In Wesley Adams Cook’s songs, the music slings the spirit on its back and goes for a spin on the dance floor of the mind.
His new song, “Raining On My Laundry,” dropping on May 31, is like a fast, rock-pop tango, with the driving beat supplied alternately by keyboards, drums and clapping hands, with light guitars on the melody.
Then there’s the lyrics, a mix of nature:
Its been raining on my laundry
Most of the afternoon
The love interest endemic to pop:
No Harris Tweed to entice her
No gabardine to make her swoon
And — don’t be scared — metaphysics:
And all I’ve got now is flesh and bones
I can’t disguise what I dislike
Beneath a tale spun from what I own
“It was one of those cool inspiration songs,” he said. “I was living in Boston at the time. We had a washer, and I would hang my clothes outside. I walked into the kitchen one day, and one of my roommates was there. She said, ‘Hey, it’s raining on your laundry.’ And I was like, ‘Wup. That’s a song.’ And it just immediately came.”
That was the lyrics arriving.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this is great!’ because just think, all clothing is kind of like things that we show to the world, and what would happen if those started getting pulled aside to uncover what’s beneath, and you sat vulnerable and exposed, really laid bare in front of someone?”
Two other things are common to his music. One is the song was written sometime in his past, and when he gets the opportunity to record, mix, produce and engineer the track, the music and the feel are subject to change from the inspiration or inspirations of the moment.
“Raining On My Laundry” is a good example. This fun, fun song, written years ago and recorded this year, started off as a ballad.
“And then, shortly before recording, I heard these two different songs. One was a remix of an Ed Sheeran song, and one was a Justin Timberlake song. And I just started singing my song over these other songs — I like doing that, just to get a sense and a feel — and I heard it! I was like, ‘Man! I want this song to be fun.’”
To give it that fun feel, he changed the chord structure in some places, kept it in others (the bridge and the choruses), changed the melody to a minor key “and then just gave it this cool, fun feel.”
Wesley has a lot of music that he has written over a period of years, more than 80 songs, but he only began recording and releasing it last year.
“I was living in my car in the deserts of Sedona, and one morning it just came to me intuitively. ‘It’s time to start recording your music.’”
This song will be his seventh release, to go with the six-track EP Caught In The Middle from 2023.
He is a singer, musician, guitarist, a lyricist and composer, but he has made no money from his music yet. That would be nice, but it is not his main concern.
“I like doing it,” he said.
His career to date has primarily been creating songs.
“One of the things I like doing is writing songs, and I have a lot of them. Getting into the studio and getting them recorded, particularly with other people who I enjoy doing it with, really just comes down to a matter of availability.”
He will only work with people he likes to work with, and right now that is one person. He has, he says, “strong intentions” about his music.
“The guy who I work with right now, he’s usually only available twice a year, if I’m lucky. I’d do it a lot more, but I also have a standard. I’m not going to work with just anybody.”
The six he has out so far are all different sounds and feels, which are included in his intentions, but they can’t really be categorized by genre.
Addressing the question of genre, he said, “I’m in the same boat as everyone who’s asked me this. I’ve been asked many times, like, ‘What style of music do you do?’ And I’ll say, ‘Yes, please. What kind of music do I do?’”
And when he plays for people, they say, “Wow. You’re right. We don’t know what to put it in, but there’s a theme that is unique to you.”
Talking about his music, he comes up with a wide variety of inspirations. Sting tops the list, but there’s also, in no particular order, Elton John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin, The Four Seasons, Muse, The Doors, the African song he heard in an audiobook that inspired him to write a song about the trans-Saharan slave trade, oldies in general, classical music, rock, R&B, musicals.
The longer he talks, the more he comes up with, and the more songs he talks about that he has written but that aren’t out yet.
The six that are out already, and the seventh on the way, are great rides musically and lyrically.
“When I say I set strong intentions for my music, you could call it prayers or you could call it energies, or you could call it things that are going to bless people.”
Go dancing in your head with the music of Wesley Adams Cook. Connect to him on all platforms for new music, videos and social posts.
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