Meet Leonardo Cococcia | Music Producer and Guitarist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Leonardo Cococcia and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Leonardo, is there something you can share with us that those outside of the industry might not be aware of?
So many music listeners, including hardcore fans of certain artists, are often unaware of the collaborative process of making a song.

There’s a great team behind most songs that come out today, including session musicians, producers and co-writers.
Songwriters in general, I feel they’re the most overlooked category. Artists have the most public-facing role and of course an entire label team promoting their image, and the producer role recently became more popular in the general public.
Hip hop listeners, for example, often praise their favorite artists as much as the artist’s producer.

I feel that the same cannot be said for songwriters yet.

We had the Grammys happening last week, and Amy Allen won Songwriter of The Year; she worked on huge hits like Espresso, Please Please Please and Taste by Sabrina Carpenter, as well as Matilda by Harry Styles, the last Olivia Rodrigo record, and many others.
I hope that her amazing recognition receives media coverage not only from industry press, but also on mainstream media channels, so that the general public can be more aware of great songwriters.

Maybe sooner than later many people will be like “I love this song, who wrote it?”, to then look it up on the credit section of streaming services, which will hopefully be more detailed in the future.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I currently have a new personal approach to my role in the industry. I value what I want to offer as much as what others want from me creatively.

Being a producer and guitarist made me realize that some artists want the contribution of my jazz guitar background in their recordings or shows, and others like how I produce and mix records, and that’s how the artistic pairing happens: it comes down to being open to know what people call me for, so that I can understand what I can confidently offer and strengthen even more.
I firmly believe that artistic personality is not only shaped by sitting in a room alone and developing a craft (although that’s the fundamental side of it), but it’s necessary to be part of a community to understand how you can contribute in the best possible way to make a project better.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If I think of LA, I will actually be that “best friend” visiting! I have many friends currently pursuing their career there as producers, performers and songwriters, and I am planning to see them there soon.

Being currently based in NYC, I always bring my visiting friends to Mezzrow and Smalls, my favorite jazz clubs, and to Craftsman for their Sunday night jam.
The city also offers so many networking events, such as listening parties or mixer nights organized by booking agencies, and it’s always unpredictable when the next house party is happening.

Many of these events and places are often attended by musician from LA, offering a great industry hub to see the exchange between the two cities alive. I am currently working in two music studios, one of which is The Mastering Palace, where so many hit songs produced and recorded in LA are mastered by the team of multi-Grammy engineer Dave Kutch.

Talking about studios in NYC, some of them have such a great cultural legacy that I’d love to show them to a visiting friend! –I’ve done that at Power Station many times already. Seeing the rooms where records from Madonna, Springsteen and many others were made is priceless and as enriching as seeing any music history section at any museum.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Any advancement in my career was definitely made possible by my great mentors and anyone who helped in any kind of way, especially family and friends back in Italy, where I’m from.

I was super lucky to grow up in a house where although nobody else ever approached music, I was encouraged to pursue it as a career. With Italian post-secondary education being economically accessible (if not free, depending on your income), the biggest obstacle was being accepted into Rome’s Conservatory, which is extremely selective for its jazz guitar program. But when the great news that I got accepted came in, I went all-in and got my BA and MA in jazz guitar performance. That year only about 5 of 50 applicants made it in, and I considered that to be my call.
That’s when my mentorship journey started, getting to know great teachers and some of the best musicians in Europe.

At the same time I was also approaching music production, and I was very lucky to know some experts in that field to ask some questions to, and to have some amazing collaborators with whom I eventually released music.

This path of growth that I put so much effort into, eventually led me to apply for a Fulbright in the Arts which I ended up getting, and I will be forever grateful to the Fulbright Italian Commission and the technical review team for appreciating my work and giving me the possibility to move to the US to pursue a MA in Songwriting and Production at BerkleeNYC.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leonardo.cococcia/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonardo-cococcia-4224b3300/

Image Credits
Michele Ottaviani
Julianna Hansen-Fliedner
Jessica Chu