We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cole Berliner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cole below.

Alright, Cole thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

My father, who was a bass player, showed me how to play the guitar when I was about 6 or 7. I soon after started taking lessons at a local music organization through which I began playing live shows as well. My first attempts to learn I was trying to play Led Zeppelin songs- a little out my reach when just starting out, but I loved the music so I kept at it. I continued to learn and practice every day, eventually attending an arts high school in Oakland to further pursue music, and from there I went to Berklee College of Music for an undergrad degree. All the while, I was performing live in various capacities, with my own projects like Kamikaze Palm Tree (now called Sharpie Smile) with longtime friend and collaborator, Dylan Hadley, or in other improvisational scenarios.

In my musical journey and general philosophy there’s always been two sides- first there’s the more whimsical, big picture type of existence which is more akin to performing live, improvising, and “feeling the music” so to speak, which has enabled me at times to adopt a stage persona that sort of takes over.. I let it take over. This side has been fueled by the years of playing live music and thinking in the moment with improvisation- but it also manifests from following your heart, and listening to your inner voice… there’s a mysticism there that’s taught by the universe and your experiences with people and objects.
Then there’s the more technical, training oriented side – stemming first from an interest in music theory after learning the major modes and some scales, then developing over time through my music schooling. I have learned a lot about the balance between these two faces to the coin through listening to my favorite records, records that seem to evoke this mystical balance, like a yin yang or duality concept sort of thing. I’ve had some bad advice in the past from teachers, that have really set me back creatively….and the general culture of the school was pretty weird. But learning to incorporate what I learned in college in a productive way has been a vital pursuit! I now teach music as well and really try to value this balance.

Cole, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was playing as a kid. I grew up playing and performing live and I’ve had a lot of practice over the course of my life. The first time I could kind of see in the distance a career in music was when my band Sharpie Smile made $300 at a show in San Francisco. I felt like I caught a glimpse into how the project could be bigger than just a passion project, how you could get to the point where one day people would actually pay you a lot of money to hear you perform your original music, which I had never really thought of for that project beforehand.

Music has always been truly a passion – I’ve always felt the need especially to create or write music just for the sake of it. But then to share it with an audience, and have them actually respond or be into it…it’s a thing that occurs that you don’t really consider to happen at first.
The music industry is a weird one, and it’s constantly shifting in unpredictable ways. You’re constantly having to adapt. But that’s a fun endeavor too….

I’m leaning more towards being a part of projects that I truly care about or feel like music I want to make or be a part of for artistic reasons, rather than just for financial success. I think that’s incredibly important… you can always do a job to make some money, but PLEASE whatever you do don’t sleep on your creativity!!

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Get off of Instagram, X, Tik Tok, whatever, social media in general. It causes short attention spans and causes people to not want to think or feel for themselves. It’s becoming worse with all the advertising. It’s like a drug- can be very beneficial in moderation but it’s all too addictive to be indulged in casually. Ruins the imagination. Messes with people’s patience level, which runs seemingly in contrast to how the natural world works. It’s too fast for us. Get out and interact with people in real time, find shows via word of mouth, etc. This is helpful for artists and non artists alike.

And artists could probably do with making art that pushes people’s limits a little more, at least in today’s world.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

Cool concept, but misses the point. I probably won’t buy any because I’d rather have jewelry or guitars or something. But what do I know?

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @coleberliner , @sharpiesmile
• Youtube: Cole Berliner , or Kamikaze Palm Tree

Image Credits
1st photo – Fungi Power