Q&A: Will Joseph Cook Talks Side Projects, His Community Fanbase & the Tenses of Love Ahead of His Upcoming Third Album ‘Every Single Thing’
A NAME WORTH HAVING IN YOUR VOCABULARY — UK artist Will Joseph Cook’s addicting lyricism and refreshing indie pop glaze has kept fans wanting more since his debut in 2017, Sweet Dreamer. Cook’s electric melodies and luminous atmosphere help to create a sound that is both lovely and relatable. Authenticity is an important piece of what makes an artist likable, and that is exactly what Cook naturally holds. His three new singles, “4AM,” “Little Miss,” and “Kisses,” are prime examples of that honesty we all crave. “4AM” perfectly analogizeses the complete submersion that love can cast on you without knowing exactly how to express that emotion. In “Little Miss,” Cook beautifully describes the sudden importance a person can have in your life by bringing personification to inanimate objects. His latest single, “Kisses,” is a classic WJC hopeless romantic track, complementing Cook’s original style while also showing off his evolved musicality. The track pairs a funky dance pop vibe with the feelings of a sweet infatuated love.
But Cook is certainly no one-trick pony. In addition to his music, he co-hosts a podcast, which coincidentally has the same name as his label, Bad Hotel. The podcast — much like his writing — strips away the constrictive confines musicians and other artists have to get the true unfiltered versions of creative minds. Cook is certainly no stranger to love, and he shows it in his relationship with his fanbase — he is an energetic and wholesome presence amongst his fans. Whether it be livestreaming on Twitch or generating quirky, zestful TikToks, Cook proves to be the chill, positive, and welcoming persona that we see through his music.
Read on to unveil more details about his third upcoming album, Every Single Thing, out June 10.
LUNA: Let’s talk about “Kisses” — are you excited for your record to be out soon?
COOK: Yeah, I am. I am going on tour in Europe in May with Declan McKenna, so that's taking up my brain, and then I've got my release right after that so I am super excited, of course.
LUNA: I wanted to talk about your new single that was released, cKisses.” Why did you choose that as the single?
COOK: It was just one of my favorites. It was one that I picked out to be released as a single when I finished the record. With the first two singles, “4AM” and “Little Miss,” I wanted to show the breath of the record a little bit — they are kind of at the two ends of the spectrum of how the record sounds, and then “Kisses” is more like down the middle. It's like the single on my last record … so it’s like “Be Around Me”’s big sister.
LUNA: You’ve said before that your last record was a bit more biographical than the last. Is that the same for [Every Single Thing] or is it a bit more fictitious or both?
COOK: The album's theme is a 10-track album of love songs. It covers things about where I'm at right now [like] the relationship I'm in, and the only movement of fictitious writing on it is a mix of my life and one of my favorite movies, and it’s this track called “The Feels,” and it’s half-based on the closure that I would liked to have had and also loosely based on this movie called Blue Jay.
LUNA: I’ve never seen it.
COOK: It’s on Netflix — it’s a little indie movie, and if you want to cry, it's a good movie for that.
LUNA: All right, I will definitely write that down. I love a good movie to cry to! Going back to the music, did these songs come easily to you while you were writing?
COOK: Yeah, they all flowed out in a relatively short space of time. All the lyrics and chords I wrote all on my guitar basically, and it all came together in four months worth of writing. Then I recorded the album in about five and a half weeks, and then it was done. So it was a very quick process compared to things I've done in the past. I think I just had a lot of creativity that had built up during the pandemic.
LUNA: Jumping back a bit, I wanted to talk about the music video for “Kisses.” What was the creativeprocess behind that?
COOK: That is a good question! It is an odd one — for all of the music videos so far, it's all love songs, and we wanted to take the various stylistic tropes that love is expressed in film and music.
LUNA: Oh yeah, that’s cool!
COOK: So on the first one, [“4AM,”] is referencing the age of teenage romance, like Perks Of Being A Wallflower — that kind of frustrated love; there are a lot of visual references in that. In the second music video, [for “Little Miss,”] we were referencing the romcom golden age, like that classic John Cusack stuff. Then this one, [“Kisses,”] was kind of like Pride and Prejudice vibes, which is cool because I grew up in rural England, and the place where we filmed it was a place that I used to go to as a kid. It’s not like my family home, don't worry, but my mom is an art teacher and she used to teach painting at this place. Some of the people that really loved her work there and a friend of my mom’s said that we could come and film there.
LUNA: Do you ever have any hesitations or fears with writing something more personal?
COOK: I used to a lot more. And then I think, on the record, the moments that feel like the most unfiltered me or in the most light-hearted moments — as much as the heavier moments — I felt like those lyrical and musical moments were the things that people actually liked the most. I think being met with such a good reception really inspired me to do it more. Some people find it easy to pull themselves out like that, but I don’t know — it’s nice to get a bit of confirmation. The more of yourself that you can share, that’s the most valuable thing you can do with art or with anything. It’s that other people see themselves in your experience, they relate to it, and that’s the whole point of it. So it’s definitely a fear that I try to get over.
LUNA: How does that compare to playing your songs live? I know you toured last month — how was the reaction to the newer music?
COOK: The best-received ones are the latest singles, which [is] really cool! It’s good to feel the most excitement about what you were most excited about, because I’ve played the other songs too many times. But no, it’s always fun — the live shows are like the final destination of everything; it's like the celebration of everyone having a connection with your music. When it’s really good it overrides my brain. On the last show, I wasn’t even really thinking while we were playing — I was just in the flow of the experience with the audience. It is really good; I find it quite nerve-racking still every time, [but] then again, when it’s well-received … it just becomes really intuitive.
LUNA: I don’t know if this is too revealing, but is there a story to this album? I know you said this is a 10-track album of love songs, but is there a chronological order to things?
COOK: There isn’t a narrative that flows chronologically, but if it was to be cut down into three subcategories, it starts with stuff that’s more like what I’m looking through at the moment or my stream of consciousness — the emotions that are very current that I’m living through right now, which is more of the positive stuff. [The second category] of tracks are me reflecting on the past or how I used to feel when I was younger. There’s a track called “BOP,” that is, how I used to feel about flirting or the idea of being with someone when I was a teenager within the setting of a house party. It’s like a love [that] was just very fictitious; that’s a reference in pop culture but you can’t really relate to it. And then the closing track on the album, “Guaranteed,” is a bit more existential and not that romantic; it's more like a “why on earth do we fall in love, why does anything exist“ kind of thing. So, [the album goes from] what I’m experiencing right now, things I’m reflecting on in the past and how I used to feel towards it, and how … I [maybe] will feel when I'm about to die.
LUNA: I want to ask your point of view on other artists and musicians using social media for self promotion, and what’s your relationship with that?
COOK: I think it can be done really well. There is a lot of creative emotional energy that goes into it. You know, I’m no stranger to shitposting! There is just a “you have to post to exist” [attitude] on these things. It’s been kind of difficult actually juggling [posting]. I found it really easy on the last record because I could compare myself to making my presence online meaningful. And then this time around, [and] suddenly you're back on tour, but there are other opportunities coming up, and you have a social life, and like all of this other shit.
LUNA: Yeah, it’s like, how do you even have time to be present on social media?
COOK: Yeah, so I try to put as much [of] myself into it. It's something that I’m trying to work out: how I can share more of the stories of this album. I think that I find it great when you actually give something meaningful back to your audience — it's like you make something specifically for one person. For example, make something with your fans: I started working with fans on Twitch to make things and on TikTok as well. I will get people to give me their name and I’ll write a song with [their] name. Stuff like that.
LUNA: Even though stuff is posted on social media for the world basically, it feels more personal when a musician that you like makes specified content for upcoming projects or just in general. It’s always fun to see that.
COOK: That’s how you don’t burn out! Coming back to your question — how do I feel about it — you can view it as just being like, “OK, this is a way to build a community and talk to people.” Or you can view it as a numbers game, like how many likes or whatever the fuck you want to get. And that’s depressing because it’s a very fickle reward system. When you can have actual people within your fanbase that you have relationships with — like a dialogue — then suddenly you don’t really care about the other stuff.
LUNA: I want to talk a bit about Bad Hotel — I’m very happy that it’s back! I haven’t listened to the new episode yet, but I wanted to know: How does it feel coming back to the podcast?
COOK: Yeah, good, good! I was a bit nervous getting back into recording them, but I am doing the first two episodes back-to-back, so in a week or so I’ve got the next one coming with an artist called Dodie. So I am editing that one soon-and it feels really good. The reason why I started the podcast was … to feel less alone in the industry. It gives time to get another opportunity to have an extended conversation with other creators that are actually meaningful. Usually, you’ll just bump into each other at a party or an award show or whatever. So basically it’s just me indulging in being nosy with other people's creative process work.
LUNA: I will be looking forward to the new Dodie episode! Just one last fun question to end our time: If you could rank all three of your albums, in terms of what was the most fun to write, how would you rank them?
COOK: It would have to be this new one, [Every Single Thing], in terms of the fun of it, definitely! I got to go to Mexico — that was cool!
LUNA: Oh, really!
COOK: Yeah, I wrote it at home in England pretty quickly, and then we started working online with my producer — Matt and I. And we got about three tracks done, but it took so long and the internet at home was not great. So as soon as restrictions let up, we could work around [finding a better solution]. He’s from LA, so we met in Mexico City. He had a studio there so we did the rest of the album in two weeks, and then I came home. It was really fun to just be like, boom, go on holiday and then come back and I got a record that’s mastered and finished.
LUNA: Oh wow, yep I can definitely see how that reigns as No.1. Anything else we should expect from you for the rest of the year?
COOK: I would just say that I’m doing a cool side project alongside this album where I’m doing lo-fi, R&B and hip-hop versions of the tracks. So keep an eye out for more of them coming.
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