Margot Cotten

Paris, 03/26/2020

Margot Cotten is French singer and songwriter who already recorded 2 studio albums, 2&2 (2015) and Margot Cotten (2014). If you like country rock music you are going to like these two albums, which are full of creativity and inspiration but nevertheless, Margot is not limited to songwriting, she also plays a lot clasic rock covers. Don't forget get to check her music out in youtube or in spotify!

- When you got your first guitar?

- I started playing guitar when I was 12. My dad is a guitar player so he lent me one of his acoustic guitars, a green Yamaha APX. He lent me the worst of the guitar he owned so my fingers would get tough. it’s a good technique to learn on a bad acoustic guitar that doesn’t sound good. If you can make it sound then you’ll be able to play on any guitar. When my parents realized how passionate I was about guitar they offered me a Fender Telecaster for Christmas when I was 13. The best day in my life I think. It’s a Nashville Power Tele made in Mexico. It has 3 pickups and a Fishman. Weird hybrid. Great axe!

- What was the first song you learned?

- The first chords I learned were the chords to play Dead Flowers (Rolling Stones) so D, A and G. But I couldn’t figure how to strum so I couldn’t play it. The first song I could really play was the Rolling Stones’ version of Love In Vain. I was - and still am - a Rolling Stones freak !

- Was it hard to you to learn to sing and play the guitar simultaneously?

- Actually it wasn’t. I started singing in front of people when I was 17 so I already knew how to play guitar. Also my first instrument is drums so my brain was trained do several things at the same time ! The hardest thing actually was to sing in front of people. I used to sing in my bedroom when no one was in the house. I was to shy to sing when people was around.
I had a band with my cousins and my uncle and everybody was singing. My uncle pushed me to sing a song so I did it.

- Which was your first song you composed?

- I first started composing instrumentals. Lots of them. I compose music for documentaries which is basically instrumental music. I was afraid of writing songs, I thought you had to have some sort of magic skill. A friend gave me the courage to do it. The first song I wrote was Leave me in Peace.

- How long did it take you to release your first album since you started writing the songs and recording them until you got the final product?

- The friend who encourage me to write songs told me that if I write one song a month by the end of the year I will have an album. So that’s what I did. I guess it took me a year and a half. I don’t really remember. My first album is a mix of covers and originals.
My second album is only originals and it took me a year to write and record it.

- How often do you write new songs? Are you working on a new album?

- I can write 4 songs in a month and then stop writing for a couple of months. I think that I write 20 songs a year. I’m working on a new album. I don’t know when I’ll record it but I have new songs that I really want to release.

- Did you recorded all the instruments on your albums? Or which instruments did you record?

- I play drums and some guitars on my albums. I have friends or family who plays with me (piano, bass, some guitars).

- How is it that somebody who lives in France is reallyl into south american culture, you know like cowboys, vaqueros, and contry music?

- I have the chance to have parents who love American music. They have lots of CDs and I could pick whatever I want when I was a kid. My mother is into New Orleans Jazz and blues and my father is more into rock’n’roll and country. When I was 9 I had a huge revelation while hearing Honky Tonk Women, I became obsessed by the Rolling Stones. Then I listened to all the music that influenced the Stones things like Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Otis Redding, Gram Parsons. And from Gram Parsons I became obsessed by the Byrds, and country rock. And it lead me to Dylan, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams etc. When I love something I like to know everything there is to know about it. So it’s kind of a love for history and music at the same time.