Call him guitar man or jazz man, Frost School of Music junior, Carlo Redl, likes the sound of both. The John Mayer soundalike was born in Tokyo and raised in California. At age 21, he has already co-written two No. 1 hit singles for the Japanese boyband "Deep Squad," released "Empty," his first EP, and signed record deals with music agencies across the globe, including Sony Music in the United States. So far, he has collected nearly 20,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and over 100,000 plays on Apple Music.
Redl's genre of music has earned him a spot amongst famous singers in our vicinity and abroad, and though he started his career just two years ago, he has been in the spotlight ever since. The tracks on his EP are filled with his soft voice and smooth transitions between notes and resonances, which shows his level of expertise in vocals—a skill he says he's learned from Frost School of Music professors and his "super talented" student peer musicians.
Redl's joy and passion for picking up the guitar and playing have never changed since he was 14. He credits his dad, a teenage "Rock Star," for passing on his artistic flair and love for music to him by putting a guitar in his hands at the age of four.
A music industry major with minors in jazz and marketing, Redl has already achieved great success. Last year, he took a gap year to try something else and put something new in place of his music education. This decision made him realize that he could gain much more skills by learning from Frost professors and collaborating with other students on campus than by mapping Japan's music scene.
The success was learning to say, "Look, there will be plenty more of these songwriting opportunities; I've got to go back to school and work on my things—master my craft. Y'know, I'm a guitar man; that's what I love to do."
Grasping the idea that the teaching methods, various new skills, and even playing with other artists at Frost would enrich his "thing" liberated him. As a solo artist, Redl likes the way his life is starting to make sense and is comfortable at Frost. As a jazz guitarist, he performs like a seasoned pro and writes deep and soulful songs.
"There's something when you put a record together that you can't explain sometimes, and it's just the way those songs congeal," he explained. His "Empty" recording shows how his music didn't just happen by pulling stuff out of the sky but from a time well spent in the studio producing something extraordinary. Like one of his fans said, "His album's killing!"
On November 3, Redl opened for rapper Flo Rida at UM's Homecoming concert at the Watsco Center. He pulled the crowd to its feet with ease and grace, creating an insane synergy between them. When he asked them to put their phones up, they did. When he leaned into their space as he sang and played his guitar up close and personal, they sang along with him.
We sat down with Redl and talked about his life, music, studies at Frost, and what it means to him—and how it all adds up on his latest studio recording of his "Empty" album.
Congratulations on the new record and on returning to Frost. You are a junior now, pursuing a music industry degree with minors in jazz and marketing. It must have been a tough call to return to school after a gap year with the amount of success you achieved in Japan. We hear you are famous there.
I would not say very famous, but I've gotten recognized on the streets a few times here and there. That's mainly because of the artists I work with in Japan. As a songwriter, I've written songs for artists like the Japanese boyband "Deep Squad," for which I wrote one of their songs and got No. 1 nationally across all genres. That's when more people in the industry started reaching out to me to write their songs. That's when a producer friend of mine signed me to his label as a solo artist.
When did you start performing live?
It wasn't until this past summer, actually. I've played at the Anderson in Miami, the Industry City Courtyard in Brooklyn, New York, and last week, I played at the Watsco Center as an opening act for rapper Flo Rida. I was thrilled about that.
Reportedly, you had even forgotten you had applied for that gig. Is that true?
Yes! I applied on a whim to the online audition to open for Flo Rida. I sent my videos but didn't think I'd get it. I was surprised when I received an email that said I had been selected. At first, I was like, "What? Is this for real? I got it!" I was excited to open for someone I've been listening to for years.
Tell me about your band, which consists of other Frost School of Music musicians.
Yes, senior jazz performance major Michael Ramos, sophomore media scoring and production major Aron Stornaiuolo, and senior media scoring and production major Jack Dratch. They are super-talented musicians who make me a better musician.
We put this band together last year. We started jamming weekly and doing shows in Brooklyn and Miami. We were happy to play at the Homecoming concert because that's a big deal for our school.
And how did it feel to play for a UM audience?
It felt good. I'm proud to be a UM student and have always wanted to show a big UM audience what I'm about as a musician, and there is no better chance than this to do that. I played two songs from my EP, some blues and jazzy tunes. We catered to people's desires and gave them what they wanted to hear.
You were very young when you started playing guitar. Tell us about that journey from Japan to Miami and how music has been a part of that path.
I was born in Japan and lived there until I was 10. Then we moved to Singapore for three years, returned to Japan for a year, did my first two years of high school in California, and then moved back to graduate from the American School of Japan. When I moved back to Tokyo, I met a songwriter who was a singer, too. He inspired me to start singing and songwriting. I started doing it almost daily, and then I started songwriting for different record labels.
I was four years old when my dad put a guitar in my hands. As a teen, he was like the rock star in his high school. He played guitar and loved it so much, but he ended up going into finance. Even though he loves what he does, he regrets not being a musician. So, I took weekly classical guitar lessons as a kid. Years later, when we got to California, I heard the blues, rock, funk, and jazz for the first time. And that's when I started enjoying playing guitar every day.
So, what attracted you to Frost School of Music?
Funny story. I was at a graduation event in my hometown and struck up a conversation with one of the moms there. I told her I wanted to attend a music school, and she said, "Oh, my son goes to Frost School of Music." I told her, "Where's that?" She showed me a few pictures of the lake, and I was like, "I have to visit this place." And I did. Then I found that the musicianship level was so high at Frost that I felt compelled to come here.
And what is it about jazz that you like?
A month before I applied to Frost, I discovered true standards. Not just Miles Davis, but Bill Evans, stuff like that. And there's this complexity to it—if I couldn't grasp that complexity, I wouldn't be a true musician by my standards. I felt like I could love R&B and everything, but at times, I was looking for something more that would challenge the musicality in me. And then I started discovering jazz. When I auditioned to come here, I saw how much better everyone was at jazz than me. Since then, I've grown a lot as a jazz musician. But to even be accepted at Frost, when everyone is so talented, it's, like, a huge honor.
Why did you take a gap year in 2021? And after that tremendous success in Japan, what made you return to school?
Great question. There was a moment when I decided that I should drop out to pursue songwriting and being an artist full-time. But then I thought about all the things I've gained here. There's so much more skill, great professors, and the opportunity to play with and meet super-talented students. That's not to say that I don't love working in Japan and everything, but I soon realized that there's a huge gap in skill between musicians in Japan and musicians here at Frost. So, that's when I decided to come back to school and finish what I had started. Learn music industry skills from the masters. I'm honored to be here and surrounded by such great people.
What's on your playlist these days? What music inspires you?
I admire John Mayer and R&B legends like Daniel Caesar, Summer Walker, Jhené Aiko, Lucky Daye, and Frank Ocean.
When I was little, I listened to classical music, but then in high school, I started listening to classic 70s rock—artists like Led Zeppelin, Rush, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix.
Finally, what do you hope to achieve with your Frost degree?
I want to go to New York and L.A. I want to continue what I started here, with friends like Jagger Walk, who told me one day, "You can sing. You can be an artist." So, yeah, I want to keep doing those things.
