Matthew Cook is one of my favorite artists who does mostly “cover” material because he relies on the melodies and emotions of the music to reach the listener rather than a lot of fancy fingerwork meant only to dazzle.

--Kathy Parsons, Solo Piano Publications

Matthew Cook Interview by Wendy Butler - Artwaves - Broadcast January 21, 2003

Introduction

WENDY BUTLER: Arcata pianist, song arranger and lyrics composer, Matthew Cook, has been playing piano since age six as his parents both indulged in music performance, valuing music in theirs and their children’s life repertoire.

Matthew doesn’t dramatize his musical passion. It just is, and it’s led him to do several albums over the last decade, primarily piano solo covers of a myriad of artists from George Gershwin to David Crosby, on his own label, Arianna, and with help from facilities like Big Bang Studios in Loleta. Cook has also produced Redwood Reflections, an album of 12 original songs.

He said he enjoys piano because of it’s exceptional musical range and it’s marvelous to arrange covers of songs that effect him personally, but aren’t necessarily well known. Like the Mary Black song, “No Frontiers”, on Cook’s Summertime album

Matthew Cook and I visited in his home studio last week:

Matthew: I choose songs that you don’t ordinarily hear piano players playing. Some of them are songs that most of the people that I encounter haven’t ever heard, even though I’ve heard them on other peoples’ albums. There’s a song, “No Frontiers”, that’s on a Mary Black album. It’s a beautiful song. It’s one of my favorite songs. Nobody knows it. It’s just so obscure.

Wendy: How does the number of original compositions, lyric or no--how does that compare to the covers you choose?

Matthew: The number of them?

Wendy: It seems recently, when I say recently, within the last several years, you’re going more toward original.

Matthew: I’m trying to. I’m not a really prolific writer. It takes a moment of inspiration for me to come up with something that’s really new. A lot of times when I sit down and try and write something, it’s something I’ve already done and it comes out and just very occasionally there’s a moment of inspiration where something new happens. To me it’s very noticable. I know that that’s a different moment. So I write as much as I can, but I’m not one of those people that can just sit down and write something new, on a whim.

Wendy: I don’t think many people can.

Matthew: No, there’s a few of those.

Wendy: I don’t know if your choice to do songs by other people--it sounds like it’s a cross between being one out of choice, but also out of necessity as you don’t think you can do it yourself, quick enough.

Matthew: I would say it’s partly by choice, partly by necessity. There’s a lot of really good songs that I feel like I can make my own. There’s certainly some original content in most of the covers that I play and a lot of my creativity is in coming up with ways to make those songs my own so that they’re personal to me, even though I didn’t write them. Also, there are a lot of times, when what people really want to hear is songs they know, so in response to that, I’ve also learned a lot of covers. When I’m performing live, it can be very difficult to get people to listen to original material. If I’m playing a lot of originals, they start asking me to play other songs, although I have a couple of originals people will also listen to and love.

Wendy: What’s one of those?

Matthew: “El Cuervo” and “If I Could Fill Your Cup”, which are both on my Redwood Reflections CD., I guess people think they sound like something they’ve heard before because they’re certainly willing to listen to them.

Wendy: Well, maybe it’s because they just like what you do.

Matthew: Well, that could be, too.

Wendy: Live performance. You and I have been talking about that a lot lately and when I first met you, I asked you, I don’t know how articulate I was, but I asked you this: when you play at the Benbow Inn, people don’t always just sit there, rapt, and listen. They’re doing other things. They’re talking. However, you like live performance. You want to develop that. Is that right?

Matthew: Yeah, that’s right.

Wendy: Do you have expectations for it, or what is live performance for you?

Matthew: In live performance there’s an actual interaction with other people. If someone buys my CD, takes it home and listens, they may feel like there’s an interaction there, but that doesn’t really translate to me, in any way.

Wendy: Unless they have some mental energy there.

Matthew: Yeah, I mean I get e-mails back. But in live performance, the interaction is immediate and it’s there. One of the things I really like about the Benbow Inn, is a great percentage of the people are really listening and quite often, they’re listening in a spellbound fashion. They’re just totally tuned in to the music and they’re not talking or they’re talking to each other in whispers. They’re really there, with me, and at that moment....

Wendy: And you’re really there obviously with them, because it sounds like you can really tell if they’re not listening.

Matthew: Oh yeah.

Wendy: You can feel it.

Matthew: Oh yeah.
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Matthew Cook mentioned in the early part of this interview that he plays at Garberville’s Benbow Inn. He has also played at Eureka Inn’s, Palm Lounge. Now Matthew Cook divides his time between studio work, remastering his catalog of solo piano covers and developing original material and playing at private parties, in clubs or concert halls. Live performance is quite important to him. We continue, now, with more on that.
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Wendy: Does that detract from your performance if say, for lack of a better phrase, you have a drunk, or whether it’s someone drinking or not, a person that’s got to have that conversation right now and you’re hitting that certain note and they’re not with you.

Matthew: If there’s a whole bar full of people like that and I’m just being background music, if it goes on long enough, it certainly effects my performance and that does happen. I’m playing in a bar and a bar has many functions and sitting and listening to music isn’t always the main one. There are times when it is and that certainly effects my performance when I know that people are really listening, I play better. There’s no doubt about that.

Wendy: What are the occasions when you’ve played, not in a bar like in that situation?

Matthew: Well, I’ve done some concerts. It’s been a couple years since I did a concert in Eureka. I’ve played at the Morris Graves, the Christian Church, I did a concert there

Wendy: Does that feel different? In what way did that feel different? Say you are giving a perfomance, people have come, they’re going to sit there and they’re going to sit there and they’re gonna listen.

Matthew: The only reason that felt different was the whole of that experience was with people listening, rather than having that just be part of my evening--no blenders in the background and that sort of thing. And you know, I obviously love doing that, you know when people are there with one reason only, and that is to hear the music. They’re certainly more receptive as an audience, which just brings out the best in me.

Wendy: Now, I was thinking about, I mentioned before I began here, collaboration in the past. You and Bishop Mayfield, who is a Garberville resident--you had the Mayfield-Cook Project and played at various locations including the Palm Lounge at the Eureka Inn. Is that the one specific collaborative?

Matthew: Actually, I’ve done quite of few of them. I’ve played a lot with Donna Landry. I’ve done some things with Karen Dumont. We did piano and drums with Mike Meyers. Those were all very fun. I like working with other people. I’m not, how can I say this, there’s a difference, being an accompanist.

Wendy: Is that where you were in those other--even with Bishop?

Matthew: To a large degree, yes. Although with Bishop, what we had, we used sequences where we had drums and bass and we had a full range of sounds to work with and that was a much more glorified version of being an accompanist.

Wendy: But again, being an accompanist, I mean if you don’t, if you hit a wrong note or if you don’t stop when it’s time to stop, or whatever, that effects the person you are accompanying...

Matthew: Uh huh

Wendy: There has to be a chemistry.

Matthew: It’s definitly, it’s a different thing than performing solo, but it’s also, it has it’s own set of skills.

Wendy: What if, sitting by yourself, I don’t know how much time, but do you have a specific amount of time each day or every other day that you devote to either composing or playing or arranging and you do it alone, or does it come upon you? Do you say “I’m going to do this from 2 o’clock to...”

Matthew: At different times in my life that’s set up differently. When I was living in Hawaii, I practiced 5 hours a day and that was from the time my child went to school. I would just sit down for 5 hours, no matter what else was going on. That was great, but these days I don’t really have a set practice schedule. It’s probably been a couple years since I did that. It comes and goes.

Wendy: When you did sit down....for instance, when you did Redwood Reflections or lets go back to creating “If I Could Fill Your Cup”, that song, what was the process for you? Because again, this was you, just you coming to this. What were the influences for it? How arduous a task was it?

Matthew: That was one of those things that just happened very quickly. It probably took me a couple hours, I think, probably over a period of three days. I kept rearranging the lyrics until I was happy with them, but the music, it was just sit down and there it is. That was one of those moments of inspiration that I was talking about.

Wendy: Was there anything that had happened in your life, would you say, that might have fed into it, or any song and how does your life feed into...

Matthew: Well, that particular song, it was coming up on Valentine’s Day and I didn’t have anything to give my wife and I thought, “gee, it would be great if I could write her a song. She’d really like that.” It just happened. It worked. I don’t know how to, you know, if I could make it happen like that every time I wanted it to, I’d be doing well and some of the other things on that album, in particular have developed over many, many years. There’s stuff on there that was first played--it was kind of written as far back as 1973. I think and it just kind of stayed with me and changed. I doubt if it would be recognizable as the same it was back then.

Wendy: What was it that might have begun in 1973? Does it have a title?

Matthew: Yeah, but I can’t remember which one it is right now. “Passage” was something--a song I wrote before I got married the first time, and it kind of changed over the years, as did that relationship. It’s something quite other than it was then. The basic idea of it is still the same. Important to me right now, because it’s a new project, is the album that I’m working on which is kind of--it’s a departure, intentionally, from the albums that I’ve done in the past which are fairly mellow, flowing music. The newer album should be out sometime before April and it’s all much more up-tempo work. It’s things that have been a part of my repertoire over the years.

Wendy: Is it all covers?

Matthew: It’s all covers.

Wendy: Is it all piano?

Matthew: Just piano. Let’s see, some examples of what’s on there: an up-tempo version of “All the Things You Are”, “Autumn Leaves”. For me, it’s kind of completing a whole group of covers--piano covers. This will be I think, 4-5 albums of piano covers and it sort of rounds out the catalog for me. At this time, my intention is that this will be the last album of piano covers that I do. That could change. That could change real soon, but at this point, this is the last one that I intend to do.

Wendy: What do you intend to do then?

Matthew: I would like to work more on another album of piano originals and I would also like to work on piano with other sounds. I don’t really know which direction that’s going to go yet. I’ve played around with sort of a new age sort of sound. I’ve played around with a little jazz combo kind of sound, but I feel like the catalog of covers--this is what was needed to kind of complete it for me anyway.

Wendy: Have your children--what sort of questions have they asked you about music or what do they say about..

Matthew: “When will you stop?”

Wendy laughs: Anything else?

Matthew: That’s most of it, actually.

Wendy: Does Kalista play?

Matthew: No.

Wendy: Well, Kai is obviously pursuing it for some reason other than to drown out your noise.

Matthew: He’s actually pursuing it because he wants to and he chose an instrument where I couldn’t teach him. I think that was a self-defense move. I was teaching him piano for awhile and he picked it up very well. Even with a guitar, with a minimum amount of effort, he’s sounding like something.

Wendy: How old is he?

Matthew: Twelve.

Wendy: Here’s a cliche question. How does it make you feel that he’s creating music?

Matthew: It’s a good thing. It has it’s downside. There’s a lot about music, that as a career, that I think no one would wish on their children, but there’s also a very satisfying part of that, that anyone would hope their children could enjoy. It’s a mixed bag.

Wendy: Have the two of you ever played together--like you on piano and he on guitar?

Matthew: No, we haven’t done that much. We’ve done a little piano and synthesizer. And I have shown him a little bit on guitar. We haven’t quite gotten to the point where we’re playing a song together.

Wendy: Do you want to?

Matthew: That’d be fun. It’s an opportunity that’s there and it would be good to take. I’m not sure how much he wants to.

Wendy: Well, when it happens, get it on film, get it on tape, for evidence!

Matthew: We actually, in a sense, we wrote a song together. He has writing credits on the song “El Cuervo.”

Wendy: Which is on what CD?

Matthew: On Redwood Reflections--but that was just really because he was singing this tune and I stole it from him and turned it into a song.

Wendy: He was singing a tune, just out of his head?

Matthew: Yeah, it was a song about a crow that he made up and I started playing along with him and before he knew it I had stolen the whole thing--turned it all around and made it into something else, but I do give him writing credit for it.

Wendy: Thank you to Arcata’s Matthew Cook. This song, “El Cuervo”, is a collaboration between Cook and his young son, Kai. “El Cuervo” is on a self-titled 1997, CD along with other solo piano music arranged and performed by Matthew Cook.

During this show we also heard Cook’s Storm Warning CD and his original Redwood Reflections CD. If you’d like to find out more about Cook’s music or purchase any of his music, you can go to the Metro, in Arcata, or you can pull up Matthew Cook’s website, www.matthewcook.com.


You are listening to Artwaves, produced each week for KSHU. I’m Wendy Butler and this is Artwaves.