Track by Track: Will Joseph Cook - If You Want To Make Money EP

Happy nearly-the-end-of-2017! It's only October, but already the year's winding up with hot new releases making way for X Factor contestants of old and random TV stars like Shane Ritchie. But fear not - there are still a few good 'uns coming, like this here three-track effort from Will Joseph Cook; a welcome short-but-sweet treat to follow his debut album from earlier in the year.

"All the songs are about throwing off the pressures of success and validation," he says. "I feel like being so connected makes us constantly compare our lives to unachievable and often fake lifestyles; the EP is my response to that."

If You Want To Make Money

I wrote ‘If You Want To Make Money’ about wanting to trade your life for one you saw online. So many young people want, or compare themselves to, an LA Instagram lifestyle. The song develops to realise its all a front, and the people we’re aspiring to are just as unsatisfied as we are. It’s also an anti Fiji water protest song.

Holly Wood

'Holly Wood' is about being at party full of people and only one person there really gets you. It’s also about hopes and aspirations, wanting to do something memorable and exciting with my life without just following well-trodden paths and cliches. When I was recording the first arrangement demo at home, I was referencing The Cure at their most pop and other bands like Public Image Ltd. and The La’s.

Fish

'Fish' is the final track of the EP. Writing it was such a strange experience, it turned from a provocative funny song title into one of my favourite songs that I’ve written. I think its the antithesis of what the EP is working towards lyrically. Recording this track was really exciting/important for me. As much as it is the closing track of the EP, I also feel it leaves things very forward facing. It felt like need territory for me.