Gary James' Interview With American Idol Season Seven Winner
David Cook



If the name David Cook sounds familiar, it should. He won the seventh season of American Idol in 2008. His first album after winning Idol went Platinum. He followed that album with "This Loud Morning" in 2011 and "Digital Vein" in 2015. "Chromance" was to follow those two albums. And now David Cook is doing what? That's exactly what we set out to learn.

Q - David, you've got a new song, "Reds Turn Blue". This is a rather strange time to be releasing new material, isn't it?

A - Yeah.

Q - In past years you'd be on the road, promoting your new single, which I assume is from your new CD.

A - This is the first song. We've got another song in the can we're trying to get to record. Obviously with the pandemic it's been a little crazy. I'm just a little impatient. And so I wanted to get something out to get people excited. But the goal is to have this be part of, if nothing else, an EP for sure.

Q - So, it was a business decision on your part then?

A - Sure. Yes. My last song came out in the Fall of 2018. We toured on that for awhile. I had this song in the can that I was just really, really excited about. So, the opportunity came up to put it out now and I kind of jumped at it. So, hopefully with everything else going on in the world maybe the song can be a little four minute reprise.

Q - Let's hope so. The single is called "Reds Turn Blue" and the first song you ever wrote was called "Red Hot" when you were 15 years old.

A - (laughs)

Q - So, red is a part of your vocabulary, isn't it?

A - I guess so. My last EP was called "Chromance". Maybe music and color have some kind of relationship for me, I don't know. The song kind of talks about reds and blues and emotions and kind of the ups and downs of life. The letter is actually a letter from my anxiety to me. I kind of attacked this song as the opportunity to personify my anxiety and make it something other than myself and kind of help me navigate my relationship with it.

Q - What kind of song was "Red Hot", the first song you wrote?

A - A bad one. (laughs)

Q - I was referring to the style.

A - It was like an up tempo Rock song.

Q - You had a band at one time called Axium.

A - Yeah.

Q - And you got the song played in movie theatres across the U.S. They play songs before the main feature starts. So, how'd you get to do that?

A - The band had competed in some national Battle Of The Bands competition with "Got Milk?" and did well with it. That kind of piqued the attention with somebody affiliated with Movie Tunes. So, they brought us out to L.A. Got to play a show with a couple of other bands and one of our songs got played in movie theatres around the country, which at best, for a touring regional band, was a big deal.

Q - Does songwriting come easy to you?

A - Sometimes. I kind of write in waves. I went through a period where I don't finish any song or nothing feels good or strong. All of a sudden something will strike and I'm knockin' out like a few songs a week. When it's easy, it's easy. When it's not, it's pretty damn difficult.

Q - You don't have a songwriting partner, do you?

A - Not a dedicated one. I've worked with other people in the past and I enjoy it, but here lately I've just kind of tuned into writing on my own.

Q - When you say you're waiting for something to strike, are you reading a newspaper? Watching TV? Are you listening to what people are saying on the street?

A - I don't really pay attention to anything. That sounds weird. I think when I'm at my best I'm able to kind of take my peripherals off and not so much pay attention to all that stuff, but just kind of allow it to infiltrate a little bit. I've been inspired by newspaper articles. I've been inspired by movies. I've been inspired by other songs. I've been inspired by sculptures. I've been inspired by paintings, photography, past experience. Again, when I'm at my best I'm open to all those things.

Q - Is it an advantage to have professional experience before you go on one of those talent shows? I've noticed that more contestants these days have professional experience behind them.

A - Speaking from my own experience, it certainly helped that I had spent ten years before that playing in bands, figuring out "A" - what kind of music I like to play and "B" - what kind of music my voice is best suited (to). I was really fortunate that Idol, ours was the first season they allowed musical instruments. Like, we could play instruments. That was a benefit to me, but really being able to go in one week, figure out what song I'm doing, whatever the theme was and then either finding a song that fit my voice or kind of bending a song to fit my voice. I think if I hadn't gone through what I went through before and figured all that stuff out I definitely feel like I probably would have floundered on the show pretty quickly.

Q - And it was just a fluke that you auditioned for Idol. How much did you know about American Idol? Did you watch the show?

A - I knew of it. I lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma for a little while after college, which is like Carrie Underwood's neck of the woods. Every time you'd drive into the city you'd see this billboard with Carrie's face on it. Yeah, I was certainly aware of it. I think up to that point knowing how the style of music I felt like I was my lane; seeing how that had been received in the past on the show, it just didn't necessarily feel like an avenue for me. I think that mentality was something I held onto even going up to Omaha to hang out with my family. It really wasn't until we were standing in line and it was just like, "What the hell, worst case scenario they say no and I go right back to doing what I was doing." I think not having the opportunity to over-think it in that way certainly helped me, just kind of falling back into it.

Q - Just an observation, I've noticed that the promotional, publicity and marketing machine is in full gear for the contestants. When the winner is announced, that's it. We don't hear anything. Why is that?

A - I mean, it's a good question. I think the misnomer that some people have is that's it's a talent competition before it's a TV show. Maybe they view it as a TV show more than anything else and so that's where their money is gonna to go. I mean, it's their money. More power to 'em. I mean, this is more my personal indictment on the format, not just Idol, but just the reality show singing competition format is when it's at its best it's about contestants and it's allowing the viewing public to invest in those contestants. When it's not at its best it's about other things. I feel like a lot of the shows have angled more towards the judges panel and all the drama going on up there, which is great for a TV show, but not necessarily great for the contestants going through it. Although I will say this season (2020), I know it wasn't necessarily their choice, but I did enjoy that we got to see the contestants performing at home. I felt like seeing them in their habitat, in their space, kind of gave me the viewer another sense of who they are as people and hopefully on a normal level gets you to invest in them a little more. So, I'll be interested to see what happens to the people coming off the show this year, moving forward with their career.

Q - I know you've enjoyed quite a bit of success following your win on American Idol. You've recorded songs that charted high, you get endorsement deals, but apart from your talent, what do you attribute your success to?

A - Wow!

Q - Don't tell me no one has ever asked you that!

A - Honestly, no one has ever asked me that question before. I don't know. I don't know that that's my question to answer. I try to be a genuine person, both in how I try to interact with people at shows and off stage. I also try to be genuine in music that I'm putting out there. Ideally what I would hope is that people are tuning into that. That's a great question. I don't have an answer. I don't have a firm answer for it.

Official Website: www.DavidCookOfficial.com

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