And the other point I'm trying to make, and babe I'm the worst mistake What's up, Inland Empire?

My name is Manny Sandoval, and this is Rhythm Lounge, where we spotlight the top musical talen from across the Inland Empire.

You're in for a great show.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Emilio Cole.

Won't you fall asleep in my arms I know It's been weeks since we've spoken about us.

I'm never letting go.

And never letting go.

But I'm on.

Dancing along with the drinks.

Trying to find my own self.

And serenity.

But it's hard when my head is my guide.

Inside I will fall apart.

Trying to get to you.

Find me down.

And it's from some blues.

Those words hurt.

Cause I know they're true.

We're on our own.

For the races.

Hey, how's it going?

Crazy for love.

Hey, hey.

Yeah, I'm not for you.

And your heart's grown up.

Fade away.

Gone for good.

And tomorrow.

It's not to feel the same as we think it would.

You find out what you thought you lost.

Chin up on the night I got it all.

No, I'm not a god at all.

I mean, down an inch from the blues.

Those words were hurt Because, I know they were true.

Mirror.

Oh, not for the races.

Are we going crazy for love.

Hey, hey.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

That was never letting go.

This upcoming song is a song I wrote with my friend Adam, and it's called.

Worst mistake.

Somehow it's on my teeth.

I said I don't keep secrets.

I've been honest I think I'm done.

Feeling love when you're near.

I can't get enough.

You're the point I'm trying to make.

Baby Im the worst mistake.

And though the world has been so blue.

Trying my bes not to think of you every night.

Same side.

It's time and it's time I learn who I am and what I'm worth.

Thought I needed space.

We're ready for the next world, next life.

Now, now.

Think I'm done feeling love when you're near I can't get enough.

Your the point I'm trying to make you.

Baby, I'm the worst mistake.

hey, hey, hey.

whoa, oh oh.

feeling love when you're near I can't get enough.

You're the point I'm trying to make.

And baby, I'm the worst mistake.

Thank you.

Hey, hey.

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Manny, and this is Rhythm Lounge.

We have Emilio Cole with us.

Emilio, thank you so much for joining us today.

Dude.

So you describe your music as acoustic pop, and you've written somewhere between 50 and 60 songs.

What I find most interesting, though, is that you initially started off or you were a football player in your high school, but you were also singing and performing.

Tell me a little bit about that.

Yeah.

So coming up, like I knew I wanted to sing a lot, you know, it was just fun.

Singing was my interest.

Football was more of like a pastime activity growing up out of school to staying athletic.

And so.

So when I would get home from football practice, you know, I'd be in my bathroo singing karaoke on YouTube, or I would be in my room looking up lyrics, printing them, putting them on my wall and learning them, you know, and then going to school, doing my school thing, going to practice, going to practice and getting done, getting out.

And it would just be like, just repetitive, you know, so, so I just, I found more interest in singing.

And by the end of my junior year, I stopped doing football and I pursued music more, so that my senior year, at least, I had all that time to push it, you know?

So.

Gotcha.

So did you ever get put on the spot when you're out in the football field?

Yeah, yeah.

It was it was awkward.

So I could remember one of my teammates just mentioning, hey, Harrington knows how to sing.

And, me just being like, oh, Lord.

And so I remember it coming down to either I sang or we had to run laps.

And so, Lana Del Rey, summertime Sadness was the go to for that once.

So if you did no seeing the team had to run laps.

Yeah.

And they would have hated it.

And me.

So.

So I saved everybody's, time that day.

Yeah, that sounds pretty interesting, man.

Well, I'm sure you were the guy who was sweating up a storm mid-summer singing at the top of your lungs.

Summertime sadness.

But, so.

So moving forward, you from the Inland Empire and you've been from the Inland Empire, your whole life, essentially.

Where are you located?

And, how do you feel that, you know, being from the IE, reflects the music that you create?

Yeah.

So, I'm located in downtown Riverside.

Riverside County area.

And so, the area that I'm in, it's it' not really the most influential, but I make the best out of it, you know?

So, a beautiful drive down the road can inspire me.

You know, going out on a wal and seeing, a horse walk by me.

Blows my mind, but it happens, you know?

So.

So there's a lot of inspiration around.

You just got to make it.

You know, I see a mountain in the in the distance.

Okay.

That's a beautiful mountain.

I see a tree sticking up at the top of the mountain.

Okay, well, the lonely tree, you know when you start going from that.

So it's not like the eye is the most influential, but it is, It's beautiful.

It's a beautiful area to, to look around and find your influences and make a story of that.

You know, you're going to hike with the friend, and you go, have a beautiful time.

Okay.

Cool skyline, you know just right about Skyline Trail.

And, you know, go off of that and right, use metaphors and simile is and explain that, you know, so when it comes to professional artists and influences, speaking of influences, you're heavily influenced by Ed Sheeran, which I was able to hea a bit of that when you performed a couple of the songs that yo do appreciate, top of the show and what what about Ed Sheeran is that that appeals to you?

So, he points it out to he's, he's not media ready looking, you know, lik he's just a normal looking dude.

But it's his talent that brings the music alive, you know?

And I feel like these days, it's difficult for an artist to bring that music to life an make people feel a certain way, you know, because it's, And no, no hate towards anybody, but, like, YouTube, you know, a lot of people are using the same beat in rappin or singing about the same stuff.

And so Ed Sheeran's music, specifically the first couple albums and multiple album, the plus album, just the lyrics lyrically, you know, writing about a miscarriage, writing about a Lego house, writing about, you know, someone who came off the streets and not being one of his biggest songs, you know?

So to me, that's it's mind boggling versus like, you know, all these, song about alcohol, drugs and weird influences of random stuff, you know, and, everybody listens.

You don't know who's listening.

It could be grandma at home.

It could be a little Jimmy in fourth grade.

You know, you want to you want to be able to appeal to everybody.

And I feel like, he does that specific, you know, when he wrote his divide album, he preferred t not cuss at all on that album.

So every single person could listen to that album.

And so, so for me, it's just stuff like that.

It's it's mind boggling.

And I, I just, I think that's one of the coolest things as an artist that you could d is think appeal and be yourself.

And that's who he is.

And so for me, as a as an artist as well, I am heavily influenced by that persona.

That's really cool.

Gotcha.

And I know during the break we were discussing how you sort of start writing a song, how you create a song, and you mentioned that yo always start with a instrument.

So for instance, with an acoustic guitar, take us through those steps of creating a brand new song from scratch.

What would that look like?

So I start with four chords.

So again, basically.

I can from that.

Okay, cool.

Strum a little bit, find something catchy cool and and and and and dun dun dun dun dun do do do do.

And then I got the melody.

I love the chords.

I love the progression.

Awesome.

Okay We'll come up with the melody.

All right.

Well the melody is done.

So now it's just start o the canvas of lyrics, you know.

So start writing the lyrics.

Find an idea.

For me this sounds very bright and hopeful.

So, you know, take, influence from, from, you know, anything that you've had hopeful in your life or any event that you know, someone you know, has had, you know, maybe they're hopeful that they would get that college scholarship, you know, and move out and you could write a song about, hey, you know, this person's moving on, moving out to another new, new area and, starting the new life.

And so it just derives from the canvas of chords and the, the tones that we aren' putting out vocally, you know, so I just, I as long as there's that instrumental canvas, it's go time and just get it right.

And speaking of chords, I know, you know, I, I've overheard how true is it that you can play any pop song that exists on four chords?

Yeah, yeah.

I'm not.

I can't do it.

But I know it's possible for sure.

I've seen plenty of videos again.

Ed Sheeran, he's the king of proving just that.

And so if you look up the interview, I think it was a UK news station where he is proving just tha this bit for a song is that him?

Four songs were played with just that.

And so, he, he makes it not so ove complicated for other artists, which gives it, a range of idea for artists that are coming up that don't know, you know, B-flat and borrowed chords and certain keys they just know they could play G, C, D and E minor and they have 12, 13 songs already for the next year, you know.

So I think that' the coolest thing in the world.

And that's what brings music to you, you know, is being able to hear somethin and, and start going off on it.

So, so yeah.

So in terms of writing songs, I think, I believe the second song you performed was Worst Mistakes, mistakes, and you said that was written by you and your buddy Adam.

Yes.

How did you guys how was it writing with somebody else, especially when you hav two different ideas and whatnot.

So what was that like now?

It's it's it's interesting because the person has to have a certain aesthetic to them in the sense that, you know, you're comfortable with them.

You can't write a song with, someone that, you know, you just feel weird with and you can't even give them a hug and hang out and talk to them personally.

You know, and I'm sure in the music industry, that's what it is.

You got to, but you want to be able to feel the person out, make sure that, you know, this person is a comfortabl person whom I can express my my, not deepest, darkest secrets, but, you know, like times that I've been sad, time that I've had heartbreak, times that I've had those successful moments, you know, and being able to shar that in a very vulnerable way.

I think that's important.

So, Adam, he was, he was a really cool person to write with, you know, and we kept in contac before we kept in contact after, we were in associated Studen bodies together in high school.

And so we kind of knew each other from that, but we both knew that we liked music.

We both kne we were kind of the same genre.

And we both knew that, you know, we both had talent.

So, we, we had not hesitate to, to collaborate.

And so the minute we did, it was just, it was amazing.

And that song, worst Mistake, just came out of nowhere.

And it was it was awesome.

I always wondered that too, just with, obviously I'm not a musician, I don't sing, but, you know, just the fact that you're really expressing yourselves and a lot of times, obviousl you write your own music.

Yes.

And so you're, you know, sharing stories that are sort of pretty personal to yourself.

How uncomfortable is it sometimes, you know, sharing that with your family and friends?

With my family, it's a little weird because, you know, your family, you have that that that spot of this is me, who I am, who I am with you guys, but I am who I am with my friends, you know, I'm not going to sit there and, do somethin that I would do with my friends versu my mom and my dad right there.

So when I do sing certain songs, for example, like, this one song I have called forever, it's a very, very vulnerable song about heartbreak.

I had an, relationshi that I had and, you know, like, do I want them to know that I was hurting in that moment?

Not really.

Because, you know, your parents never want to see you.

Not in that light.

But at the same time I'm still here, I'm still happy.

And I made a very great song out of it in my personal opinion.

And so when they're able to hear it and hear that, that influence that's coming in, okay, Emilio is in this state of min or, you know, people have been in this state of mind.

So, so you writing the song and if you're releasing it, you're releasing it for everybody.

You're not releasing it just for you to keep and have to yourself.

You're putting it out for people to hear, to relate to, to, to understand that they're not alone.

And so that's that to me is so important as a songwriter is to let people know they're not alone in this thing we call life, you know?

So have you Taylor Swift, a lot of women.

Yeah.

No, wait.

Which Taylor Swift is.

You write about the ex that you just broke up.

No, I'm not crazy.

Crazy.

Now, I use that influence when, I was just sad and I remember, you know, bless her heart she was a great girlfriend, and, it jus didn't work out in the moment.

So it hurt.

And I didn't know how to express that.

That, you know, that hurt other than journaling and other than, you know, going out and being present and going on a run, and and it was just following me everywhere, dude.

So, you know, I got words from my notebook that I was journaling in, and, some were very poetic.

Some were just, you know, words.

And I used the ones that I thought were really cool.

And I built off the that and, you know, once you're connected with that and you feel like, okay, this song is this song because I know where I'm going with it.

It's skyrockets, dude.

And to you, that song is the best song.

Maybe not to others, but to you if it gives you chills.

And if you tear up when you hear your own voice and it's like, wow, you know, I wrote that, that to me is really important as well.

Gotcha.

As a songwriter yeah.

No, I think that that's super important.

And so you're going to stick around with this, right.

We're going to cut to a quick break.

Ladies and gentlemen, please return.

We'll be right back with rhythm Lounge.

More after this break.

Those words hurt because I know they're true.

We're on our own.

Are for the races My experience, it was such a challenge.

Figure out how to change.

Like the way that I, like prepared myself before a scene and then also like a part of it as well.

But I think everyone else had the same issue.

Not issue, but the same kind of obstacle in terms of like the time that we had to work together and like really get it going because there's only so much you can do when you're working on something.

Hi, I'm Lucas Cooney, I'm chair of the film TV media department her at San Fernando Valley College.

I think mainly what students can expect is to be surprised.

I don't think they understan all what this industry entails.

The opportunity to fail is here.

You're not gonna be able to fail on set when you're getting paid, but you can fail here and know that that's going to be a learning opportunity.

They give you the information and then they force you into groups of people, which is exactly how to be on set.

And they're like, now you're going to do it, you're going to do it.

You're going to mess up a thousand times, and then we're going to make you do it again.

And then it makes you learn really fast what you want, how you want to do it.

What's up inland Empire?

Welcome back to Rhythm Lounge again.

We have Emilio Cole with us.

Emilio, I know we got another song, but before we get to that next song, I wanted to ask you how you prepare.

How do you typically prepare for your live performances?

So, when it comes to live performances, depending on, like, the seriousness, like a back t the grind in downtown Riverside open mic night, I just show up and I hope it's good.

Just like, you know, hoping I memorize the lyrics, hoping I memorize the chords.

Knowing what chords and playing when my eyes are closed.

Or at least you know where I'm at.

So I'll just a warm up a little bit.

But if it's like a show for example, the House of Blues, whiskey a Go-Go, anything of that caliber.

I'm going to take some time to rehearse.

I take about two hours t rehearse when it comes to that, as much as I can.

So let's say, like, you know, I have that show I'm sitting down with my loop station, I'm sitting down with my guitar, and I'm just practicing the song.

So I'm practicing chords without singing.

I'm practicing close my eyes without doing that and practicing little, a little, like tiny licks, just in case, you know, I come upon it.

So, yeah, I'm really breaking down every little aspect that I want to perform so that when the show time comes, I'm able to execute it properl and make it sound professional.

You know, to the extent tha I'm able to, you know, perform.

And when he talks about that, show he's talking about the House of Blues.

I know he's performing, coming up very soon.

Downtown Disney I believe.

Yes.

Yeah, I'm excited because this will be my second show with them.

And so yeah.

So just preparing for that for that show specifically is, two hour rehearsal, you know, staying busy, you know, so after work, before work, you know, late at night, whatever it is, if I can get some time in, I'm going to get some timing.

That's really the, you know what encompasses being an artist in the Inland Empire is what you just mentioned.

You know, before work, after work, before school, after school, when you can fit it in.

So you're really juggling all three things.

You're juggling work, you're juggling school, you're juggling being a musician.

And, And what where can we find you at, so you can find me on all platforms under Emilio Cole, Emilio, and then space Cole.

I have some YouTube littl music videos I've put together.

Spotify, Apple Music.

I have great, you know, collaborations with my producer JC.

She helped me out a lot coming up.

My boy Drew Dez.

He's really good.

Weve worked on a couple songs together so you can find them all.

But.

Yeah, just anywhere.

I have a my own little playlist called This is Emilio Cole on Spotify as well, with every single feature collaboration I've done.

Even if I'm on the song or off the song, if I've worked on it, it's there.

Gotcha.

And, speaking of this next song that you're going to perform for us tell us a little bit about it.

This song, doesn't have a name yet.

And this song I had for about six years without even knowing it.

So when I was writing my song, Abby, which you would hear on Spotify, had these certain chords which were these ones.

And I was like, that sounds cool.

But I mixed it up.

I ended up leaving those chords behind and, very soon, like after, not really soon, but five years later, six years later, I realized, like, these are really good chords.

And so, I started writing the lyrics to it recently after you know, another situation and, yeah, I mean, it came together really well.

I love the song.

I just don't know what to name it.

I don't want it to be gibberish because, you know, I want it to have something meaningful behind it for other people to listen to and to refer to.

For myself to refer to.

So.

So as of now, it's called untitled.

Cool, man.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, give it u one more time for Emilio Cole.

White walls with a red line.

I know youre mad, go lie down.

If you're waiting on me.

Baby.

Time ain't now the time aint now.

The world goes on.

When I'm not yours.

It feels so wrong to be unsure.

And I don't know I be so mad.

It's not so bad at all.

Keep in mind.

Falling in line.

Oh oh.

In your sight on your red eye.

dead or alive I love the world you bring.

You pull the trigger on me.

Baby Let me share this thing you.

The world goes on.

When I'm not yours.

It feels so wrong to be unsure.

Hey, I don't know.

Why you be so mad.

It's not so bad at all.

Keep me line.

Falling in line.

Oh, whoa!

Oh, yeah.

[harmonizing] Oh.

Thank you.