Adam Cohen

It’s taken him rather longer that he might have expected, but singer-songwriter Adam Cohen has grown up. The son of the legendary Leonard Cohen, all his life Adam had sought an artistic space beyond the reach of his father’s looming shadow. But in January 2007, at the age of 34, Adam Cohen owned up to his legacy. After years of declining to sing in public so much as a single note written by his father or to participate in any tribute, on stage in Barcelona, Adam sang Leonard’s classic song Take This Waltz — in Spanish. ‘Barcelona in 2007 was the first time I ever played a Leonard Cohen song in public. Until then I hadn’t so much as learned one on guitar. It was cathartic. My son Cassius was only a few months from being born, and embracing fatherhood was on my mind — my father, and the father I was to be. Being the son of a musician who occupies that very élite club of unarguable living legends was always going to be a mixed blessing for anyone wishing to follow the same calling. ‘I was never terribly preoccupied with living up to my family name, and not until I was sitting at the dinner table with my father to my left and my two-year-old son to my right, did I realise I really wanted to, and was ready to. ‘Before then, I really had given up on the music business. So, upon completion of Like A Man, my proudest artistic achievement yet, I was not only grateful to the team that helped me make the record, but also to the universe for giving me a chance to set the record straight, and exonerate me.’ Intimate, romantic yet shrewdly reflective, Adam’s songs on Like A Man evoke something of his father just as in any child you can discern the echo of the parent. But there is Adam’s own unique and distinct voice and perspective too — a plain-speaking style freighted with disarming candour. ‘Like A Man is steeped in my recognizing that I am in the family business. Despite my efforts to carve out a different identity, really I belong to a long line of people who have embraced their father’s business. And to have my father pronounce that I have world-class love songs on my record — Like A Man and What Other Guy — is a deeply gratifying compliment.’