David Cook Reveals Song Titles, Discusses Writing Process in New Idolatry Interview
Lots of NEW ALBUM scoop in this latest David Cook interview with Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly.
- Check it out right HERE.
David is hard at work on his next album and working with familiar names like Raine Maida and Chantal Kreviazuk, David Hodges and Brian Howes. But, there are also new collaborators thrown into the mix, including, Max Martin, Claude Kelly, Tommy Hedrickson and Ryan Tedder.
A few songs titles David was willing to reveal: “You and I” and “Tonight is On Your Side” were written over a few, at times, difficult days with David Hodges. Another song he’s excited about is “With Me Empty” written with is bandmates, Neil Tiemann and Andy Skib. “Boomerang” was written with Brian Howes during a trip to Vancouver.
For David, the songwriting process begins with chord progressions and the melody. He compares the process to his Idol days, when theme weeks helped to set parameters, allowing him to explore ideas.
David’s evolving sound will incorporate more piano, and use the guitar as just another instrument rather than “the basis of the song”.
Oh, and David has learned to love the twitter…
Posted in 
Tags: 125 Responses to “David Cook Reveals Song Titles, Discusses Writing Process in New Idolatry Interview”
I, like sunchick, am a lyrics first person. I wouldn’t listen to the best song in the world if it had cheesy lyrics. So if the lyrics don’t move me in some way then I just won’t listen. That’s why I listen to OLP, FOB, and Say Anything. They have some great lyrics, but they all have some misses.
80% of Cook’s songs have great lyrics. Off of DCTR I think IDIFY, CBTM, and Heroes have cheesy lyrics. Granted he didn’t write CBTM, and Heroes isn’t *that* bad. In my opinion some of the best lyrics on DCTR are Mr. Sensitive, A Daily Anthem, and Kiss on the Neck. As lyrics go, Axium and Analog Heart have some fantastic lyrics. I also like the lyrics to Make Believe and Souvenir. That’s all I have to say. LOL
Interesting to see the different responses to Make Believe and the recent song snippet pop up. I see both with great potential but did cringe a bit at the lyrics of the last song. This is why I get a bit jumpy at news of all the collaborators. I trust Dave’s lyrical voice, but the big hitmakers, not so much. Loaded with cheese, cliches or just mindless repetition. Considering that the big radio hits are dominated by these kind of songs, I just can’t envision that as a dream for David. I want him to have great success in his terms, keeping his musical visions well intact. Sure, there are necessary tradeoffs, but the road is littered with folks who sell integral parts of themselves to make it big. I love and trust Dave but he is human and therefore not immune from the siren’s call. I do think his nature combined with the groundedness of his family and friends make it pretty unlikely that he’ll stray too far from himself. The man seems to have an excellent inner compass and appears to be handling the craziness of his new life very well so far.
I can easily see this next album as topping his first major label album and sending his career soaring. That sense is based on both Dave’s potential, his smarts and the way he has solidly laid the foundation for future success. We all make judgments based on some combination of both external and internal evidence so we’re bound to have a range of responses. It’s all good.
We all want Cookie to blow up! Of course that’s (mostly) everyone’s secret wish.
I just like to hope for the best and expect the… probable. Heh. The idol decline in album sales is a very real phenomenon, even when the product is good. Plus, he’s in a genre that is not “hot” in terms of airplay right now. All that to me adds up to 500-700K in albums and some steady HAC play w/ a good sized pop hit in a reasonably optimistic/realistic scenario. I have no idea what RCA will require of him, but I hope that’s enough to get to album 3.
If we don’t get the whole enchilada this go around, then I at least want him to get another album. Of course I’ll root for a Taylor Swift Level Event – lol, but I won’t be disappointed if he “just” manages to turn a profit and keep his name out there enough for one more go around.
David’s style of writing lyrics combined with his amazing voice are the things that draw me to him the most. Neither of those qualities were showcased enough in his last album, so I agree with Hazehel…I don’t think he has peaked yet. Until he gets the right kind of TV exposure that lets him perform the songs that really make him shine, rather than the Magic Rainbows, or CBTM, then there will continue to be room for growth. I think that Billie Jean is a great example of David’s potential. I’m also pretty sure that if David had performed Lie or Permanent on SNL or with the frequency that he performed Light On publicly, he would have made a bigger impact. I think the key is finding that song (like Billie Jean) that markets him as both as a rocker and as a great vocalist. The fact that Cook is even thinking of doing a vocals-only song, means that he is really acknowledging his vocal gift, which is terrific, IMO.
I’m definitely a melody and rhythm person first and foremost. The lyrics are secondary unless they are standouts. So in that respect, Cook is an exception to the rule. However, not even David Cook could make me appreciate a terrible melody….I’m better off just reading poetry. On the other hand, if a song has a really good melody and/or rhythm, I can easily enjoy it, even if it has very few lyrics (eg. Return to Innocence by Enigma) or if it has silly lyrics (e.g. BEP). I draw the line with cheesy lyrics, however, especially if someone like David Cook is being made to sing them. I think I can only tolerate cheesy “inspirational” lyrics if they are being peformed by children, Whitney Houston, Country artists or in a religious or “we are the world”-type context…I think that covers it.
ETA: Since everyone is weighing in…I also wasn’t overaly excited about Make Believe or that song snippet. However that particular snippet is kind of what I would have expected with that particular collaborator, so I wasn’t too concerned.
This post is going to get pushed off the front page sidebar soon, so I’ll just say my last words on this– I’m not a lyrics first person, but I can agree with the everything you said above. That said, I like the lyrics in Make Believe and Souvenir without liking those songs at all. That’s just me though.
As for the pop vs rock argument, I guess I’m not that concerned with genre labels. If the songs are awesome, and do well, and the public thinks their awesome, and helps DC do well, I don’t care if people call it pop. I can’t imagine DC songs ever sounding straight pop anyways. And if the songs are awesome and massive, I won’t care if Ryan Tedder or whoever else I may hate wrote or produced them. I complain all the time about radio making unfair judgments of Idols without even listening to the music because of the Idol stigma. I it’d be hypocritical if I were predisposed to hate any Ryan Tedder-like collabs without listening to the music just cuz I have preconceived ideas about the guy. Now, when can we hear more music
.
ETA: May, I’m the same as you. Not even DC could make me listen to a terrible melody with good lyrics. Conversely, I also draw the line at cheesy lyrics. I think No Air is a kickass pop/R&B song, but the lyrics are beyond awful. That’s why it stands at mild-like to indifference rather than love.
I’m still here! And yes I don’t listen to other languages. It drives me insane.
I’ll answer, too, in case you’re still reading. I don’t really do foreign language music. Well, there was my brief guilty pleasure infatuation with Ricky Martin, and the fact that he sounds sexier when he sings in Spanish. Don’t judge. Oh, and I’ve been to the opera and loved it regardless of the language thing. Anyway, I did a quick inventory of this favorite songs evah playlist I have on my iPod, and there’s a whole lotta lyrics that I could quote in my sleep on that playlist. That’s what I meant by lyrics first. But lyrics aren’t the only thing that can grab me about a song. I love the sound of crunchy guitars. I am mad for drum solos. Sometimes you just feel a groove. If the lyrics really, really get on my nerves for whatever reason, though, it’s the quickest way to kill a song and send it to the graveyard of annoying songs I don’t want to hear ever again.
While I love lyrics, I’m a music first person. I’ve loved many songs in foreign languages when I have no idea what they’re saying, and even in English I often can’t decipher the lyrics but just enjoy the music. When I read books, cliches bother me, but with music it really is about the music and the words are less important. It’s all about a feeling and a mood. Music speaks to me in a different way than words do, appeals to the emotions and less to the rational mind. Many successful songs have cheesy lyrics and yet they appeal to the heart and they impart a feeling, and that feeling is what music is about, to me. Whereas poetry and books have a different mode of expression and appeal to me in a different way, and then the words really matter a lot, since the words are everything.
I’m going to amend my last post, after thinking about it. It really depends on the song. Some songs are more about the music, others are more about the lyrics, but no matter what, the music or the sound has to be good. I can listen to weak lyrics with great music, but I can’t listen to bad music no matter how good the lyrics.
I agree 100% the music has to be good it is essential. Some lyrics make no sense but if the music is good it does not matter. Now I love great lyrics but it is a song after all so the music is # 1 then lyrics.
Thanks for venturing back into a three day old thread to answer my question, everyone ! I love David Cook threads; I just can’t seem to let them end !
No problem. It was easy to respond, though, even though it’s not on the front page anymore…at the top of MJ’s blog front page there’s a list of most popular threads, and this one is still on the list. Clicky the linky, and voila, no paging back through days and days of threads. I love Cook threads, too, because the tangents are epic. Anyway, I guess the moral of the story of this thread is…
Interesting Cook lyrics = awesome
Interesting Cook music= awesome
Interesting lyrics + interesting music= effing awesome
Bring on DCTR 2.0.
I remember some pretty funny lyrics in my life. Let’s see:
Who put the bop in the bop she bop she bop
Who put the ram in the rama rama ding dong?
Who put the dit in the dit dit dit dit dit
Who was that man? I’d like to shake his hand
LOL
or how about
there she was just a walkin’ down the street
singing do wah diddy diddy do diddy dum
snapping her fingers and tapping her feet
singing do wah diddy diddy do diddy dum
————————
Oh I’ll tell you something
I think you’ll understand
when I feel that something
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand
———————-
Well shake it up baby now
twist and shout
come on come on come on come on come on baby now
come on and shake it on out
you know you twist-a little girl
you know you twist so fine
come on and twist a little closer now
and let me know that you’re mine
— poetry it ain’t —
But I love lyrics too, and David Cook’s are awesome for the most part.
They say it fades if you let it,
love was made to forget it.
I carved your name across my eyelids,
you pray for rain I pray for blindness.
If you still want me, please forgive me,
the crown of love is fallen from me.
If you still want me, please forgive me,
because the spark is not within me.
I snuffed it out before my mom walked in the bedroom.
___
It’s a twisted game
A brief & oft-repeating
Prose that never seems to resonate
Spin the finger of blame
It’s always on the heart that kept on beating
While the other pulled up lame
We’re only honest when we’re sleeping
We’re lying wide awake and dreaming
Wishing that we were someone else
This bed’s as cold as hell
When you’re lying next to me.
The ceiling paints a picture
And everything’s a welcome work of art
Amidst the chaos in the mirror, the lies in lipstick red
_______
I wish the telephone had not been invented
Because I keep picking it up to say
Stupid things to you
The rain has stopped for now
But I know it’s not ended
No sense in trying
I cannot be protected
No sense in worrying
I can’t be protected
Wonderful and sad
How can you be so?
I wish that happiness could just be pretended
The closest thing to that is
A bottle of whiskey dear
I’d write a letter home
But I don’t know where to send it.
Wonderful and sad
How can you be so?
______
I’m not sure what it says about me that I seem to love me some music with a large helping of relationship angst.
Now that sounds good to me
Those are some of my favorites too. So I guess it says we have great taste.
You all are awesome ! Some of my favorite non-David lyrics:
Quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice and fear walk hand in hand.
_________
Was it summer when the river ran dry or was it just another dam ?
When the evil of a snowflake in June could still be a source of relief.
” Oh, how I love you . ” I once cried long ago
But I was the one who decided to go
To search beyond the final crest
Though I’d heard it said just birds could fly so high.
_________
As for your cheesy lyrics, what about:
I get a thousand hugs from 10,000 lightning bugs
As they try to teach me how to dance.
WTH ?
I’ll join the lyric sharing party! Some of my fav non David lyrics.
I hope that love he gave you,
Was just enough to save you.
You nearly broke my heart,
Just look at what you’re tearing apart
Stab my back,
It’s better when I bleed for you.
Walk on me,
That never was enough for you.
——————
If I don’t make it known that
I’ve loved you all along
just like the sunny days that
we ignore because
we’re all dumb & jaded
and I hope to God I figure out
what’s wrong
——————-
I’m holding out and I’m holding on
to every letter and every song.
I pulled myself out of the day we ever had to meet.
Are you through with me?
And when it all goes to hell, (Take this to your grave)
will you be able to tell
me sorry with a straight face. (I’ll take it to mine)
I miss FOB already.
OK, everyone, best lyrics of ALL TIME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JuVHCJVYf4
I know right? Pete Wentz is a genius.
Not the boy I was
The boy I am is just venting, venting
Dear gravity, you held me down in this starlit city…
Sniff, RIP FOB. :’( The Pete/Dave (Pave?) picture will never not be epic. I had to sit on my hands to keep from clapping when I clicked on it.
No way. Clearly THIS is by far teh best.
ROFL. Sitting on your hands? Haha. I’m gonna call them Pave now. Dete would be weird.
I guess I officially ended this topic discussion ! So long, precious David Cook thread…..
By the way, Happy Anniversary Declaration Tour !