PREMIERE | Jonny Kosmo, "Last Call"

In the studio and in the mix with Jonny Kosmo; photographed by Joseph McMurray.

Off the beaten path of the big stars and chart topping iconoclasts of no small ubiquity are the innovative and progressive outliers of intrigue in the creative cross-sections of scenes. These are the boffins, the freaks, the fanatics, the dreamers, the doers and makers of influential aesthetics that more often than not find their way into the main road boulevards of the Billboard darlings. Demonstrating the common threads of inspiration spanning eons, the mark of a skilled artist blends those older vintages to bottle new minted pop art for the masses to consume via the faculties of contemporary consciousness.

Partaking in this enlightened outsider tradition is Los Angelean Jonny Kosmo who presents the debut for the smooth, slick, suave and sophisticated “Last Call”. Featured off the artist’s second album Pastry (Feeding Tube / Dinosaur City) that follows up the 2019 self-titled debut, Jonny expertly organizes choice stems of brass, keys and silky saturations of late evening atmospheres. Dabbling on the creative side of contemporary pastiche constructions and deconstructions, Kosmo caters to the craft of orchestrating the makings of gleefully obscure offbeat arts that embody the esoteric aura of a deep vinyl crate found 12” pressing from a lost yesteryear decade.

Building upon the lost dusty groove foundation of freak beat fancies and other assorted anachronistic oddities, Jonny Kosmo subtly tailors the frequencies of yesterday’s wax and forgotten wonders into freshly stitched audio textiles for the new gentry of contemporary (as well as the classic) classes. “Last Call” croons and coos with a calm and confident playfulness, serenely spinning like a jukebox b-side playing out in an otherwise desolate and hopeless dive after the final commencement bell has been rung by a world weary barkeep. Jonny Kosmo curates a fully realized sound that smolders like the torch songs your grandparents fell in love to, delivering the late night / early morning glow of hazy happenings under the auspices of an empty moon as the merchants and vendors shutter their shops in preparation for the new chances of a new day.

Jonny offered up some insightful thoughts on the making of “Last Call”:

This tune was composed mostly of samples from other songs I had recorded which was a new process I was trying on with this record. I like the idea of themes and pieces folding in on themselves. In this process I have found there to be lots of happy accidents. Ideas I wouldn't have thought of appear with the slip of my finger. It is very fun that way! The trumpet parts and parlor piano were all chopped using a sampler and then blasted into the groove. I had been fooling with the idea of chances and their meaning ever since I saw Jim Carrey do his commencement address at the 2014 MUM GRADUATION. This YouTube video heavily influenced the lyrics of this song.

Jonny Kosmo’s album Pastry will be available June 4 via Feeding Tube / Dinosaur City (AUS).