We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leonardo Cococcia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leonardo below.
Hi Leonardo, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
From the music itself, and from great mentors.
I developed my musicality with jazz, specifically by learning some of my favorite solos by ear. That kind of practice forces you to pay attention to every detail of the recorded performance you’re trying to reproduce on your instrument, and that takes a lot of hours and dedication, so it forces you to not be approximative to properly learn jazz language in the most accurate way.
All my live performances and my work in the studio really benefit from this approach, as it made me capable of learning many songs by ear in little time for a last minute show, and it deepened my listening skills which are essential to deliver a good mix, master or production.
I also had the honor of having great mentors such as Fabio Zeppetella, my jazz guitar teacher at Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome, as well as some top producers and audio engineers here in the US.
After receiving professional mentorship from producer Rob Mathes (Sting, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen), I am currently working at The Mastering Palace in NYC, observing the workflow of Kevin Peterson and Tatsuya Sato, mastering engineers from Dave Kutch’s team who worked with Michael Jackson, A$AP Rocky, XXXTentacion, Tate McRae and so many others…
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I was born in Rome, Italy, and I spent most of my life in Civita di Oricola, a small countryside town in the region of Abruzzo.
Even though I don’t come from a family of musicians, I became passionate about guitar around 8 after being introduced to AC/DC and Pearl Jam by a relative. My parents supported me in taking my first guitar lessons.
Fast forward to 2017, I was admitted at Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome where I pursued a BA and an MA in Jazz Guitar, while I was also becoming fluent in music production and audio engineering.
After a series of many shows, teaching jobs and productions, I came to the United States to pursue a MA in Songwriting and Production at BerkleeNYC on a Fulbright Scholarship.
My journey in New York has been incredibly enriching, as I set my goal to be as open as possible for opportunities and any challenges. This approach was fun and is paying off: in a relatively short period of time I became involved in many high-profile projects such as performing at the Italian Embassy and at famous NYC Venues such as Brooklyn Made, or just recently, recording and mixing a beautiful live session with a Czech celebrity actor at Power Station, where I work for BerkleeNYC.
The diversity and absolute unpredictability of these opportunities in the City is what makes my experience so fun to pursue.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Developing the previous answer, I think that openness to opportunities is the most important factor in my growth. It sounds easy, but it takes effort to try to be always available to be part of a project, or play a show with someone new, or show up at an event you’re not sure about.
This directly links to the second factor, which is dealing with stage fright. Accepting challenges of growing complexity really helped me overcome it to the point of not having it anymore, besides the usual healthy amounts which are helpful to keep the focus.
The third quality I embraced is being able to link different fields of knowledge. I value this practice in music because of many practical reasons: knowing audio engineering and arranging will help you make better decisions as a guitarist, either on stage or in the studio. You’ll be able to choose a chord or a range to play in also because your ear is trained to know frequency bands, and you’ll understand why the same concept is presented in music theory terms in orchestration books.
What I’d love to tell your readers is that those three qualities are developed by showing up. Going to that party even if you’d rather not commute for an hour, taking that gig even if the music is super unfamiliar to you, not skipping that masterclass or that event… it all comes together in the most unexpected ways.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
The way I answered this question for myself when it was presented to me by life circumstances, was based on the factor of collaboration.
“What do people call me for?” Is what I asked myself. It’s really about combining your aspirations with your impact on your community and the broader audience.
In my case, artists and bands want me to play guitar for them and produce their records because of my studio experience, my jazz background’s influence in the context of other genres, and a guitar tuning system I invented.
That way I combine my personal journey, background and innovations with the drive to bring the industry forward by being an asset and a reliable first call.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leonardo.cococcia/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/
Image Credits
Isaac Carbajal Moreno
Proudmany (Film) Dhevaaksorn
Jessica Chu
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
