Spotlight on Hollie Cook

Background

The daughter of Sex Pistols drummer, Paul Cook, Hollie grew up with music all around her Shepherd’s Bush home, to the extent it put any thoughts of higher education or acting and modelling ambitions, in the shadows.

“I tried the best I could at school, but I was a bit of an arrogant teenager. And further down the line I realised that I wasn’t naturally academic, so I was never going to be the lawyer my parents might have had in their minds,” she chuckles. “I’ve been interested in performance for ever though, and dad always offered me help. We played instruments together and he encouraged me to sing and write songs.

“The reggae thing was a part of my growing up. My friends and I used to go to [Soho club] Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues a lot to check it out, and at about the same time, listening to [‘queen of lovers rock’] Janet Kay got me super interested in reggae vocals.”

So many musicians’ kids try to follow in mummy/daddy’s footsteps, and for every Jeff Buckley there are countless copyists who just don’t have the timing, or the talent. But Hollie Cook isn’t attempting to beat a simple drum kit into Submission like her father did in the 1970s. And while his name and contacts are sure to have kicked open a few doors, she’s quick to stress her independent path. One that’s seen her sing with The Slits, Jamie T, Ian Brown, Belle Star Jennie Matthias, and currently with The Rotten Hill Gang, as she works up her solo career.

“Obviously I’m really proud of my dad and what he did, but most of the things I’ve gone on to do I’ve done on my own. [Late Slits singer] Ari Up was a family friend but I was one of five girls who recorded with her, and when she asked me to join the band I really don’t know whether my heritage was important or not. Ari was massively important to me. I wouldn’t be half the performer I am without having stood next to her on stage. It was, ‘Do what you want to do. Have confidence in yourself’. She would have been a huge inspiration to me whatever I went on to do. Before that, I was just too shy. The Slits really helped to turn that around.”

Hollie Cook LP

Introduced to the sounds of Mike Pelanconi, aka Prince Fatty, by a boyfriend, the wry handle a nod to the mighty King Tubby; Cook was struck by the producer’s approach.

“I just thought I’d love to be involved with what he does. I met up with him about five years ago. He said, ‘Come down to the studio and try a few things,’ and I went! It was really relaxed, no pressure at all. We did Milk And Honey together for his Survival Of The Fattest LP. It’s a really lovely combination. That was perfect. I was talking to him about some other projects, and then he said, ‘Why don’t we make an album?’ I was really touched and honoured by that. It’s as much his as it is mine, and I’d love to do more with him.”

The record features new takes on Milk And Honey, Cry, which Cook previously recorded for the final Slits LP, and a glorious reinvention of The Shangri-Las’ Remember (Walkin’ In The Sand). “I love girl group harmonies, I played a couple of songs to Prince Fatty, by The Crystals and The Shangri-Las, we tried out our versions, and that one worked best.”

With input from reggae names like Dennis Bovell, Pioneers man George Dekker, and drummer Style Scott, Hollie Cook is half an hour of the dynamic, deep blue beyond the murky shallows of Lily Allen’s debut, Alright, Still, which Pelanconi also worked on. There, the vocal had the rhythms in the vice like grip of ulterior motive. Here, it’s a much stronger relationship between the voice and the music, and at this stage at least, Cook isn’t about making fodder for the tabloids. She’s played to her considerable strengths, and made the album of the summer instead.

The album, out at the beginning of June on the Mr Bongo label, is a lovers rock record, a heartfelt product of the singer’s youth, spent steeped in reggae and ska.

Performance

Hollie Cook has proved herself as a backing singer on the live circuit, she has a great record to promote, and she is overcoming her spotlight inhibitions as plans for a tour of her own take shape.

“It’s natural to have certain insecurities, but the album has had some good feedback, and I really don’t care. Some people will like it, some won’t,” she smiles, as if it’s a practised mantra. “I have a couple of dates in the diary with Prince Fatty, where I’ll join him for a soundsystem, which is about as solo as it gets, and I’m starting to get a band together as well. The record’s really summer appropriate, so I think festivals are the best way to introduce me live to people, when they’re drinking, smoking, and the sun is shining. It’s like I’m giving a list of the ones I want to go to, but I’m doing The Big Chill, Glastonbury and a handful of others, which I’m really looking forward to.”

The Future

Her father’s band famously took everything it could from a record industry bound up with old school ties, and Cook is similarly dismissive of the contracts and control of yore.

“Everyone’s always saying how bad it is now, how records don’t generate the same amount of money, but my career has been all about performance. Even with The Slits we didn’t just release a record and sit back, we got out there and took it to people. Nothing’s ever like it was. That’s progress.” 

 

 

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Contact the editor: olivia.vanstraten@oceanmedia.co.uk