An interview with Hollie Cook

22:04 Leila Gunn 1 Comments

As promised, here's my interview with singer and Village Green 2015 performer Hollie Cook. Not only is Hollie the daughter of Paul Cook (drummer from the Sex Pistols) and god-daughter of Boy George, but she's a brilliant artist in her own right, performing 'summery', soulful 'reggae-pop' tunes. I caught up with Hollie after her performance at Village Green, however unfortunately, my voice recorder cut short, meaning I missed the first part of the interview! Rookie mistake, but anyway, lets jump in half way instead.....

You mentioned that you were surrounded by a lot of music when you were younger, do you think your family have influenced your sound and how you perform?

I think my family have influenced the way I make music. I mean really just by the music they played me as a kid and I think it's the same for anyone. You're influenced by what you grow up with and it was always, like, an eclectic mix of sounds; listening to the Cure and the Smiths and the Beach Boys and Michael Jackson and Dolly Parton and Diana Ross, you know? It was just lots of different things. And I guess that's kind of how I've been influenced, by what I'd listened to.

And how would you describe your sound?

I've typically been known to describe my sound as hippy-pop, which I guess is a really accurate way of describing it. It's predominantly reggae influenced... It's just got a few different vibes in there, it's very poppy I think, and it's just a nice, chilled, summery... not summery. I don't want to say summery! Definitely all time of year-y. It's just feel good man and it makes me feel good too.

We have our Youth stage here at Village Green - what advice would you give to young artists or bands looking to get into the industry?

I don't know if I'm good at advice! I think to just be really confident in what you're doing and enjoy what you're doing.... it's important to have that self-belief.

Have you got anything exciting lined up for us in the next year?

Just gigging really, this year over the summer I'll be playing shows at festivals in the UK, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain. That will take me through til about September, and then I'm gonna concentrate on making a new album towards the end of the year. I'd like to think I could do it all in one go, but I've discovered that maybe it's best to do all the gigs and all the travelling and all the experiencing. Just take it all in and then spit it all out into something creative.

Sound like you're fitting a lot in! Penultimate question, what would you say are the best and worst parts of performing and being in the public eye?

I think the best thing about being out performing and in the public eye would be getting a positive reaction I suppose. It's just nice isn't it? When people like what you're doing. It's fine if people don't, but when they do and they come to your shows, that's a part of what I really like, just that positive reaction. I guess the negative would be.... I don't know... sometimes you just don't want to talk to people when you don't want to because you're tired, but everyone has to do that anyway. I don't really find any negative parts to it, and I don't really consider myself to be a lot in the public eye other than when I'm out on stage playing shows, but when I come off stage I go away and see my friends and my family and that's it, you know?

And finally, if you had to choose one band or artist to perform with, who would it be?

I have no idea! I literally don't think I could answer that question...

Too many you like?

Yeah, I'd have to really sit down and weigh up the options, but you know, it would be wicked to get up on stage and play with Shirley Bassey!



Thank you so much to Hollie for chatting with me at Village Green, and for more info about Hollie's music, please click the link below.

http://holliecook.com/




1 comment:

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