MILES AWAY PHIL COOK HOW TO
MILES AWAY PHIL COOK FULL

The two began playing together frequently as live members of Hiss Golden Messenger. He showed me this documentary about James Booker called Bayou Maharajah, and it started me off on this tear of learning New Orleans music.' 'We instantly bonded over the piano, and his enthusiasm was addictive. 'I was really burned out on being the keyboard player in a band,' Wallace remembers. While Wallace pushed Cook in this instance, Wallace admits that he rediscovered his love of piano after meeting Cook while working on the 2012 compilation Hymns from the Gathering Church. Despite having no material written, the conversation escalated so quickly that, within fifteen minutes, Cook had booked the first week of January 2018 at April Base Studios, the Wisconsin recording home of friend and former bandmate Justin Vernon. As his band members learned to perform Southland in their own way, they gained Cook's trust while he recognized that the beauty and soul inherent in their playing was more essential to the songs than any particular technique.Ĭook even ascribes the impetus for recording People Are My Drug to keyboardist James Wallace, saying that he'd been 'coasting for a bit' when Wallace asked him about a new album over beers with drummer JT Bates at Durham's Ponysaurus last summer.

MILES AWAY PHIL COOK HOW TO

While that collaborative spirit has long been present in his music, Cook credits the years since Southland for teaching him how to act as a bandleader rather than a director. It's indicative of the kind of mutual support that's always been key to Cook's collaborations, in this case eventually leading to co-writing People duet ' Miles Away' with Meath in less than an hour. Even then, he asserts that the encouragement of Sylvan Esso's Amelia Meath, who was the first person to hear demos for that album, was critical for him in beginning the process. He made virtually every musical decision himself.

MILES AWAY PHIL COOK FULL

Southland Mission, Cook's 2015 album and his first leading a full band under his own name, was an intensive, highly involved experience for the singer, guitarist, and pianist. That's what People Are My Drug feels like,' he says, referring to his newest LP. 'I've got a chance now to show the world not what's in my head, like I did on Southland Mission, but what's in my community. Dive deeper, and it becomes clear just how important it is for him to reflect those themes in his music.

The composition of the record plays as a love letter to Phil’s greatest inspiration of all: People.Talk with Phil Cook for even a few minutes, and the discussion will inevitably lead to community and the accompanying concepts of trust and love. He heard Brevan Hampden's distinct sanctified tambourine in his head the whole time he was writing for the sessions.

He imagined vocalist Tamisha Waden (Foreign Exchange) soaring above 'Steampowered Blues' and turned to collaborator Amelia Meath (Sylvan Esso) to co-write Miles Away. His band The Guitarheels forged a common language touring the world with Cook and he crafted each new song with reverence for each players’ artistic brilliance. Since Southland Mission, Cook has performed with childhood heroes including Mavis Staples, Bruce Hornsby, John Prine, Amy Ray and The Blind Boys of Alabama. Each track asserts that he alone is no greater than the sum of the people who have brought him to this moment.

Having only recently stepped to the center of the stage as a solo artist, Cook now takes a moment, citing the power of community as his thesis statement. With the arrival of People Are My Drug, Phil Cook is taking the spark from lights left on by musical heroes and offering a torch for listeners as they navigate their own dark corners. In present times, choosing to amplify community and positivity through art can seem like a radical act. Transforming pain and injustice into love and compassion is a rendering that has been universal to poets and prophets for centuries.

Miles away phil cook