Anton Cosmo
By Himself
By: Bear Frazer
Last updated July 15th , 2010

Anton Cosmo has a bright future ahead of himself. The 27-year-old guitarist has already enjoyed a stint in legendary recording band Boston, co-wrote three songs for the group's fifth studio album Corporate America and made his live performance debut at the 2002 Fiesta Bowl.

While all of that is extremely impressive, the young musician has yet to scratch the surface. Between his modern rock, pop appeal and socio-conscious lyricism, Cosmo is looking to become a movement of his own - just like his favorite group ever.

"I love U2. I think they're the best band in the world and I always think they're gonna be," he says. "There's so much feeling in [Bono's] vocal and I love how The Edge plays guitar. He's not exactly a shredder, but he has so much style and love behind his guitar. He's a big influence, both those guys – playing guitar and singing. Some people compare me to Bono sometimes here and there, which is pretty cool."

Cosmo's solo movement is about to begin as he is on the verge of releasing his debut album The In Between, which features a hypnotic blend of modern rock and pop; a style completely different yet semi-similar to his music heroes.

Then again, Cosmo has quite a few of those, including his pops.

Growing up in New York, Anton is the son of Fran Cosmo, who enjoyed a stint in Orion The Hunter. But his father's big fame to claim would arrive in 1994 when he took over vocalist and guitar duties for legendary rock band Boston. During that time, he was featured on the platinum selling album Walk On. 

Fran's success would help win his son popularity in school, but it also came at a price. "I was the rock star kid. It was awesome," he says with a laugh. "I got more friends than I probably would had without my father's status. [But] it also made it harder to trust people. A lot of people in my life come and go, and I only have very few friends in my circle. It's a really close circle."

It was also at an early age when Anton realized that he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps. At five, the left-handed rock star kid played a right-handed guitar - completely backwards - and by the time he was ten, he was playing a left-handed guitar - like he should have all along. From there, he learned to play a plethora of other instruments including bass, drums and piano.

Though he worked for a while as a studio musician and producer, Anton become part of his father's legacy when he joined Boston in 2002. "The first time I ever played a stage was at the Fiesta Bowl," he recalls. "It was televised with 30 million people watching. [My] first time ever on stage was with Boston. It was unbelievable."

After his stint in Boston, Cosmo broke away to do his own thing. Before deciding to fly solo, however, he put out an effort with his dad in 2006 entitled Alien. It was a memorable occasion for father and son, but there was a little bit of tension during the recording process.

"We were battling a lot. Creativity battles in the studio too," Anton admits with a chuckle. "I hear it one way, he hears it another. I wrote the record. He sang it obviously, but 90% of the material I wrote on that record, so [there were] a lot of creativity battles. Other than that, it's good working with dad. He's a great talent. A fantastic talent."

Now, it's Anton's time to shine and the spotlight is on his solo debut album The In Between. Throughout the ten-track collection, the 27-year-old cleverly weaves elements of modern rock with dance and pop to create a radio-friendly hybrid of his own. That hypnotically magnificent brew is splattered all throughout the album with highlights coming in the form of "Chemicals," "Humans" and "Universe."

Anton Cosmo also delivers the type of resonance that will give music listeners goose bumps. "I think when they listen to it, they're definitely gonna get the chills," he says. "There's a lot of crescendos in my music. It's very epic. I have very epic, big songs. I think that when I do get the chance to perform live, it has that big arena sound. There are gonna be songs on there that people are gonna listen to and blast it because of the parts coming up."

"I'm really big on leads, like the Beatles and their leads are very important to me," he continues. "It takes you away to another dimension and that's what I like about some of the older bands like U2. They just know how to write and format, and the leads to the songs are all there, and I'm big on that."

And perhaps this effort will put Anton steps closer to meeting Bono. As the 27-year-old says, "One of these days, hopefully when the record takes off, I'll get the opportunity. He's definitely one of my heroes."

[Tags] POP, Rock

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