Collette Cooper brings her powerful blues to Rye

SussexWorld

Award-winning singer Collette Cooper brings her powerful blues set Collette Cooper Sings The Blues to The Brewery Yard Club on Landgate in Rye from 8pm on Saturday, August 26.

Transcript

00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really fantastic

00:06 this morning to be speaking to Colette Cooper, who is heading to the Rye Jazz and Blues Festival

00:11 on August 26th. And Colette, you're going to be singing the blues. Tell me a bit about

00:17 where this music comes from for you.

00:22 It comes from in my soul. I think it's in my blood and my soul. I have Irish roots.

00:27 I'm from Manchester, I'm working class and I think we have a lot to...

00:32 It's a good mixture of things for singing.

00:36 We've got a lot of blues to sing about. And I think it's just a real passionate genre

00:43 of music. That's what I love about the blues.

00:45 And one of the things is blues tends to tell a story, doesn't it?

00:50 It tells a great story. You can convey a really amazing story, whichever story that is, usually

00:55 heartache of some kind. And yeah, you can convey a really good, truthful, honest story

01:03 through the blues, you know, and it has such passion.

01:06 And blues is largely about emotion, isn't it?

01:09 It is. It's about emotion. So you can put all kinds of emotions in there. It's about

01:15 truth and realism. So it's raw, you know, so whatever you're feeling at the time, it's

01:21 going to come through. It's not premeditated, it's not rehearsed, you know, in that sense.

01:27 It's not polished. And that's what I love about the blues, because it's real.

01:30 But it doesn't have to be sad, negative, difficult emotions, does it?

01:36 No, absolutely not. No, no. You know, it can be very uplifting. It can be very inspiring,

01:43 you know. You can tell some very inspiring stories through that. And it inspires people,

01:47 I think.

01:48 And a decent proportion of your work is your own, isn't it? Your own compositions.

01:52 Yes. Yeah.

01:53 And there'll be a few new ones, right? As you head towards a new album?

01:58 Yes. I've got a couple of new ones I'll be trying out in the festival. Well, trying out,

02:04 but you know, seeing how the audience likes them, hopefully they get a sneak peek, which

02:08 is great. And I'm going to be performing some of my own, my back catalogue, and some blues

02:14 classics as well.

02:15 Fantastic. Is that the way to do a new album? You try it out live first and see what the

02:20 response is?

02:22 I think it's good to. I don't even see what the response is, but I think it's good because

02:27 I think things change before you record them, if you try them more. I've always noticed

02:34 whenever I'm performing my old stuff, it changes every time. And I always feel it gets better.

02:41 And I always think, I don't like the record now. I like to work on it before. And there's

02:47 no rush. I don't, I don't understand people who want to just bring out an album after

02:52 one album. I mean, it's like, you've only just brought one out last year. Why are you

02:55 doing that? You know, we've got to live first, whatever genre.

02:59 It's good that you're talking about an album, isn't it? Sometimes you fear for albums, don't

03:05 you? Because so many people just think about EPs, which will make you come back, or singles,

03:09 etc. It's a lovely thing to have a proper album, isn't it?

03:13 Absolutely. I mean, I probably will release a couple of singles first and maybe release

03:17 a little EP first.

03:18 You're a modern girl then.

03:19 Yeah, but you've got to go with the flow, Phil, you know, I mean. So yeah, I mean, I'll

03:26 probably do it like that. I will. Then the album will be at the end. But yeah.

03:31 And Rye is somewhere you are looking forward to playing?

03:34 I love Rye. Absolutely love Rye. It's such a beautiful time. We go there every year because

03:40 we've got a little dog. And he's a really bad traveller, Phil. And I can't bear to be

03:46 without him. So I never go anywhere now. I never go overseas because I can't bear to

03:51 be without him. So can we go as far as Rye? Because after an hour's journey for him, he's

03:56 like, "Arrgh!"

03:57 That's the limit of his endurance, is it?

03:59 Yeah, that is the limit, an hour. So Rye is about an hour. So we love Rye. We stay at

04:05 Jeke's house sometimes and lots of places. It's really lovely. So beautiful.

04:10 You're at the Rye Jazz and Blues Festival on August the 26th this year. Really lovely

04:17 to speak to you. Thank you.

04:18 Oh, hope you can come.

04:19 I hope so too. Thank you.

04:20 You too. Bye.

04:20 I hope so too. Thank you.

04:22 Bye.

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