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Music saved me. There are times a song will come to me so fast I can't write and that that's where we know we call it the song guides and you write and like when somebody says talk to you like
"no no no no no" because if I forget that note I'll never get it back.
“It's like if it's given to you, you have to stop and serve it or you forget it.”
I'm Lynn Hoffman and welcome to the music saved me podcast. The podcast that delves deep into the power of music. Now if you love this podcast, please spread the word thank you so much and share this episode with others if you don't mind. We also work with the very proud supporters of an organization called Musicians on call and all the wonderful great work they do that showcases the power of music.
Our guest today is Danilia Cotton and award winning musician singer songwriter known for her trademark gritty rich and soulful blues and rock in americana and she also has some new music out that we're going to talk about but she's also an artist who deeply knows firsthand about the power of music. Danilia welcome to music saved me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
It's so great to have you. I want to start off with a quote from guitar world about you because I just think that it really gets to the heart of why we're together today. Danilia Cotton this is let's start with a quote. Danilia Cotton has not had it easy but lucky for us she channels her pain and suffering into kick-ass musical creations that we can all enjoy. I can't agree more with that quote and my first question we have so much to
talk about in so little time but my first question is how did your journey as a cancer survivor
“shape you as an artist and as a person? I think the fact that I had it laid in life”
and that I first didn't understand the severity of it. Like the doctor even said this is the good cancer I was like what cancer is good but he's like I can remove your thyroid and then it's gone and the chances of most people who have thyroid cancer is that it never comes back. So I still have two appointments a year where they check my blood and we monitor that kind of thing but it's been good for me that operation gave me another octave which was not that was
it was very unexpected but I've always worked with a throat coach the first time I went on tour
I believe it was an Italy tour and it was like six days in this Mercedes band driving around which seems like oh that's so awesome it was deep and I just sang sang sang sang and then
Drank right wine and said he talked and came back with like a scab, scabs on ...
which weren't nodes but I was like whoa it had never happened so when I went to a
“uterologist here in New York Rosemary Delo's who I love who's done like Adele and what”
have you she recommended a vocal coach who I have seen ever since and been with for over two decades and I you know my advice to everybody there is that just like an athlete and you have coaches and you have spring training your your voice is a muscle and so having somebody teach you how to use it in the correct manner like we can all have natural ability but I was an actress but I went to school and you take that natural ability and you apply it to whatever method Stanislosky you'd have you know
like it's we can all have natural ability of anything sports vocal whatever but you you need that person to help you sort of develop it and help it and shape it you know so um that changed the way that I sang just her and when I got done with the procedure I went back to her and then we discovered that I had some more range in there that might have been blocked by whatever the
“cancer was which was a bonus um and I think more and more even after that I really adhered to”
the correct way of singing because I believe it's just my Buddha kind of way we're here to serve others and so a lot of times when you sing it isn't about you getting off a lot of times you sing technically to get them off and it's me taking my story and giving it to them and then finding their way in it and figuring out whatever it is that they want to do and sometimes that
has to be very technical um I tend to like to be able to go back into it but doesn't always
happen that way and it's when it's for the audience you technically sing so that they get it and they go where they go and you don't always get that sign you get the you get the thrill and no
“and that you moved them yeah so wow that experiencing that hard enough I mean let alone the fact”
that nobody ever talks about cancer you know it's like this mental health and cancer you don't discuss it but how do we learn and how can we you know get past and and speaking of that having faced a similar situation racism I mean cancer is hard enough but at a young age it can be very painful and terribly confusing especially when you're growing up and it can also kind of bring you to a crossroads in your life you know do I go one way or the other you know
am I going to be stronger or weaker how how did that experience um lead you to music to help
process what you were dealing with well I mean cancer came later but when I first started to run
marathons which I did to raise money for cancer awareness because um my husband's father's brother was one of the four guys that did woodstock and we called him jock but his name was John Roberts and I ran the first marathon because he died of leukemia and then I kept running for cancer and now my other half is living with mantle cell lymphoma which is incurable so it is in our house like this year I will tackle at 55 I tackle two marathons now I'm about to do three in Chicago
I'll be fit I mean I know they don't like it as they but I'll be 57 but they are I'm doing Chicago Savannah and then Texas and I run because it helps me not think about everything because we had such a journey to get to this place with this little girl that we had at 50 and I just felt like the world everything was great and then bam really um karma did what did I do and here's cancer re-entering my life again and the love of my life but um like running and raising money and awareness
has saved me it's I found Neil young running um I found a lot of artists running just listening because I put my little doctor beats in and I run and I work through whatever it is from that day I just get through it all um because I don't really I live incredibly healthy even you know since the cancer I don't drink I don't smoke so it's very I just the running really helps and I don't know I find somewhere on that rhythm in the music and everything when I go walk back into my house
and greet my six year old or my other half who's usually in a good mood but he is a
Legal aid defender for any deals only in the murders so that can be heavy in ...
this thing so if I don't come in in a good place I contend to set the tone for the entire house
“so it is kind of good that I'm pretty balanced at this point because I think he's got so much”
on his shoulders and she's just a little girl and so she's just going to be whatever she's going
to be and so I'm sort of like I have to come in and always balance it out which probably
was not my strength early in my life but now I've learned how to do it and music you know that's another place I can go to just siphon whatever it is or recycle whatever pain I'm having into something that somebody inevitably comes up to me and says something even the last performance a painter I was going to quit and I realized I have some of her art in my walls that she was inspired by me I'm inspired by her and somehow I touched her she touched me and that's kind of what
you live for those moments so yeah so it's I mean there's just so much but everything is shape me you know cancer remains a huge part of my life because until they find a cure for what he has it is what it is but I don't think about it every day and you know I just wake up because the fact is all of us can walk out the door and I've 103 year old grandmother who is alive in all five generations of my family or alive and so she'll tell you some stories it's funny you mentioned
your grandmother there was there was a conversation that you had with her and it led to I believe your newest project could day yeah I mean it led to the newest project which is a tribute to Charlie
Pride which is another genre I never thought I'd go into but my grandfather where I was raised
like my first album was called Small Way Town which is a small town yeah and it was primarily
“documentary but not my color and but that's how I found music I mean people like how did a girl”
that looks like you they expect me to sing R&B or something and I walked out with a rock and I said I wanted to have blonde hair and blue eyes and I didn't and I heard rock and it sounded how it sounded exactly how I felt boom it was love it first I you know or first listen first bar and I was like oh that's how I feel and there I was so it was you know it wasn't that I wasn't you know exposed to Stevie Wonder songs and the key of life but not a lot of the music that most kids
who were raised in a more black neighborhood I was you know exposed to Jonathan Winters and Bonnie Great and you know early chocolate con and my brother was listening to top run grant and you know foreigner and Zeppelin I mean it was just there was and then my aunts were back up singers and she had like a
“damn foldable album everything around me was intense and then college I started with a jazz”
trumpet player who made me like he's like holy grail as the Johnny Hartman John Coltrane album so I was luckily around a lot and I didn't feel that I had to define myself by one particular thing so it doesn't it's not odd to me that I would do this next project you know a song is a song you know it's gonna be what it's gonna be and all music is sort of in some way inevitably influenced by another genre so I I don't know it's kind of a long answer to that
good covered a lot of stuff there and what was my next question would be do you believe that there is a healing power in music and if you do can you help me pinpoint it because is it it's words it's melody it's vibration I mean there there are so many things that happen because of it have you been able to figure out what it exactly is like no it's it's just like being in a black church in the choir starts and there's one person standing up and everybody gets like oh and they
feel the spirit you can't you can't really pinpoint it but I mean even biblically music singing that gift is one of the highest that you can be blessed with and so for me oh yeah it's where you can go it is a place to go and live when reality is either overwhelming or to intense it's a place to hide it's a place to revel in it's a place to dance and it's a place to sort of be whatever it is you want to be and it can take you to a high place it can take you to a low place
but I I mean music is literally it it's a it transports on many levels and in many ways it can
make people I mean in religions it's always inspirational in churches and synagogues and what have you
It is a serious tool it is a high it is a it's a deep thing so I think I feel...
be blessed with you know whatever it is and there are times a song will come to me so fast I can't write and that that's when we know we we call it the song dance and you write and like when somebody
says talk to you like no no no no because if I forget that note I'll never get it back it's like
“if it's given to you you have to stop and serve it or you forget it it's like the phone the”
best thing about the iPhone is that I could be somewhere and you sing the melody Keith Richards the famous story about him having the tape recorder next to his bed and he's saying I can't but you know get no satisfaction with somewhere in there on one of the tapes and then he hit it the next day and it was there because it was right next to his bed so it can come to you at any time it definitely feels like a gift and sometimes you were like I wrote that and you know so it does
feel that way but it's definitely I go there I mean music was everything for me is a kid it helped me get out it helped me not have to be in my reality or anything dark it helped me fly when I couldn't so it yeah I have immense respects for it you come from a huge music state new jersey there's so much that you were surrounded by pretty much everything and also a place that you had to work hard and you know things that influenced you when you were younger came from
probably what you grew up around which seems to me that you were able to really you know work
your way through it through music um I'm curious was it lens upland that you were the first
huge fan of it I mean I liked the one rock group where I heard the song and I was like and you think it sometimes it would be like the most skilled singer was I heard remember listening driving upstate and Ruby Tuesday came on on a tape and I don't know like I was it was like I was in a trance and it's big jagger so it's you know which is my sort of issue today with singing it isn't about runs and or as my niece would say don't say that okay so I take that back
it a person with one octave can do so much it's what you do with it it's telling the story and so it isn't so much a technical thing it's a thing which I hope we don't lose um that some older artists have that's just extraordinary um I was lucky early in my career to go out with a lot of people but I remember going to see a go into a concert in um Colorado and there was Kevmo and there was all these people performing and Joe Cocker got up and it was like it's maybe
he's got one octave he was I never sat down it was I was he looked first of all he was so intense I
thought he was going to just combust him blow up it was so much energy it was like nothing I have
“ever seen and it was I'll never forget it and that is like that's what you do that's what you do”
and so um he connected it was just it was a power like nothing else so it isn't it it's just it is what it is I mean Taylor Swift doesn't do one run and she's you know when she's captivating you know billion people so it's some people have the thing they tell the story they connect it's the thing just like whatever it is and I think if you get far from that then you've lost the art of what it is to do what we do and the beautiful thing that we can do with what we do
and I think it's the calling of those who do it and that is it's it's far more than skill and it's it's much more than that it's telling a story it's like inspiring the human spirit it's healing the human spirit it's a lot it's a lot when did you first realize that your music affected people in a way that you probably didn't expect I mean touring and you finally get in front of big audiences
“and you're like whoa and they sing your song back it's deep but I think the first time was an artist”
who came up to me early in my first tour and said she couldn't paint and she put on shame a song on my first album and then she painted and I didn't even know what to say like she was choked up I was choked up and I was just like wow like you know or and then it just started along the way somebody pulls you aside and tells you how something made them realize something and they made the change or it just yeah it had a profound effect in a moment in their life that enabled
Them to either break a cycle or something and that's where you're like whoa a...
that it pushes you to really take a look at what you're writing and the stories that you're telling
and the way I craft a song now is much different I don't do it as not that I never did it
“carelessly but I sort of just oh that's good now I think about the art of it and the power of”
what it can do and what you want to say and what I want to say and if I only get one last song what would I say or how do I want the person listening to it to feel and that's it that's kind of where I go now yeah well on keeping on that and I will wrap it up with this last question what allows you I always compare it to a burning a child but when you're putting a music out there for people to judge it's not an easy thing and and anyone who thinks it is doesn't understand and so being
is difficult as it is what allows you to be so transparent with your stories and sharing with people
and putting it out there each time you do it it's kind of a risk it is but it's important to me to be able to tell a story and for it to be moving so I'm careful about what I choose which I said early in the interview with MPR that which I learned actually from acting I don't go into moments that I can't safely get in and out of and so if I haven't made peace with it there's no way for me to put it out there and when an artist makes a mistake of writing something that is really not
something that they've dealt with you can see it you don't know what it is but it makes you uncomfortable it is I think so I choose moments that I have had and worked and moved through
and then this is that story and I can go in and out of there in a way that is powerful and valuable
“for the listener at least that's what I think that I mean that's kind of a rule of thumb for me and”
you know that you have to be and if I can't move safely in and out of it then it's going to have an effect that you can't explain and you don't like it so I just try it yeah and I have just I can only speak from where I know a moment that I've moved through and that has done something or changed me and that's all and I hope that you can get what it did for me or that I can show you this thing that I figured out too so yeah but I think clearly about songs and you know you put
yourself out there it's you hope when people don't like it you just let it go in the beginning it was a little bit different but you know I did acting so you get how many times people say you're not right over the part so I was kind of used to that part and this just I don't know I've been lucky so far once or twice somebody said somewhere I was like oh my god but you know everybody's entitled to their opinion but yeah I definitely try to choose things that I've made peace with whether it was
babysitter so it's in your DNA isn't it like you're talking about yeah it's like we're all trying to get out I mean we love Jersey but we want to get out of Jersey you know you know see the world but we're still but Jersey made us who we are okay yeah there's a lot it's a lot that exact quote you said came out of the mouth as one blondie also from New Jersey so you want to go on to you every the world yeah where can people find you and tell us about your tour your most
current tour so you can find me Danielia cotton is such a rare name that at Danielia cotton at Instagram at TikTok Danielia cotton website it's all Danielia cotton but I will be in Nashville next month during the Americana fest and I'm gonna be one of the people at Lining at Papa Palusa which is kind of awesome during the Americana fest that Saturday and I will be at Steven Talkhouse out here back in the Hamptons on the 26 beautiful the Hampton's beautiful like in the fall I'm trying
to think that's kind of what I know so far the EP is about to drop on the 29th and it is country but it's definitely Danielia it's me sort of once again going into another genre and I like country they tell stories and it's I don't know that I can get into so that's great and you know
“the only thing I say is that this is a new age of we have you know in this country an older group”
is what was considered old is sort of now running the country and so I hope for women and for young girls I took the long route I went to college you know I've had a career I had some time I built
A family and I'm just now sort of hitting a peak at this age which means that...
of yourself it's different we have different tools in different ways to take care of us now so
“we go longer and you can live your life and you can do some of those things that you didn't have”
there's no rush to the finish line just take care of yourself and you can do it you can go there I like that well yeah Danielia cotton you are truly inspiring with with your your story your music and everything going on with you I wish you nothing but the best in your future and it seems to me
that you're you're on to great things and and continue on that path and please come back and see
us again thank you for being on music saved me no thank you so much thank you ready for a different
“take on Formula One look no further than no grip a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's”
most coveted series join me Lily Herman as we dive into the under-export pockets of F1 including the astrology of the current grid the story of the sports most consequential driver strike and plenty
of other mishab scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful decadent dumpster fire
for more than 75 years listen to no grip on the i-heart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast everyone needs to take care of their mental health even running back these on
“Robinson when i'm on the field that filmed the pressure usually just take a deep breath when i was”
breathing and seeing what's in front of me everything just slows down it just makes you feel great before i run the play just like these on we all need a strong mental game on and off the field make a game playing for your mental health at love your mind playbook dot org love your body brought to you by the husband mental health foundation the author in blank family foundation and the ad council when you feel uncomfortable what do you put on big you put on big even
you feel uncomfortable so i want to get confident this is DJ has to print music is therapy a new podcast from me a DJ and licensed therapist 12 months 12 areas of your life money love career confidence this isn't just a podcast it's unconventional therapy for your entire year listen to DJ has to print music is therapy on the i-heart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts the countdown is on to hour twenty twenty six i-heart podcast awards live
from south by southwest march sixteen will honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative talent and creators in the industry it's truly a who's who of the podcasting world creativity knowledge and passion will all be unfold this play and the winner of the i-heart podcast award is see all the nominees now at i-heart dot com slash podcast awards audible as a proud sponsor of the audible audio pioneer award explore the best selection of
audio books podcast and originals all in one easy app audible there's more to imagine when you listen sign up for free trial at audible dot com this isn't i-heart podcast guaranteed human
