Ian Cobiella is the son of Cuban and Bolivian immigrants, and grew up with classical piano as his first language — years of technique, discipline, and exertion. Giving all is found in the music: the Cuban rhythms, the formal training and unraveling of it, the warmth underneath. The Los Angeles musician carried all of it into a sound that sits between classical arrangements and alternative pop.
His EP, All I Have I Give, out now, and its origin story is as specific as the music. To fund the sessions, Cobiella worked on a farm in Agua Dulce. String sections were too expensive, so he rented a cello and taught himself to play it in roughly four weeks. He built the live session that became the record’s visual centerpiece at a warehouse in East Los Angeles belonging to Cuban artist Enrique Martinez Celaya.
The five tracks move across a range of emotional registers without losing their center of gravity. Built around Cobiella’s piano and a rotating ensemble — strings, Cuban rhythms, choirs — they are manic and fun for a reason. He loved getting there in the writing, recording, and performance. To sit in discomfort and learn from it is something he wants to feel in every moment of the process. That tension is the point.
