Aileen Elizabeth Photography
Cardio.
Rosolowski wrote two songs — “Digital Dream” and “Implant” — that didn't fit The Source. So he used them as the base from which he would write the other songs for Beautiful Static.
“Early on, the structure was all there, but there were certain elements that weren’t working,” he says over coffee one recent afternoon at Gypsy Bean, the Gordon Square Arts District café where he often goes to update his social media accounts and do other Cardio-related work. “But I knew there was something there, but I had to mine away at it. It was like the last album where I didn’t realize I was working on the album. In May or June, I thought I could push through another album. I probably had seven songs at that point. I deleted three and wrote new ones. A couple of the songs came together in October and November right when I was finalizing the album.”
This time around, Rosolowski, a new father, decided to let things “just happen naturally.” Songs like "The Blessing," a tune with rattling percussion and spoken word vocals, and the Chemical Brothers-like "Move" truly have a spiritual quality to them.
“The last album was more me struggling to find a voice,” he says. “With this one, I started to uncover that voice and have fun with it and experiment with structural ideas and rhythms and try out different sounds. The people that resonate with the music and performances are all searching for something, and I’m searching for something when I’m writing. I like to envision my life as a a bunch of grooves on a record. Since having a child, I feel like those grooves are getting deeper. My capacity for experiencing life and my sensitivity for everything has increased. I’m better at getting my present mind out of the way and let the emotions come through and have fun. It’s becoming easier to access those emotions. It’s changed my approach.”
He acquired a piano at the beginning of this year, and that helped shape the album’s musical direction. You can hear the piano dictating the melody of a track such as "I Wanna Feel."
“I have a midi controller with 25 keys, but sometimes, you can’t get the idea down” he says. “I will use the piano to find chords and rhythm patterns and then translate that to the synthesizers.”
It’s been a long, strange musical journey for Rosolowski, who started listening to N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys before Linkin Park’s 2000 album, Hybrid Theory, changed his life. Kid Cudi's Man on the Moon also proved inspirational, and the fact that Cudi hails from Cleveland only made his music all the more influential.
Rosolowski first went to drum circles with his mom at age 3 and then played cello at age 9. He later learned to play guitar, drums, bass, and piano and says he always had “a drive to create.” At 14, he took over the family computer and started using a free software called Guitar Tab Pro. With that program, he could write out all the parts for a full band. He was big into the Finnish metal band Nightwish at the time, so he was writing music inspired by them. Later, he used Garage Band and Logic to record guitar parts and Midi for drums. This went on for years until he was 27 when he really started learning how to mix and master.”
A near-death experience that took place a few months before his wedding had a major impact on him. He and the woman who would become his wife opened a bottle of wine and sat down to watch a movie. Rosolowski suddenly collapsed, and he had to be rushed to the hospital. After realizing the importance of his relationship, he got married and purchased tickets to [Electric Daisy Carnival] Las Vegas. That festival inlocked memories of hearing techno on college radio and house parties he would throw in his early twenties. Originally, he was going to call himself the Cardiologist, but he shortened it to Cardio and released “Silence,” his first official single, in 2019. Singles “What Do You Want?” and “Breathe” followed.
“’What Do You Want?’ is really straight-forward,” he says when asked about the tune. “I feel that there’s a lot of conforming to what house/electronic music is supposed to be. You have your underground house-heads, and everyone is trying to align themselves with some kind of genre. The song is asking that question. ‘Breathe’ is my favorite track on the first album. I felt free to express myself with some of the synthesizers I was using. There are new elements I was working with. It was a high-water mark to try to achieve that.”
For the new album, Rosolowski decided he would not release any singles.
“I wanted to do something a little different,” he says. “There’s a pressure in electronic music to release singles. I wanted to make it about the album from front to back. It has a nice A side and B side. It’s set up that way. I have some personal opinions, but I will leave it open. It will be fun to see what the fans decide are their favorites. I’m grateful for their involvement in this process.”
Rosolowski says the release party will feature a “great ensemble of support.”
“The plan is to be bigger than the last release party,” he says. “It’s going to be a good time. It’s dance friendly, as electronic shows tend to be. The reception I got last time was that some people said it was the best show they had been to for a long time. I don’t take those things for granted. The support will come from DJs and artists in the city that I have come to respect. Everyone on the show has a unique imprint and will bring something different to the show.”
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