Mixing blues and Bach with jazz and rock... singer-songwriter and pianist Peter Cincotti is something special. The 40-year-old caught the ear of music execs as a pre-teen and started playing real gigs by age 13. At 20, he opened for Ray Charles and gained worldwide success performing at the most prestigious venues around the globe. On the heels of the 20th anniversary of his first record, produced by the legendary Phil Ramone, Cincotti just released his 6th album, Killer on the Keys , with 12 brilliant tracks that pay homage to his icons. Not only do they span generations and genres, but uniquely combine them to create a sound all his own -- a la Ben Folds' 'Brick' and Lady Gaga's 'Poker Face' to Joplin and Brimhall's 'The Entertainer.' There are also original autobiographical tracks that tell the story of his life. From being born and raised in New York City to being on the road, to the death of his dear father happening on the night of his first professional gig at just 13 years old. It's beautiful, poignant, and a tear-jerker. Don't fret. The rest of the album picks you right back up, and you're boogying in your seat in no time. Find Killer on the Keys on all digital platforms, and to find out where Peter is playing near you, visit PeterCincotti.com .
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Hey everybody, it's Peter Sincotti and you're watching Life Minute TV.
00:12 Renowned singer, songwriter and pianist Peter Sincotti is certainly something special.
00:17 The child prodigy started playing piano at age three and had his first professional gig
00:23 at 13.
00:29 By 20, he was playing the most prestigious venues around the globe.
00:33 On the heels of the 20th anniversary of his first record, he's just released his sixth
00:38 album, Killer on the Keys, 12 brilliant tracks that pay homage to his icons that not only
00:43 span generations and genres, but combine them in a unique way that's all his own.
00:49 And there are some beautiful originals too that tell a story of growing up in New York,
00:54 his life on the road and losing his father at 13 at his first professional show in New
00:59 York City.
01:06 This is a Life Minute with Peter Sincotti.
01:09 Thanks so much for joining us on Life Minute.
01:10 Thank you for having me, good to be here.
01:12 Aw, so glad to have you.
01:14 This is my sixth full length album and I think it basically ties together the diversity of
01:20 my past albums.
01:21 For anybody who's followed me through the years, I've made like five very different
01:25 sounding records and they're all known for different things, especially my first record.
01:29 And then I started traveling the world and started writing my own music on my third record,
01:34 which was kind of a musical shift.
01:36 That's when I met guys like David Foster and the sound changed, the audience changed, and
01:41 then now this record to me connects it all in a way that's based on the piano and my
01:48 piano playing idols ranging from Jerry Lee Lewis to Billy Joel to John Lennon to people
01:55 like Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Oscar Peterson, like people you would not think of in the
02:00 same sentence.
02:01 This record in some ways is born out of what I craved when I saw my idols playing.
02:08 So if I were to go to like a Billy Joel concert, I would love, I love Billy Joel or Elton John.
02:13 But sometimes on certain songs, when it came to like the musical section, I wanted to hear
02:18 like a different kind of piano solo.
02:21 When I would go see the jazz guys, I wanted to hear some storytelling from like a Billy
02:25 Joel or a Paul Simon or a James Taylor.
02:27 And I thought, you know what, there's got to be a way to have both.
02:30 So that's why like I do a Coldplay song with kind of a Bill Evans influenced introduction.
02:37 Or Bruce Hornsby, I combined Bruce Hornsby's style, the way he played with John Lennon's
02:51 Imagine.
03:01 Have you met any of those people, your idols?
03:03 I met a few.
03:04 I met Billy Joel.
03:05 I do one of his songs.
03:06 I met Ray Charles.
03:07 I met Elton John.
03:08 I actually opened for Ray Charles right before he passed away.
03:12 We shared this.
03:13 I couldn't believe it.
03:14 It was in Montreal and he was really nice.
03:17 I remember meeting him backstage.
03:18 I couldn't believe my name was on the same bill, but I've been fortunate enough to meet
03:23 a few of my idols.
03:27 What is the creative process like for you?
03:29 A lot of these tracks were born during the pandemic.
03:31 So that's a very obviously particular kind of time.
03:34 We're locked in the apartment.
03:35 I'm in New York City the whole time looking out at the city that never sleeps and watching
03:39 it sleeping.
03:40 But there was something about being in New York during this time and that did affect
03:44 the creative process.
03:45 I woke up one day and there was a song there, probably the most personal song I wrote.
03:51 It must have been in a dream or something where I got up and went to the piano and I
03:56 had the title of the track called "Ghost of My Father," which is about my father and his
04:01 passing, which I never really spoke about, let alone performed.
04:18 There was something very cathartic about that process, particularly with a song like that.
04:23 And the melody was there.
04:25 And that period of time, being in a quarantine forced you to press pause on a lot of things.
04:30 And then what opens up when you can't do anything else kind of is affected.
04:35 And the creative process is affected for sure.
04:38 That has its fingerprint on these tracks as well.
04:41 Did you always know you wanted to play piano?
04:43 I mean, you were young when you started.
04:45 I was very young.
04:46 I was three years old.
04:47 My grandmother bought me this toy piano for my third birthday.
04:51 And she taught me.
04:52 It was like one of those 10 key wooden things in the 80s.
04:54 And she taught me to play "Happy Birthday" on it.
04:56 And apparently I played it like right back after her, something like that.
05:00 I don't remember it, but I just remember being drawn to it.
05:03 And then we got a real piano in the house.
05:04 And I started taking lessons.
05:06 And I was immediately drawn to it.
05:08 But I never had a moment where I was like, this is what I'm going to do.
05:10 To me, it was just assumed.
05:12 By the time I came of age in my teens to figure out what's your going to be in the profession,
05:16 I didn't even think about it.
05:17 I was already playing gigs.
05:19 I grew up in New York.
05:20 That was a big part of my education and the opportunity to sit in at clubs.
05:25 I had teachers that would play in clubs.
05:27 And I'd be 10, 11, 12.
05:28 And they'd say, come up, come up.
05:30 And then I had my first real professional gig of my own when I was 13.
05:34 How did that happen?
05:35 Did your parents get you into it?
05:37 I was lucky to have parents that exposed me to all kinds of music, rock concerts at Madison
05:44 Square Garden, Broadway shows, jazz clubs, blues.
05:48 So they were very encouraging.
05:49 And that shaped me as a person, let alone in my music.
05:53 When my first record came out, I was at Columbia University.
05:57 And it was my second.
05:58 And I got signed.
06:00 And I was kind of playing a lot then in the city.
06:03 And then I had to make a decision.
06:05 And I left Columbia and just started touring around the world.
06:09 So it's been, depending on the record cycle, it's been on and off, on and off.
06:12 But it's a really fascinating life.
06:15 And you don't know where you got it from?
06:17 I don't know if it was on my mother's side.
06:18 I guess my mother's side was more artistic in general.
06:21 But then again, on my father's side, too, there's a couple there.
06:24 So no one did it as a profession.
06:25 But it's somewhere in the blood, I guess.
06:28 And then the famous Carlisle, you're going to be playing there, right?
06:31 Yeah, Cafe Carlisle, we started about a year ago, a little over a year ago.
06:35 We've done so many shows there.
06:37 So we keep coming back.
06:38 It's kind of like my New York base.
06:40 And there's no place like it.
06:42 We have five nights coming up, October 3 to the 7.
06:46 For those who haven't been, it's really a one of a kind venue.
06:49 Plus, the martinis are strong.
06:50 So everybody's loose.
06:52 What's your favorite thing about New York?
06:54 Yeah, there's no place like it.
06:55 What could you say?
06:56 There's a quote a friend of mine says a lot.
06:58 I think it was a John Updike quote saying, if you don't live in New York,
07:01 you're just kidding.
07:02 I was blind to a lot of it because I grew up in it.
07:06 And then I thought the whole world was kind of like that.
07:08 And then when you start seeing the world,
07:10 you realize how unique it is, how diverse it is.
07:13 And musically, I have a lot to be grateful for that I attribute to this
07:17 city.
07:18 And you have quite a following, too.
07:20 It's fascinating, especially nowadays on social media,
07:23 connecting with people and seeing where they are.
07:26 I did this thing for a while called That Friday Feeling with Peter,
07:30 another thing that kind of got me through the pandemic.
07:33 And it was a live stream.
07:35 And I would connect.
07:36 And I'd just go like every Friday at 6 PM, I'd make a drink.
07:39 And I would just talk to my followers.
07:42 Cheers.
07:43 Cheers.
07:44 What a drink.
07:46 Ridiculous.
07:47 And that was really the first time I saw where everybody was.
07:50 Because up until that moment, I never really stopped and engaged like that.
07:54 And since then, I've had a better relationship with my fans and followers
07:57 all around the world.
07:59 And now even at live shows, it's like, who watched that?
08:02 Who tuned in?
08:03 And one guy's like, oh, I was the guy in the hot tub with the drink
08:06 from London.
08:07 Or this was like, wow, look at where they are.
08:09 Or like in France.
08:10 And you see where they are, which is really
08:12 the good thing about social media.
08:15 What do you do when you're not working?
08:16 I like to cook a lot.
08:18 And that's one of my favorite things, just have some wine or make a martini.
08:23 And there's something very therapeutic, not only about the martini,
08:27 but about the process of cooking that I like a lot.
08:30 And I think it's funny.
08:31 I wrote this thing I want to try to develop at one point,
08:34 the correlation between building a dish and building a song.
08:37 And there's so many overlaps.
08:38 And let's talk about Italian food.
08:40 The bass and drums are like the core, right?
08:43 If you screw that up, the bass and drums, the core and the rhythm
08:46 isn't there.
08:47 That's very much like garlic and olive oil.
08:50 If you burn that garlic, no matter what you do,
08:53 it's going to come through the whole dish.
08:55 So those are the core.
08:56 But there's a lot of layers to it.
08:58 And at the end, sprinkle a little salt or olive oil
09:00 is like the mixing and the mastering, just the sheen.
09:03 So there's a whole world of overlaps that I could talk about forever.
09:06 What does music do for people?
09:08 Well, I think it does different things to different people.
09:12 Some people just listen to it in the background.
09:14 I'm not really one of those.
09:16 It's very hard for me to concentrate.
09:17 If something's playing, if it's good, I can't--
09:19 like, it's hard for me to talk because I'm listening.
09:23 But it's therapeutic.
09:24 I mean, it can be so many things to different people.
09:26 It's a mood changer.
09:27 It changes your perspective.
09:29 And since this is Life Minute, what's your biggest life tip?
09:32 What's that quote about?
09:34 "Play the hand you're dealt as if it were your own."
09:37 Because everybody has different challenges.
09:40 Everybody gets different cards.
09:42 But those are your cards.
09:43 And you've got to play it like it's your own
09:45 and be you, become yourself.
09:47 To hear more of this interview, visit our podcast,
09:50 Life Minute TV on iTunes and all streaming podcast platforms.
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