"In" Jazz for the Culture Set

Transcription

JONATHAN: Well, good afternoon, and welcome to "Musicians at Google." Yeah, our inaugural show. This is so exciting. Thanks so much for coming out to share this. This is Hollie Cook's first US tour. I'm going to go way out on a limb here and predict it will be far from her last. Hollie is absolutely amazing. You will find that out in the next few minutes if you don't already know it. Her band is tight and smoking. This is going to be an incredible show. They're at the very beginning of their US tour. We saw them last night at the Paradise. It sounded like they've been on the road for weeks already. Just unbelievable. Please join me in welcoming Hollie Cook and the band. [APPLAUSE] HOLLIE COOK: Hello. Thank you for having us. I'm going to start with a song that was my first single from my first album. It's called "That Very Night." [MUSIC HOLLIE COOK, "THAT VERY NIGHT"] HOLLIE COOK: Thank you. [APPLAUSE] HOLLIE COOK: Thank you very much. I'm going to do another old song. It's the first song that I recorded as Hollie Cook. It's called "Milk and Honey." [MUSIC HOLLIE COOK, "MILK AND HONEY"] HOLLIE COOK: Thank you. [APPLAUSE] HOLLIE COOK: So I released a new album this year. So I'm going to play a couple of songs from that. This song is called "99." It's about [INAUDIBLE], actually. [MUSIC -- HOLLIE COOK, "99"] HOLLIE COOK: Thank you. [APPLAUSE] HOLLIE COOK: Got one more song. So I'll just sing it. It's called "Looking for Real Love." It's also from my new album. Thank you very much for coming and sharing. You're great critics. Thank you very much to Jonathan and the crew in front of us. And also thank you to the Next Level Band [INAUDIBLE]. [APPLAUSE] HOLLIE COOK: This song is called "Looking for Real Love." I've been Hollie Cooke from London. [MUSIC HOLLIE COOK, "LOOKING FOR REAL LOVE"] [APPLAUSE] HOLLIE COOK: Thank you very much, Google. JONATHAN: Hollie, we all know you by name. But Next Level Band, do you want to tell everybody your name? We don't know you, yet. JAIME HINCKSON: Sure. My name is Jaime Hinckson. I play keys for Hollie Cook. JARED MEEKER: I'm Jared Meeker. I play guitar. PATRICK BAILEY: Patrick Bailey. I play bass. BLAKE COLLIE: Blake Collie. I play drums. JONATHAN: So you guys are all from LA, correct? And you've played together for a while now on other projects? BLAKE COLLIE: We played-- these two guys, we played off and on since '96 or so. This guy over here on keyboard just got to LA through a mutual friend, and hit it off. And here we are to instantly jump in on the adventure with Hollie. JONATHAN: Wow, that's outstanding. How did you hook up? HOLLIE COOK: How did we? We worked together earlier this year when I played in California, and I've worked with Patrick before last year when I played in California. And then-- they all just-- they all know each other. And it was-- BLAKE COLLIE: It was Warren at Sierra Nevada, recommended-- I'm in a group in LA. A reggae band in LA called The Lions. And Warren, who-- what's Warren's last name? HOLLIE COOK: Smith. BLAKE COLLIE: Smith. Yeah, Warren Smith recommended The Lions because she had an LA show. And so we got to do a festival date with her. And then a show in LA, and then I stayed in touch with Hollie, and with David, and here we are. JONATHAN: Wow, perfect. Wow. Great. Well, I won't welcome you all to the US since you live here, but Hollie-- Hollie, welcome to the US. HOLLIE COOK: Yeah, thank you. JONATHAN: Welcome to Boston. Welcome to Google. So great to have you here. HOLLIE COOK: It's a pleasure. I'm excited. JONATHAN: You do come from a family that's probably more interesting than most of the people in this room. HOLLIE COOK: I don't know if that's true. JONATHAN: Well, I don't know. If you're not entirely sick of talking about it, could you talk a little bit about your family? HOLLIE COOK: My family is cool. My mom was a singer later on in her life, and she grew up with Boy George. And was around when he formed culture club, so she was backing vocalist for a little while. Until it got crazy, and I think she decided that it was not really her calling. To be in a huge pop band. So she change direction. But my father has always been a musician, and still is. He's a drummer. He's Paul Cook, and he played in the Sex Pistols. It's kind of normal. JONATHAN: If you grew up that way, it would be. Sure. HOLLIE COOK: It's my normal. He's very cool. They both-- I owe all of my musical ability to both my parents. More the singing from my mom, but it's been an interesting ride. And they've been extremely supportive. That's been the coolest part. Is that they've always totally understood where I was coming from. So aside from a few disappointing school dropouts, or whatever, they were like it's OK. You're clearly taking this seriously enough. JONATHAN: Well, that's great. Did they encourage you to go into music, or was it something that you just naturally gravitated to? HOLLIE COOK: They just saw that it was something that I was leaning towards from a really young age. And they did-- they got me piano lessons, and I had dance lessons when I was a kid. They never pushed it on me. They just could see straight away that it was something that I was most likely going to end up doing. So they encouraged it. JONATHAN: And how did you tend to gravitate toward reggae? HOLLIE COOK: Just the way that you do, I suppose. I was a teenager, and I had a few records here and there. And it was just-- it just had something special about it that I wanted to be apart of in a way. I was singing in a band called The Slits for about five years, and they've got a very strong reggae influence in their music. So from performing with them, I kind of got deeper into the reggae vibe. And I met a producer called Prince Fatty, who I've worked with on both my records. And once I met him, it kind of all fell into place. And it felt like a very true way for me to express myself musically. And I stuck with it because it felt good. JONATHAN: Reggae nicknames are the best nicknames. I wish I had something like Prince Fatty to go by. Really, but I'll have to work on that. So the band-- have you been playing reggae mostly yourselves, or is that just one of several styles that you've worked on? JARED MEEKER: We've been playing a lot of different styles, and I speak for everybody here in saying that. But reggae-- I've been playing with Blake here for-- since we were 20 years old, or something like that. So we've been doing it for a while. And when we were first starting out we were lucky to open up for a lot of big name reggae acts, and certainly got our feet wet. And that left a lasting impression on us. So that was a huge influence in how we think about reggae, and in some ways every other genre of music that we play has a little bit of reggae in it. Like naturally, you know? There's certainly a little bit of unity that you can hear within every style of music. It's like a through line, but reggae is something that's really close to our hearts for sure. JONATHAN: Wow. Excellent. Yeah, the sound is amazing. It really is. I mean it's-- it's clearly reggae. There's no mistaking that. But with your vocals, there's just really nothing like it in my opinion. Really completely special. HOLLIE COOK: Thank you. JONATHAN: Speaking of your parents, there maybe some people here who've heard of the Sex Pistols. There may be some people who think that "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" is one of the greatest albums recorded in the second half of the 20th century. So if you want to pass that on to your dad, that'd be fine. HOLLIE COOK: OK. [INAUDIBLE] JONATHAN: There may be people who also watched the Karma Chameleon video once a month whether they need to or not. So You could pass that on to your mom. HOLLIE COOK: I will. That'll make them smile. JONATHAN: OK. Well that's great. People have not forgotten. So your tour just kicked off a couple nights ago in Brooklyn. You were in Boston last night. You're doing the East coast here, and for how long? HOLLIE COOK: We've got two more dates in Philadelphia and Washington, DC. And then we fly over to the West coast and start in Boulder, Colorado, and drive down through. So we're going to Seattle, Portland, Oakland, and Los Angeles. JONATHAN: OK. HOLLIE COOK: So it's a mini-tour for now being my first time here. We'll do all the stuff in the middle hopefully at some other point, I suppose. If there's an interest for it. JONATHAN: Yeah, I think the American Midwest needs to hear your music. HOLLIE COOK: It's a big place, so it takes a lot of time to travel around the whole thing. So, yeah, we'll keep it East and West for now, and then we'll see what happens in the future. JONATHAN: OK. So "Twice" is still pretty new-- your second CD. Are you working on any material for a third CD, or is the tour keeping you too busy? HOLLIE COOK: The tour's keep me busy. I've been touring all summer, but it's always-- I can't tell which parts my favorite, but I do love the touring aspects of it, and traveling around is one of the most inspiring things. So it helps with the process of writing new material. So there's stuff in the pipeline. I don't have any plans for a third album just yet. Like a whole album. I'm scared of the commitment. So I'll probably do some short projects, and then make an album in a couple of years. Or maybe I'll surprise myself, and there'll be an album within the next year. Who knows. I'd like to keep it interesting by having absolutely no plans whatsoever. JONATHAN: Well we'll prepare to be delighted whichever way you go. JARED MEEKER: By the way, Jonathan. There is a reggae name generator that you can just go-- I'm sure with Google being here, you guys know about that. But if you go type in Jonathan, and you'll get-- Ross John, or something like that. JONATHAN: Excellent. Thank you for that. Thanks. There's a lot of days where I really need that. You have no idea. So give me the URL. I'll do it this afternoon. Oh, a question from that young lady in the audience. Do you want to come up here and-- because otherwise we won't be able to hear you. AUDIENCE: I spent some time in the Midwest, and my favorite reggae bar was The Wild Hare and Singing Armadillo Frog Sanctuary in Wrigleyville. It's closed now, but I think there's probably a pretty good scene there. So I would encourage you to go to Chicago. But I also wonder where is the reggae scene? Are you going to pop venues, or is there sort of that subculture of reggae music in the bar scene? BLAKE COLLIE: The majority of-- the strongest parts in the United States-- of the reggae scene-- would probably be, historically, New York at the top of the list. Just for Jamaican families to come and set up shop early on, like in the '50s and '60s and whatnot. Between the New York, and then over to LA in particular. It could be due to the weather. And then Miami. The guy right here can tell you about Miami. But those three would be the strongest. And then, interestingly enough, in California-- it's referred to as West coast by some people, but California mainly. There's a California roots reggae scene that we're all coming from, and a part of the different bands. The Lions, The Expanders, The Aggrolites. Then there's reggae rock groups like Revolution and Tribal Seeds. So there's a whole huge, huge scene over on the West coast. And so now, as it spreads from LA up to Seattle and back down, the main gist of LA and, or Southern California and Miami is certainly the weather. Which I will let this guy take over. And then, from where Holly's from, would be the other biggest area in the world outside of Jamaica. It's just in the UK in Brixton and places like that. Again, historically, really, really famous reggae bands-- Steel Pulse to Aswad. Groups like that come from that area. So for what we're doing here in the States, that's the great thing about this tour. Is we're hitting some of these primary-- I should include Colorado too. You guys can maybe figure out why Colorado might like reggae so much. So, with that said, you can fill in the Miami void. JAIME HINCKSON: Well, yeah. I was born and raised in Miami, but my family's from Jamaica. Jamaica used to be under British rule, which is why England has so much reggae music. But reggae is such a revolutionary genre. I could sit here and name artists off the top my head for days, but you guys know them. Because reggae is so revolutionary. It's very international. It's not specific to one city. Of course there's a lot of Jamaican influence, Caribbean influence in Miami because it's so close. Everybody originally-- like my parents-- they migrated to New York. So a big influence there, and of course Denver and California for obvious reasons. But reggae is everywhere. There's reggae festivals all over the world, and eventually we're going to end up playing in all of them. [MOCKING EVIL LAUGH] JONATHAN: I guess we're all set. I wanted to thank you again for coming to visit us and play with us. That was an incredible set. You guys sounded amazing. Not a surprise. HOLLIE COOK: It was an absolute pleasure. It's very cool to be here. JONATHAN: Wonderful to have you here, and best of luck on the rest of your tour and whatever comes next. HOLLIE COOK: Thank you so much. And cheers for coming. JONATHAN: OK. BLAKE COLLIE: Thanks for having us. [APPLAUSE]