song has such a fragile touch to it, it soothes me. I just love the feeling of the song and what it meant to me at the time I discovered it.”
Keane – Everybody’s Changing
“As I stated above, I obsess over songs. If I hear something I love, I can’t let it go. I heard a guy at my music school perform this song when I was 15 (this was before the age of Shazam) and I couldn’t get it out of my head. I didn’t know the guy and so I asked him what song it was and he told me it was a Mew song. I desperately listened to all their discography just to try and find this special one (nothing of their other music interested me at all) and of course I couldn’t find it. It wasn’t until I was 21 and living in LA that I heard my friend play it in his car and I completely freaked out and asked him about the song – true story. Love the chorus so much it hurts, and the piano riff is incredible.”
You can keep up with Sandro Cavazza on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Stream the remixes from his recent single “Used To” with Lou Elliotte below.
