The Anastasia Coope Interview
Are you originally from New York? When did you first begin to fall in love with music and songwriting? Was this something that was relevant around your household growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years and why?
Yes, I’m from New York. I was born in the city, and raised in Cold Spring. I’m not sure if there's a beginning to my interest in music. It shifted in, and out of focus when I was a child, and was reinvigorated while I was wrapping up high school. Music was somewhat relevant growing up, but not more than an average household. I don’t know about early influences, either. I’d say that I’ve always been more influenced by my surroundings, and different modes of thinking rather than there being direct lines of sonic reference. But growing up on the Hudson River, there was always a communal interest in folk music, so that surely shaped my identity, just through exposure.
Did you participate in any groups, or projects prior to becoming a solo musician? Tell me about writing and recording your debut album, “Seemeely” back in 2021. Jumping ahead a bit, what was the overall process and approach to bringing your anticipated follow up entitled “Darning Woman” to life? What did you ultimately want to achieve and express with this material and how did the deal with the folks over at JagJaguwar come about?
No, my first experiences with music were solo. I had never played music with other people other than being in a chorus group, or two during elementary, and middle school. “Seemeely” was a collection of some of my first recordings. That isn’t meant to degrade them, but rather to say that they serve as a document of a point in time. “Darning Woman” consists of about a year’s worth of recordings. I started to categorize my songs retroactively, grouping them into possible albums. I was working on many at once as a sort of exercise, but “Darning Woman” is the first collection of songs that felt like a real collection to me. All the songs came from a similar place, and I felt that they communicated sonic, and aesthetic ideas that had been grounding me. The record was sent around for a while before anyone had any interest, actually. For over a year. After my having sat on the record for a while, one of the folks at Secretly Group took particular interest, and wanted to put it out. Myself, and the label were immediately like “This is a jag record”, so that’s how I ended up on Jag. I was thrilled because Women is one of my favorite bands, and they were on Jag, hah!
What would mind walking us through some of the songs that are featured on the album such as “Woke Up and No Feet”, “Sorghum”, “He Is on His Way Home, We Don’t Live Together” and the title track, “Darning Woman”?
“Woke Up and No Feet”, this is a super old song, maybe the oldest on the record, but I’ve lost track at this point. It’s mostly just a stream of consciousness piece about this painting that I had been working on. I don’t really remember why exactly those lyrics came together, but I remember that I enjoyed the vocal stacking, and working with the structure of the song. “He Is on His Way Home”, Patrick Shiroishin, and I had been talking about doing some songs together, and he sent me that sort of circular repetitive piano track. I had written a song that fit very well with the piano track — it all happened very fast, I think I was done with the song in a day, or two, and then a while later we were lucky enough to get that guitar part from Matthew Rolin. “Darning Woman”, I wrote this song really fast in one sitting, and it was one of those experiences where I felt like the song was already written, and that I was just transposing it. I like that song because it feels somehow like an ancient sentiment.
What does your summer and rest of the year look like? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
Yes! I have a tour starting July 5th, starting in Chicago, and ending at Tubby’s in Kingston on the 13th. Then, I’m playing some shows in California with the band Woods and then heading to Europe for a couple of months, mostly to play fests.
