2011-06-28 – BILLBOARD - David Cook Talks 'This Loud Morning' - Video Track-By-Track (Interview -...

8/6/2019 2011-06-28 BILLBOARD - David Cook Talks 'This Loud Morning' - Video Track-By-Track (Interview - Full transcript)

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2011-06-28 BILLBOARD - David Cook Talks 'This Loud Morning': Video

Track-By-Track (Interview) (Full transcript by Closeyoureyes)

STORY: http://www.billboard.com/news/david-cook-talks-this-loud-morning-video-

1005253652.story#/news/david-cook-talks-this-loud-morning-video-1005253652.story

VIDEO: http://www.mtv.com/videos/news/668606/a-closer-look-at-david-cooks-this-loud-

morning.jhtml

NOTE: Text in underline italics does not appear in the video, and was presumably edited out of the

final cut.

ForDavid Cook's second album since his "American Idol" season seven victory, he penned -- no

joke -- nearly 80 songs. Ultimately, he managed to narrow it down to just a dozen tracks for

"This Loud Morning," out today (June 28).

Cook tells Billboard.com that he's been working on this album since wrapping up the

Declaration Tour in December 2009. And naturally, taking his time has allowed Cook to create

what he calls a "more complete musical endeavor" than his 2008 platinum self-titled album.

"You can listen to the single if you want to go listen to the single, but if you listen to the record as

a whole, it takes on this entire experience," Cook tells Billboard.com. "You gotta go back a few

times and listen to catch all of the headphone nuggets."

Cook tells the stories behind the twelve songs that made the cut for "This Loud Morning" in our

video track-by-track above. Read below for highlights from our chat with Cook.

[START OF VIDEO]

Hi, everyone! Im David Cook, and this is Billboard.com in case you didnt look at themicrophone [points to logo on mic]

[snip of The Last Goodbye music video]

You know, this record This Loud Morning kind of all stems from a period of time when we d

just started putting the record together, and I was trying to find a focus for it. I think this record isjust a look into those moments in your life when really, your only reprieve from life is kind of

that dream sequence you put together, this 7 to 8 hours that you go to sleep. So

1. "Circadian"
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It was actually a late player into the game. We weren't exactly sure how it [the song] was going

to pan out, but it became a really important piece to the puzzle really quick. Great vocal hook inthat song, which I like. We havent played it live yet - and Im looking forward to that.

6. "Take Me As I Am"

'Take Me As I Am' is probably the most power-ballady of the songs on the record. We got an

orchestra from Germany to do the strings, and they really did an incredible job . The song itself Iwrote with Marti Frederiksen, who's written a ton of stuff and Scott Stevens, the singer from The

Exies. The song came together really quick I remember wed been trying to write something

for a few hours, and we kept hitting wall after wall after wall. And so we decided to take a five,

ten minute break. And during that break I was just kind of noodling on the guitar I played E,C# minor, A, and I was just kind of strumming through that. And Marty came in, and then Scott

came in The structure of that song came during that 15 to 20 minutes. I don't think I'd ever

put a song's structure together that quickly.

7. "Time Marches On"

Time Marches On is another Marti and I song. That song I love that eerie chant that goes on

through that song. To me, 'Time Marches On' is the tipping point of the album. Up until that

point, I think every song had been about the hopeful side of love and life and all that, and 'TimeMarches On' is that tipping point where I guess maybe you move to the next stage of grief

if that makes any sense - where all of a sudden it's like, 'OK, no matter what happens, the clock's

gonna keep moving and we all have a finite amount of time. Unless something crazy happens,that song is actually the last time I used, or will use, the AC Les Paul that I played on Idol. I didthat guitar solo on that guitar, and its been eternally shelved, so [shrugs]

8. "The Last Goodbye"

"Our first single off the new album, and it's a co-write I did with Ryan Tedder ofOneRepublic.

The song itself kinda was born out of I wanted to try this experiment. I've always loved thosesongs where you really get into the lyrics and realize that the musical vibe and the lyrical vibe

if you just take them at base value, they don't necessarily match up, but somehow they coexistinto this great song. Musically its really happy, upbeat. And lyrically were talking about the

end of a relationship. I loved the vibe that it gave the lyrics that the music give the lyrics andvice versa. Because I think that they balance each other out in a way that Im glad it was

implemented. I dont think that was necessarily the firm intention. It was just like Lets try it

and see what happens. Yeah, it just happened. I'd never written a song like that before.
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9. "Paper Heart"

"Probably my favorite story on this whole record. I hated this song after I wrote it. I wrote it

with Jim Irving and Julian Emory, and Im sure they love me telling this story. We finished the

song and I just wasn't crazy about it. I didnt get it, it didnt resonate with me, even though I

wrote it. So it was just likealright, that

s that

. But everybody else was so into that song and I just couldn't figure it out. I was like I dont know why. But okay if everybody else is crazy

about that song, maybe its worth doing. And so we chased it down and it ended up being one ofmy favorite songs on this record."

10. "4 Letter Word"

4 Letter Word is one I did with Matt Squire and Claude Kelly. I love the tongue-in-cheek aspect

of [this song]. Love is obviously a four-letter word, but it's also implying that love is a curse

word. It's kind of a jaded view on love, but I think again it fit into the back-half of this record.Yeah, I love the poly-rhythm of that song kind of how everything plays off each other, and

how actually the guitar riff starts on 3 of a 4 beat measure. Which I love those kinds of

moments. Like when the riff comes in at the beginning of the song, you feel like it s the one ___of the song and then the jumps come in on what feels like the middle of the measure when it s

actually the beginning Yeah, I dont know lot of fun to play live .. what little weve done inrehearsals.

11. "Goodbye to The Girl"

Its a song I wrote with my guitar players, Neal and Andy. I think it segues nicely into the lasttrack, Rapid Eye Movement. I think on surface value, when I was writing it, I wanted to write

about that moment when mentally, youve hit bottom. But of course, I dont necessarily just want

to write, like, you know, about suicide. And so I just wrote about those down moments, whenyou feel like youve hit bottom. But theres still that glimmer of hope And I tried to personify

it as a woman. And thats kind of where Goodbye To The Girl came from. I love the haunting

aspect of the song. When we got done tracking that song, it stayed with me. It's like when you go

to a smoky bar and you leave and your shirt smells like cigarette smoke, I felt like that song was

the cigarette smoke on my shirt.

12. "Rapid Eye Movement"

Rapid Eye Movement it definitely harkens back to my pre-Idols stuff. I love how heavy that

song is, you know. And I dont mean heavy like metal [mimes metal-axe]. I mean heavylike to me, it just has a lot of depth in the way it was produced and put together. And that song

was actually the catalyst for the entire record. I wrote that with David Hodges. And I made it a


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point with that song to push my own kind of musical limitations. We created this kind of outro-

interlude for this song that then ended up working in conjunction with the start of the record."What I love about that is now you have 'Rapid Eye Movement' and 'Circadian' as kind of sister

songs -- they kind of play off each other. But the way that "Rapid Eye Movement" comes out andthe way that "Circadian" comes in gives the record more of a cyclical feel, which, as a fan of

music, I'm glad that we were able to do that.

2011-06-28 – BILLBOARD - David Cook Talks 'This Loud Morning' - Video Track-By-Track (Interview -...

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