RSS: When you go out on a Saturday night, what sort of music turns you on?
Hollie Cook: I like to go out to Reggae nights, Rock concerts, Drum and Bass clubs, lots of different stuff. Anything from Dusty Springfield and David Bowie to Andy C and Notorious B.I.G. It depends on the mood I’m in.
RSS: Are there any acts you want to see here at Summerjam?
Hollie Cook: I want to see Nneka. I’ve seen her before, she’s really gorgeous and I want to see Burning Spear and Beenie Man.
RSS: What do you think about the Summerjam festival?
Hollie Cook: It’s really nice. I love the open water. I think I might go for a swim.
RSS: You recently covered Amy Winehouse for a tribute CD by Q magazine. Is she an influence on you?
Hollie Cook: Yeah, definitely. I’m a big Amy Winehouse fan. She was influenced heavily by Jazz, Reggae and 60s Pop music, which is where I can relate to her. It’s a strange thing to record one of her songs, because I was really affected by her passing. I tried to make it my own and do it justice.
RSS: You being a few years younger than Amy, does her death make you think about potential dangers in the music business?
Hollie Cook: Sure. It can be a lot to deal with. I personally am not experiencing that level of success and attention, so I can only begin to feel what it must have been like for her. If you are a kind of tortured soul then that amount of success must be difficult to deal with.I think I can handle everything. I come from a good place and have lots of support systems around me. I have never feared that going down that road could happen to me… I hope anyway.
RSS: Maybe it’s a good thing that you have a slower start into the system.
Hollie Cook: I would never have wanted to be catapulted into the business like that. I couldn’t handle that.
RSS: With your parents’ background, do you think that you will also deal with more political issues in the future?
Hollie Cook: It’s not my thing. I choose to keep my views to myself. That’s a personal thing to me. I like to keep it strictly… LOVE.
RSS: Thanks very much.
[alert type=”blue”] Listen to snippets of Hollie Cook’s self-titled album or the Dub version provided by Prince Fatty at Amazon or visit her website for more information. A German version of this interview can be found in the current issue of Rocking Steady magazine.
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