KVRX's Booking director, Dillon Aitala, spoke with Pipe-eye (Cook "Cookie" Craig) following the release of his new album, Pipe-defy, and discussed the making of the album and more. Read the insightful interview below!
Dillon - Thank you so much for doing this and shout out to your PR team and whatnot for sending out that email and giving us these opportunities to meet with cool musicians like yourself.
Cookie - It's my pleasure. Cheers.
Dillon - So Pipe-defy will be your 5th record under Pipe-eye. Super exciting. I think it's pretty legendary, you know, hitting 5 records in 9 years, especially for a guy like yourself. You're so busy with the Murlocs and King Gizzard all the time, so it's pretty cool. I'm just sort of curious; because of how busy you are, how was the process for recording this record? And did you get any work in any new spaces? I know Gizz sort of just got a new studio or something. And I also heard that your bandmates helped you produce a little bit. I saw Michael did some drums for some of your songs.
Cookie - Yeah. I probably recorded the majority of it almost a year ago now. This is about the time last year I started writing the songs for it, I guess. But, yeah, normally Gizz and Murlocs will take the summer off, like, the Australian summer, so from December to January or February. So, over that time period, that's my window to do any shit that's not Gizz or Murlocs related. And then, I just did it at home. I've got a little studio at the back of my house. It's pretty rudimentary. But I got cabs to play drums on it, on an electric drum kit. That didn't bother my neighbors too much. And then I hit up Joey to mix and produce it a little bit as well.
Dillon - This is your 5th record. Was it something you've done before – getting your friends to help you produce it – or did you just sort of want to get a new set of ears on the music that you're making? I feel like in the past, I didn't get people to produce it per se, more just, like, mixing it.
Cookie - Yeah. And I just like it because stylistically, it was a bit of a different thing than I've done in the past because it was moving more towards an electronic sound. And Joe makes electronic music and dance music and that kind of thing. So I thought he would be perfect, with that experienced set of ears for that kind of music to get involved with it. And then Cavs drummed on the last 4 Pip-eye things. So he's like my rhythm boy, I guess.
Dillon - You mentioned you have a studio at the back of your house. Is that the same space that's on the cover art of the record?
Cookie - Yeah. It is. Yeah. I've got one of those tiny house things. They're like a miniature house on a trailer. So I actually parked one of those in my backyard, and I've built a little studio in it. It's pretty basic, but it's good to have a space like that. You know?
Dillon - Yeah. It looks super homey and just a very warm kind of vibe in there. I love the Bassman in the back right corner. And, is it a Casio that's sitting above your lap right there? What kind of scent is that?
Cookie - That'd be my Korg Poly 60, which is on the album a fair bit. I've had that for years and years. It's kind of like my little recording synth. But yeah, it's a very comfortable space. It's less of a studio and just like a hangout space.
Dillon - Yeah. That's I think that's very important to have sort of a curated space for when you want to enter that sort of recording realm and pump out music that you're going for, trying to find, like, a certain sound or whatnot.
Cookie - Yeah. You want to be comfy. You want to be in the pjs and chilling out.
Dillon - Yeah. I also saw on the cover art, I believe that's your microtonal, Rickenbarker.
Cookie - Oh, yeah.
Dillon - Was that used in any of these recordings?
Cookie - No. It actually wasn't. It was just in the room. Someone else asked me about that. I probably should've thought more about that. People try to put things together out there. Yeah. It would have been cool. Maybe the next record.
Dillon -. So I guess my next question, I really liked it. I've only gotten to listen to the full record through about once just because I'm super busy with school and life and all that, but the track that stands out to me the most is, "We're In This Together". I was just sort of curious– are there any specific direct influences that inspired you to structure the song the way you did? Because I really enjoy the turn that it takes towards the end, and it has this sort of whoosh of, like, a buildup. I just think it caught me off guard, and I was just very curious.
Cookie - Yeah. True. I guess when I wrote that song it's real, like, John Lennon or something, the main body. Yeah. I I feel like with that middle change section, I just kind of wanted to go somewhere weird and just do something kind of off the handle, and electronic, but kind of psych and kind of crafty. It’s like craft work or something, I feel. But, yeah, I like a lot of the songs, I didn't really have anything in particular with where they were gonna go. I kind of just chipped away at them.
Dillon - Yeah. I would say, like, that song, that change right there, it totally reminds me of the shift in “A Day In The Life,” the Beatles song, and I was like, this is phenomenal. I was really enjoying that. I think that stuff is really cool. The really random changes and whatnot that totally change the vibe. So kudos to you! Now if I'm not mistaken, I don't think you've really toured or played live as Pipe-eye before. Am I wrong?
Cookie - No. That's right. No. I've never played live. Maybe one day. I'm just so busy with Gizz and Murlocs and all the other stuff. It would be cool, but it would just be such a big job. I'd have to find a band. I'd have to learn the songs myself. I re-record them, but I forget them, like, 10 minutes later. You know? I’m not recording them to eventually play them.
Dillon - Yeah. Absolutely. I was sort of thinking about this earlier. I sort of recognize now that this project seems more of, like, a bedroom kind of psych rock project, which I feel like we don't normally see a whole bunch in today's bands and whatnot. I feel like a lot of bands try – or not even bands, but just projects in general – they try to go and play this stuff live, but it seems like your music has just sat very comfortably within the bedroom sort of setting.
Cookie - True. I guess I'm just really privileged to be able to do that and then have people listen to it still because I'm known through, like, King Gizz and Murlocs to a degree. But, I feel like there's lots of people who do bedroom records, but you just never hear about them or they never get a chance to put it out. I’m just lucky in that sense.
Dillon - I think that it's pretty crazy, looking at music from a privilege standpoint and recognizing that some artists are taking advantage of how much music they get to create and how much they get to tour. And if some sort of don’t it's a waste, because they just don't do their time diligence. But as for a guy like you and Gizz, I feel like y'all have made it very adamant that, like, we're super thankful to be able to do this, and we're gonna do it as good as we can for y'all.
Cookie - Yeah. I feel like some people just forget that, you know? Like, they put out a record and it does well, and they're kinda like, oh, yeah. Awesome. But then they forget that you kinda gotta keep just doing it. And that the reason why you started in the first place is because you just love music. And, yeah, we just love making music, and we treat it like a job, but, obviously, it's the best job in the world. And you’ve just got to be down to earth and not be jaded by it as well because I feel like a lot of people have that problem.
Dillon - Absolutely. So I was also just thinking about this the other day– Ambrose just did a record, or was it just a couple songs? I know he did some music with Gum.
Cookie - They did a record together. Yeah.
Dillon - Absolutely. Would you ever do something similar in nature, like making a full-length record with another musician, maybe even an Australian musician?
Cookie - Definitely. I've just never really had anyone approach me or want to collab on something. But it would definitely be something I'd like to do. But it is good in a way, because it kind of just lets me do all my own stuff, and that's kind of that outlet. And then if I want to make music with other people, I've always got King Gizz and Murlocs. So I've kind of got a lot of bases covered in that sense, but it would still be sick to just make a record with someone else.
Dillon - So I guess for this record, I feel like you're such a tricky character because you're in these 2 just big Australian bands. How do you know which ideas to flush out towards the other projects, and how do you know which ideas to keep for yourself?
Cookie - I kind of just write songs a lot, all the time, and I'm not really specifically writing them a lot of the time for particular projects. I just like writing songs for the sake of writing songs. And if one of those bands start making an album that would work for one of those songs, I'll kinda just throw it at them. I feel like this new record, Pipe-defy, was a bit different. I wrote maybe 20 songs that were specifically for this album. But, apart from that, I'll just,write songs, and I've just got a back catalog of songs. And, yeah, if Gizz is making an album that's, like, a bluesy album and I've got a bluesy song, I'll just throw it out there as a song idea. Same with Murlocs.
Dillon - Speaking on that catalog that you have, do you ever take some of those songs you've written in the past and bring them to your new records, or do they sort of just meander for a while until you figure out what to do with them or change them up?
Cookie - I feel like I don't use heaps of the songs that I'll write; I just like to keep going and write more songs because that's how you get better at songwriting. Just write as many songs as you can write and make as many albums as you can make, and you just inherently get way better. And sometimes there'll be a song that was from way back, and I'm like, oh, that was actually a sick idea, but most often not.
Dillon - Part of the reason I ask that is, off of Pipe-defy, you have “Best Party Ever II,” which is sort of a sequel to “Best Party Ever I.” Is this one of those situations where you pull it from the backlog or you just start to write something that's inspired by the first one?
Cookie - It was kind of like I wrote “Best Buy Ever 2.” It was in a similar vein and similar vibe to that song, and I was like, oh, this is like a second part to that song almost. Because the first part was an instrumental song, but then this song had lyrics. And I felt like it maybe gave the other song a bit of context and background almost.
Dillon - Would you say a lot of your music is sort of giving context to your other music, or vibes? Or is it just like I'm just throwing this down and having a good time?
Cookie - I feel like the latter. Just throwing shit down.A lot of Pipe-eye stuff isn't very conceptual or anything. The albums definitely have individual vibes, and it's kind of like a vibe that I'm working on at the time. But there's not really any concepts. Definitely Dream Themes because that was meant to be TV intro songs, or instrumental. But I feel like that's the only album that's been like that.
Dillon - Yeah. I guess my next question is about your album art. I've been pretty fascinated with your album art over the years. I'm wondering what's the criteria for picking your picture to put on the front of your record?
Cookie - I've done all the artworks myself, but, I kind of just do whatever's at my fingertips at the time because I don't really do much art stuff. I do whatever's easiest. I feel like this last one, I was like, oh, maybe a photo would be good. And I just set up a tripod in my studio and took a photo myself, and I was inspired by seventies, early eighties electronic funky kind of stuff. So I took influence from that aesthetic and those kinds of vibes.
Dillon - Yeah. That's normally tied into something like that. It feels very seventies, like, considering just the aesthetic of your room and whatnot. It reminds me of my grandfather's home in Kearny, Nebraska. He has a basement with this really smelly shag carpet, and he has this super old Casio just up against the wall, and the demo song is this crazy pop song called “Venus 5000” or something. It just brings back good times. But it's mad. That's what it is. I just think that it's been pretty cool, the pictures that you've chosen to slap on the front of your records.
Cookie - Oh, thanks. Yeah. I think they're all pretty apt and kind of indicative of the music. I kind of always just try to reflect that in some way. Yeah.
Dillon - Could you tell me a little bit about, p(doom) records and your involvement and just what it’s like being on this sort of new record label that's just starting up and starting up fast. There's a lot of physical releases coming out, and your new record is one of them. What's that like? What's the process like?
Cookie - Well, Gizz was putting records out through our own label, as Gizz verse. But then we decided, oh, maybe we could extend this and extrapolate it, and then we can release friends’ bands. And it's more of an actual label and less just King Gizzard's label. Kind of like a separate entity. We've had a fair bit of involvement in it and picking the bands and stuff, but, obviously, Gum and Ambrose put their album out, then it's going to be my album. Then Heavy Moss, like, Lucas's side projects coming out on it. Babe Rainbow, we're gonna put out their record. It's been sick. It's been real positive. Just trying to build a little community. You know? And put out shit that we think's good. And, obviously, our own stuff. Yeah.
Check out Pipe-eye here!