#136 Michael Cooke
Olympic dreams crushed after an injury and so the arts was his next choice. he's not on set as an actor or on the tools as a tradie Michael is writing and performing his own original music. It started when he was struggling with singing cover songs and so he started writing his own to suit his voice and received positive feedback. A cool sooth vibe to this UK's songwriters tunes. Check them out and learn how he juggles his artistic way of life.
Connect with Michael:
Transcript
Rae Leigh: Welcome to a Songwriter Trysts with Michael Cooke all the way from the UK. Thank you for joining me.
Michael Cooke: Thanks for having me.
Rae Leigh: What I like to do to start this conversation off is get you to introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about who you are and where exactly you come from.
Michael Cooke: So my name is Matt Cooke I'm 31 years old. I'm from Scotland. Eh, I currently work as an actor, a musician, and a on the side to make castro and up-skill
Rae Leigh: So plumber is your side hustle,
Michael Cooke: yes, as,
Rae Leigh: which is
Michael Cooke: there's a play. Good, safe.
Rae Leigh: It's pretty good Yeah. I know if you few plumbers that, um, Earl say like musicians and yeah, they do. All right.
Michael Cooke: Genoa is good. It's good. It's good for the self employed, but because you can leave at any time, as in like you're working a bajo about a done something else. When you're self employed, you can leave. Plus the fact that it's, it's a scowl. So when you do leave and you come by, that is, that has always worked that.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. It's one of those jobs you get sort of, um, bonus Burness pay because not a lot of people want to do that sort of
Michael Cooke: No, they don't,
Rae Leigh: Kudos.
Michael Cooke: I've seen more horrible things. So,
Rae Leigh: yeah. I bet you have. I've heard some stories and let's not go
Michael Cooke: no, let's talk about to that. That's
Rae Leigh: All right. So can we say music And acting, um, which one came first for you
Michael Cooke: I think, uh,
Rae Leigh: acting.
Michael Cooke: The music sort of followed.
From the act. And I remember like when I sang with like my first agent, I was told it takes you 10 years to establish yourself. So it's a pretty hard road. You're just getting bits and pieces in between, like throughout the year, maybe two or three, like decent jobs.
And there's an awful lot of downtime. So like mentally, that can be a bit tough. And I remember emailing a casting director and asking her for advice. I says, look, I'm a young actor. That's just really, really difficult. Get work, even trying to get that shit at times and mental, it can be really tough. A have you get made?
I mean, have you get any advice? And she said, just stay creative, do something else. It's clear that you're in control of even if it's working with the clean music or anything like that. So the other guitar, and I just started taking an interest and political thought. I taught myself how to play and I found that I wasn't a very good second.
Try enough Titan. When I was trying to cut, when I was trying to cover other people's songs, it wasn't a very good thing because I had no concept of key or changing the key or doing anything like that. So I find the note will leak what key sits your voice. So
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah.
Michael Cooke: I ended up writing, let's try writing one of my own songs. One time in a, I got feedback on it and the city that was pretty good. So, so I just grew arms and legs from the house. So yeah.
Rae Leigh: nice. So how roughly were you when you were doing the acting thing and then you picked up the guitar.
Michael Cooke: W, well, I was an athlete when I was younger. So like on the creative side of things, I just, I hadn't, I hadn't done a, anything creative until I was 20. And tell us
Rae Leigh: Uh huh.
Michael Cooke: not active until it was 20. Because when I was in a, when I was younger, I was, I was an athlete and everything was sort of geared towards going to the Olympics.
I want it to be a destination that it's like, I don't know if it's the same in Australia. Get a lot of guys who are really, really good genius or they're good at like pro youth level when it's like, whether it's Bayer on a football or an influence that, and it didn't quite work out for me. So, um, uh, I went to college and I started doing a sports performance.
Got you all been sport, just start trying. But when I applied for my Satan JIA, for some reason I didn't get accepted, then I started to reevaluate my life or what was, what, what to do in a, I love movies at the time. I still love movies back used to collect movies. And I thought, why not be an actor?
I could be on a.
Rae Leigh: So it was just like, uh, you didn't have an opportunity or someone else mimicking what an acting life looks like. You just saw it on TV and thought I could do that.
Michael Cooke: Yeah. Yeah. So then I was, so I like that and it was like a, but I applied to the college, like the local college and I got accepted. I don't know the course,
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Michael Cooke: but then I got phone call from, from the other college that I was in. And this is, it was a mistake that should have been accepted onto the sports.
They've made that they made that they'd made a mistake with application process in a, I go to the wrong lab. I say that I got accepted on the other side. Of course not to say that they go and do that. That's not, I've never looked back from it.
Rae Leigh: Wow. So you literally ended up in acting because of a mistake.
Michael Cooke: I did exactly, exactly, about
Rae Leigh: that's fate.
Michael Cooke: it was because I was so proud because at went to the college and that they had.
No, I've never done anything like that before. And I've never been as nervous in my life now. I thought I absolutely bombed it. I thought I was terrible with my audition. What I'd say to Deb is that emailed the head of the acting course at the college. And it says, look, I'm really sorry about the addiction as any chance that I could go. And on the lower course, the, the course of the year before, because this was like in Scotland, the qualification process goes like you get a national certificate and then you.
A higher national certificate and then you get a higher national diploma and then you go on to uni and do the third year of a degree. No, I I'd applied for the higher national certificate and it didn't really, I didn't have the qualifications for that because everything was sport orientated for me. So I sort of
didn't pay attention at school. And, um,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Michael Cooke: so that was a, I wrote and asked, look, can I go in and do the higher lounge? Can I do the national certificate? Like, and this is nobody loved . We want you to come and do it. W we're giving you an unconditional honor, the course. So I can accept that they accepted that. So I wasn't, I wasn't going to turn with that.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Oh, incredible. Well done. And like how out of your comfort zone would have that?
Michael Cooke: I do know. I used to think, I thought at the start I could handle it because I was used to being an athlete. Like you want to ask thought lane about ACEs. It's never like in your, like, it could be really, you're really, really nervous. I thought I could handle it, but I went in and I find those confident and the end of your stage.
But as soon as it says, right, we'll see you at the shame piece. Now I could actually, I could physically feel myself starting to sweat and Scotland doesn't want Scotland doesn't want so
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Michael Cooke: I could feel
Rae Leigh: it wasn't the heat.
Michael Cooke: I wasn't, it wasn't a heat in my heart. I could actually, I could feel it beating my chest. I'm sure.
Nervous, social nervous in
Rae Leigh: Hmm.
Michael Cooke: a, I just said, I just thought I just had that. I don't know what they saw, but obviously this was something that worked out. So in.
Rae Leigh: Oh, that's that's really cool. So you're still doing acting now. And now you're you started writing songs and you released an album will second album. Um, tell me about that journey. Like what, what made you go from like athlete to now acting and then, and being more creative and then actually writing a song and going, oh, I'm just gonna release an album.
Like that's a big journey.
Michael Cooke: I know it's well, what I found as like, with music, I think when you find the of, so you sort of, you have to go and you've got that audience age, you know, to do something all the time. You always feel as though you need to be clear, open. It's like an actually that you can't scratch things. And I find with acting, you have a very, very low control. So.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Michael Cooke: When I started doing music and I was, I was writing songs and I was getting that sort of feeling from like that she getting scratched. If you know what I mean, it was
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Michael Cooke: you're you're so again, you're, you're really getting something from it. So I just find those in more control of doing music. So whenever I've not got, whenever I've not got something on like an acting job, but anything like that.
I just thought I'd write songs to just try and be clear. And so it keeps you taking over. It keeps you, keeps you sane because as really meant tough when young, because you, when you're going to FLM set, you get the ultimate heart. You're getting up to my high from doing that, or do not play or doing anything that you start to get that from you, you get the ultimate high.
So, but the ultimate high comes the ultimate, like come down. So like I've even started now when I go into. Uh, Joel, what we'll do is our range to go and record the song maybe a week after I finished shooting, not a week after the place, so that you've still got, you've got something to look forward for a forward turn, it sort of get, so it makes it a bit easier to come then.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, that's really good. I, I started off as modeling and then acting mainly because I wanted to build up the confidence to be able to sing in front of people, but I totally get it. You know. it is such a high, but it can be like you don't, you never know when your next job's going to be really. And it could be years, you know, you never know, and that's, that's hard.
You do need something to look forward to
Michael Cooke: I bet it does cross your mind that this is the last time anybody's ever going to cast me. I don't know why, like those, and I just said, I think it crosses, it crosses my mind and everybody was like, what, what, what if this is the last job he wants? If you don't get anything after this? Um,
Rae Leigh: And what, what if it is the last job?
Michael Cooke: I know. Well, that's the thing. That's why you do something else, like late music for them.
So then you have got a bad kid. You've got a bad control then. You're in control. It there's a certain element of control. I find you can't force yourself to write a song. I think you've either give you the goal, got that back.
That you can write a song where you don't have that, but I don't think like, unless you're really, really lucky and you write it like a one hat and it takes off, then, then well done. That's great. But I think like you've got to be in a sort of, sort of main set and it comes because I find that I could rate.
Five or six songs. They cost like three, four weeks. And then for three months you'd get nothing and you can feel it when you're sitting there with a guitar, you're trying to force yourself to write something. You can feel it. You can, you can feel you're fortunate. And I've, I've in my experience, I found that nothing great.
Several really came from it, but it's nothing. So stay connected.
Rae Leigh: I find, I get quite agitated when I feel like there's a song in me and I need to find the time to
get it out. Have you, have you ever felt that like, you're like, oh, I need, like, I need space to get this song out of me or I'm just going to be grumpy.
Michael Cooke: Yeah, definitely. The thing that you do, you do agile, you do get agitated about it in your sleep.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Michael Cooke: like, I find that like my partner's in bed and it's two o'clock in the morning and I'm like, I need to pack up. I need to pick up the guitar and play something and I've got this, I've got this sound in my head.
Rae Leigh: Hmm.
Michael Cooke: It was like, there was a song on my new album called midnight Cole.
Rae Leigh: Mm.
Michael Cooke: No, I've never really played like I'm okay. I'm already on the guitar and I'd never really, I never really packed them off a lot like that. We bet some pieces that haven't really done a lawful log, like talk pat in, but the photographer that sent a midnight Cole, I don't know how I play.
I don't know how I played it. I just had the setting in my head and it was just all my fingers knew what to do. Um,
Rae Leigh: Oh, that's beautiful.
Michael Cooke: it just started, just started, came out.
Rae Leigh: and that's, I love hearing those sorts of stories because I reckon that you're right. I think that's where the greatest songs come from and I've had moments like that. And everyone I've spoken to have had songs like that, that. I guess said what you said, you just don't know where it really comes from.
It comes from somewhere else, but it's not your head. It's your body, your spirit, your soul, and yet your fingers just know what to do. And it's, um, it's beautiful, but I mean, obviously you, you have to practice a ton as well for anyone listening it's for your body to be able to do that.
Michael Cooke: Well, th that's it I've been playing the guitar for like over 10 years, over 10 years now. And it's just, you're struggling for an awful long time. And it's one day. It just, it just collects, it just collects that you did. I remember the first song that I was able to play, like an, a dense song, terrible. Like it was candy by pylon Latina at a man, but I woke up one morning and I was practicing the guitar and those months, and months, and months, or send them like an absolute riot.
just clicked and it sounded good and just sounded good then. And I'm not kidding on like, to get wet with the guitar thing. Like my brother plays music in that israel. And what I said to him was you need to be obsessed with it. You need to be obsessed. It's like, like I must have drove the people during the baby.
So you're playing the guitar because is it was, it was, I wasn't, I wasn't, I was a day like you finish walking. It was like, I could sit and play the guitar for four to five.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, yeah. I totally get that. And it is, It's hard.
When you think about it, you're like, wow, like you must be obsessed and I've had people, you know, they ask you like, how do you find the time? And it's like, well, I mean, I don't do anything else. Don't watch TV, don't sleep. We all have, we all have 24 hours in a day and we get to choose.
We spend it. Um, and if you're obsessed with something, then that's what you naturally want to do in your downtime or your spare time. Um, so yeah, that's really cool. Can tell you're really passionate.
Michael Cooke: There's like the agitator thing you're talking about. It's like, if I buy, if I came in from work at five o'clock, I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't put the TV on. I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't pay the TV on outset and 11 and myself and play the guitar, but I was until 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock at night until your fingers can't really take anymore. And
Rae Leigh: mm.
Michael Cooke: because it's just, like you says, is that you go to that thing. I need to play something. I need to do this. I need to do this because you've got it in your head, how it savings and what you want it to do.
Rae Leigh: Hmm.
Michael Cooke: you've got to do. it
Rae Leigh: And, then how good do you feel once it's done? You're like, ah,
Michael Cooke: ultimately leaving the lots of
lost. I lost lots a couple of days, and then you'd get like, oh, I've got something else, it does. But it does. It does, it does help an awful lot. I always remember reading the thing that new young said, like, since you don't own that, it says you don't ever want to, it just shot up.
He says it passes through you and then it goes, and you've just got to trust that it will come back.
Rae Leigh: Hm.
Michael Cooke: which I sort of agree with because it's.
You do feel when you're, when you write a song in that is you could immediately go away and try. And I would say you try and rewrite that song, because that was such an amazing experience for you, but you're never going to be able to recreate that one.
It's just a bit moving on to something else and doing something.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And then having that experience and creating something and that spiritual experience of having the song flow through you, then to then go and record it in a studio and then release it and have an, an audience of people listening to your songs. How have you found that experience and the response from your fan base?
It's great.
Michael Cooke: I thought, I think it's unbelievable like that somebody actually really likes it. Like
Rae Leigh: Hm.
Michael Cooke: you can't believe that. I think it, it just shows you how so. Um, we all are. And, uh, and they, because I, I, I start, I went with that approach leak where I'm not, I don't think we're that unique. I think we've got, like, if I think of something good here, I'm not going to be the only person that thinks it's good.
There's going to be other people that thinks it's good. And I think it's incredible that people can actually connect to something you've done that you've have is it is, it's an amazing.
Rae Leigh: It's incredible. And all things that have been created have come from someone and it is art really does connect us. And it's, it's such an incredible feeling. What is it, um, in the music that you've right, and that you're releasing. Do you feel there is something that connects to people or a message that comes through all of your songs that you started to recognize?
Michael Cooke: Well, I get slagged off my, of my friends on it, but.
My mom will say this. I try and not write too, too specific. It's like, it's like right in the sort of universal truths that we all think, then we all, we all connect to them. Whether it's, um, loneliness or relationships or feelings of wanting more or films of wanting to do something or feelings of fear.
It's like, I think these are all universal things that people are connected to. So I never try and write. Okay. Really specific something that really, really specific to me. Cause then I think the, the thing that you're writing about, or the feeling that you're writing about getting sort of diluted and people won't, people will struggle with connect to, or get to.
And so I try and make it, I don't know, time playing a sort of vagueness, but also familiar lotta as well at the same time.
Rae Leigh: Okay, so that people can connect to it in their own way.
Michael Cooke: Exactly. It's like that song means that's to me. Well, it doesn't mean not for me, but if that's what you go out for, then you're not wrong. Let's say.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, I think that's beautiful. And I've, it took me a while to actually learn that one. I don't know about you, but like I would re I released my first single I remember, which was, you know, a hard one. Yeah. Sad song. But, um, for some reason it actually connected to parents. Who'd lost a child, like, and they wanted to use it, or it helps them through grief of losing a child.
Now that's not. what the song was about. I haven't experienced at all. And I thought that was really unusual. Um, and that was a really big deal. Any experience, was it something like that for you that you kind of realized when that music does that the power of music, that it, it can mean something different to someone else?
Or have you always sort of known that bit.
Michael Cooke: No, I think I'd never, I'd never really thought about it. th that was just, that was just the type of songs that I was able to write. Like, I find that you find that you've got your own shot or write and stale, and it just, it just, that, that's just the way that you write. And then you've got to try and autumn boundaries to try and be more creative to create different things.
So you're not always creating the same thing, but it never really, like, I remember it clicked with me because when my, my sister, she, she, she loves listening to my music.
Rae Leigh: Nice.
Michael Cooke: sent her one of my songs that I just recorded, recorded, and she goes back to me and says, oh, was that about a, about a Gran that died?
And I'm like,
Rae Leigh: Oh
Michael Cooke: And there wasn't, but that's what, that's what she got from. It was that, that was her. That's how she connected to it. So then it started like with me, then the women at that, like, like these songs could mean anything to him.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah, that's beautiful.
Michael Cooke: you find that there's obviously something honest in it that that people get,
Rae Leigh: Um, and have you done much, um, co-writing or collaboration or study around the art of songwriting since you picked up again?
Michael Cooke: do you know if I've not, like I found that when I was able to write a song and you know, and I find that in as well is I guess, I guess I get scared the question and things, like, I think if I'm able to do it, then. It's, I don't want to question it because then I think all, I think it, and I think clear to have it, it comes from somewhere that isn't logical.
Rae Leigh: So, true. It's
Michael Cooke: so then, so, so I try, no, I try not to
Rae Leigh: Hm.
Michael Cooke: overthink it because that isn't how I was able to do it in the first place. I think
if overthink, I guess, scared that we'll lose that. So,
Rae Leigh: Have you ever pitched any of your songs to, um, any of the
films or anything like that that you've been on or
Michael Cooke: General I've just started. I've just started then.
Rae Leigh: yeah,
Michael Cooke: that's like a hot dot short on Maine. When I wrote this new album, it's a small step back in the hard domain. Like the main set when I was, when I was writing songs and then putting music to it, I was thinking, could this be in a phone
Rae Leigh: Yeah, like a bit of sink.
Michael Cooke: an a, and that, that, that worked for that.
That was really, really a. Uh, so th that's the first time that I have, um, sort of put that HOD that in mind, before going to do something where like, that's the first time I've had that and that shot P not piepline. Cause I hadn't really planned it because
if it doesn't come out, then I wouldn't have done it.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. So, so you did get a sync with
one of the songs from your album or you're planning on it.
Michael Cooke: No, no, no. W when I was writing the album was planning on
with the music going towards
the songs was could that song be in a felon? And if I thought it could be in a film, then it matched up with the album that were songs that I recorded, that I thought that doesn't quite go with this album.
Rae Leigh: Yep. Yep.
Michael Cooke: So, so then that does not put that song aside.
And then of course I went, right. Well, that song to say, just know we'll, I'll come back to that for another
time.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, I can. That's like that's on my goals
list. I think to have some sync or have a song that isn't a TV show or a
film, or even an advert would be cool, but
Michael Cooke: Oh, that'd be incredible. It would
be, it would be.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, it's beautiful to see the different performing arts kind of connect and sync together. And like there's so much power in music and there's so much power in storytelling and film and that whole acting stuff.
And I just think it's so cool the way it. comes together and just makes it what it is. And, um, I love studying that stuff probably a bit obsessed. What's the best advice you've ever been given when it comes to songwriting and your music career?
Michael Cooke: Okay. Don't force it Don't, don't force it and passive a and be patient because persevere and be patient because, and never give up because it woke up like F if you're obsessed and you, like, I always find that those tooth, that there's two different types of things. Like either you've not got it and you're trying, and it doesn't work out for you.
And you've just not quite got that back then. That's that's, that's another thing. But I think if you have physically got something there that as good, the it really as good, then it's on them. And I'm not talking about Kevin yourself on a patronizing yourself being patronized. It's like, when you get on these song, competitions, Sunday goes on and they physically can't sing for that.
And you say, I've been trying here for 30 years and I'm not giving up and I'm not doing this. Like it's hard to watch some things. And you're like, like, you've just, you've not got, you've just not got that. But
Rae Leigh: Mm.
Michael Cooke: you've physically got the bit about you and the substances there
Rae Leigh: Hm.
Michael Cooke: is don't don't give up because you won't get something, something will come because cause it's there.
You've got it.
Rae Leigh: I think the universe gives us signs I don't know about you, but. I think we always get what we need. Not that we don't always get what we want, but we always get what we need. And sometimes in my life I've definitely found that I've kind of maybe started to question or doubt, maybe just question like, is this what I'm supposed to be doing with my life?
You know? And then something always happens. It's like, yes. You know, this is where you're meant to be. And it's, I don't know. Have you ever had that, sort of stuff? It's like, what am I supposed to be doing? Where should I be?
Michael Cooke: Well, definitely
because, and I find that, um, they, my dad's, like you said that it's a working class guy, you'd never thought of anything sort of in the sort of art world. No, he's yeah. Plummeted. And when he gave me an apprenticeship and
Rae Leigh: Hmm.
Michael Cooke: this is completely against his nature and that's just like a sane for me.
And I remember being in the vine with them one day and we're driving along and I said, yeah, do you know, I think I'm going to put act in, and that. I'm going to, I'm going to put it on the back burner and focus more than the plumbing. It just never going stopped the van. And this is don't do it. Just don't do it.
If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't be a plumber.
No, that coming from that, not coming from him,
just told me that I need to do this. I need to do it
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Oh, what a dad.
Michael Cooke: I know, I know knows it because it has fostered. Like it went, it went not sweat. He found out that I was doing act and he couldn't believe it is like what you're going to do.
Like, so it was taught I
Rae Leigh: And that's a normal parent reaction.
Michael Cooke: it came in
then And he came in, he saw me in something and he changed his mind.
There's like a condor. I says,
definitely do that.
Rae Leigh: Wow, that's amazing. Um, I'm really glad that he did that and is it's hard for sometimes, especially family, well, people that knew you before you were doing your creative stuff. Um, I've talked to publishes and record label earners all over the world, and it doesn't matter who you are or what your success is.
People that need before you did. We'll only ever really see you as the person they knew before that. And it's really hard for them to see, you know, the artistic person of you. And usually, I don't know about you, but like, you know, you just finally get the courage and the self-belief to do a song and
release it to the world. Um, This is part of us that expects
family and friends to be like, oh, supportive
Michael Cooke: Oh, I know. I know.
Rae Leigh: you know, buy a CD and
come to the show and Alyssa stuff. And yet it can be really hard for other people to see us change and grow and have that belief in yourself. Um, and you know, you'll get more support and, and gratitude and
appreciation from complete strangers sometimes than you will from your family and
friends.
But that's a universal truth.
Michael Cooke: Does does. And I think Israel it's
like when somebody does see you grow, they can,
jealousy is a really hard thing for people to deal with. And they, I think even when you get full good shine, how you, it it's really difficult to hide. So at the sort of seeps that I always remember hearing,
somebody said like, you know who your friends are, one of the tables, tables, things of known who your friends are, as you can tell them good news.
And we don't need try and a.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, that can be happy for you, so true. And that's not always an easy thing to do, but it's also not your responsibility. You know, if people are jealous or they're struggling with seeing you grow,
it's just, it's a
reflection on them. It's got nothing to do with you and just keep doing your thing.
Michael Cooke: Absolutely. Absolutely. What, how often does, where would the, was that
even the guys who have known me before that, like anything like that? I think when they see you do it and the, and if you're a good guy, It's not written for you because it's almost like you're doing for them as well. It's almost like it's like, if you're,
just normal fault and they see a normal person going away and doing this, they're like, wow, you're, you're, it's almost like you're representing all these other folk who are maybe not going to college.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, I believe that too. And it's beautiful when you start to build that tribe of people who are rooting you on and just proud of you and happy to see you be successful because they feel a part of it. And that is that's so beautiful. What about, what's the worst advice you've ever been given?
Michael Cooke: I'm not really sure. Like, I think when, when, uh, when Sunday stopped speaking to me,
I think the total rubbish is sort of sweatshirt off, eh,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Michael Cooke: yeah. Let me think.
Rae Leigh: It's all right. Sometimes I've had like advice and it's like, I'll take on the advice. And then in hindsight, it's like,
yeah, that was really bad,
Michael Cooke: Oh, definitely. I've heard that. It's like when you get taught how to ask people. Yeah.
Try and get something or you've got, you've got, you've got clear people with their swing. You've got to play people that we have had that sort of advice. And it turns on that game and I'm like, no, I can't be bothered with that.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah, I think, um, bad advice and telling the truth is always the most important thing. Trying to play a game. We'll never win. You'll always just put yourself in a hole. Um, that's my theory. Anyway, I can't, I can't do lies. It's it's too exhausting. I don't have the energy for that. I'd rather write a song, I think.
All right. Um, if you could go back and meet your teenage self, um, and you could give yourself one piece of advice, what would you say to yourself?
Michael Cooke: it'd Be braver.
Rae Leigh: brave. Were you a shy kid?
Michael Cooke: Yeah. Yeah. Nothing. Uh, athletics taught me an awful lot because I think I bought all dresses before, like, uh, uh, uh, I got overwhelmed by it and I never gave that my best shot. And I think I taught letter I taught literally grade. I don't, I don't, I think it's, I think it's made me more determined now,
Rae Leigh: Hmm.
Michael Cooke: they, one of my biggest regrets was, um, I think I was one of the best, like I was at the top two in Scotland at the time as a junior and I should, I should have been good enough to get packed.
For Scotland to represent them. And when it came to the big race to get selected for the Scotland team, I just bottled with that. I just, I made that, I made that I made that money. Excuse me, I'm just, sorry. I just get scared. I thought, but then I sort of learned later on, was like as an, about being fearless because I don't think anybody has fearless.
I think a being brave is being scared, but doing it anyway
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Feel the fear and do it anyway
Michael Cooke: do animation and be comfortable with that because it's like, you've got, you've just got a squat, except I do think it's made me a stronger
person though, as I think, especially with the industry, that the industry is the amend, because it's just folded rejection.
And I could go back to that. So I would say.
Rae Leigh: I love that. And I was such a shy. Like so shy and. I think the more you get uncomfortable and the more you face your fear, I think I read a book that was literally called feel the fear and do it anyway. And it, I think it, I believed when I was younger that everyone else, like no one else had fear, you know, like it was just me and then like, and it was paralyzing.
And once he realized that actually feeling fear is okay and just doing it anyway. And the more you start to do it, it's like, it does get easier. it doesn't mean you don't feel it anymore. You just,
Michael Cooke: Well, it's just interesting. You just embrace that
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Michael Cooke: I was, I remember reading a, quote and it was, it was David Bevier that say that a, he says, imagine you're in the
war. And you know, at that point where your tools are just touching the seabed and it's just that feedback that we bet on country.
Rae Leigh: Hmm.
Michael Cooke: you feel that you're probably in the right place.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah. I love that.
Michael Cooke: I think if you're too comfortable, you can't really Google.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. I think I'm a little bit addicted to being uncomfortable.
I think I liked that feeling now. Cause it's like, oh, that was uncomfortable. Yes. But I'm obviously in the right, in the right areas.
Michael Cooke: We definitely, definitely.
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Michael Cooke: You definitely. You
Rae Leigh: yeah, yeah.
Michael Cooke: And it does become a sort of, uh, an addiction.
Rae Leigh: yeah, but only I think, because once you start to do it, you recognize the growth that comes from extreme discomfort and
Michael Cooke: it's an adrenaline. rush.
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Michael Cooke: so It's an adrenaline.
Rae Leigh: yeah. absolutely. It's an addiction. it's let's just put it down to that. All right. Um, if you could, co-write a song or even maybe collaborate, cause I know you haven't done much.
And he could work with anyone else in the industry, dead or alive.
Who would it be and why?
Michael Cooke: That's a hard one because I've always been under the impression. I wouldn't want to meet my heroes because I'd just be worried about being really disappointed with that. Um, eh, because well, you find that when you meet them, CBC famous folk. They aren't what they seem on the screen. And when you see someone as an, as nice as you thought that we're going to be, it can be deliberately disappointing.
Um,
and the care was that image of that person that you had
a, my favorite song, just know you as a, I shall be at least
Bob Dylan and the band,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Michael Cooke: you have songs like that at times. And I'm like,
Do you know, as, even though I wash that cooler water, it's just, I wish I wrote it.
I wish
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Michael Cooke: I wish I wish, I wrote that song because it was just something that she went that I'm like,
man, who did it come up with that line?
Oh, that's the lane or that lane. That's like a,
yeah. So I thought, yeah, that I shall be
released
a
Rae Leigh: Yeah. I reckon the more you listen to music, the more it influences and the more you write and get better at writing, you know, what's on the inside. It'll come. And, you know, it just, it's just a matter of time. Really. it's just, never give up because you never know how close you are to getting that
Michael Cooke: Exactly. Cause it could be, the next thing could just, you could be, you could be an inch away from getting it and it's just, no, I can, they
you've got to keep going. You've got to just keep going.
Rae Leigh: absolutely. No, I love that So tell me, what do you, what have you got planned for the rest of this year with you, your music and what's, what's coming up that people can
be expecting from you.
Michael Cooke: Well at the moment, I'm promoting a certain album McKnight call. I'll continue to promote that at the moment. I'm going to start working on a third album and I'm going to be making a, a couple of music videos for a couple of tracks from, from midnight Cole. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: cool.
Michael Cooke: And hopefully that takes us
up to there to the end of the year.
Rae Leigh: Awesome. Well, I'm going to make sure I put the links to your music and YouTube and all your social so. that people can follow you, check out your music and we'll put a snippet in the podcast that people can hear a little bit of, um, of what they can expect from you. Um, but is there anything else you would like to say before we finish up?
Michael Cooke: Let's just, thank you for having me on.
It was no, I've really enjoyed it.
Rae Leigh: I really appreciate you coming on and sharing. And you've had such an interesting journey, but at the same time, it sounds like You have really obviously worked hard, but gone with the flow and just looked for solutions. And I can see that in your journey. If you keep doing that, you're onto
a winner, I reckon.
Um, yeah, you just keep doing the next thing. I honestly it's. Yeah.
Michael Cooke: that none of that is one thing I would say is like a. You do think that your life is uninteresting at times, and then you look back in some way and it takes someone else to turn around and tell you, I bet you've done this and you've done that. And you've done that and you go, wow, I might not have actually done done that.
So I think it's important as well to try and appreciate the moment that you're done when you're doing it, because you don't realize how good it has. Like I've done some things and I've thought, you know, I, I, I regret not just always looking towards the next. I think you've always got a heart beat that would be about unsatisfied so that you are hungry to get further.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Michael Cooke: even if it's just a saying, take a seat.
Rae Leigh: gratitude, stop and smell the roses every now and then And appreciate life. Yeah, it is. It's a balance. It's a balancing act. But, um, I think I used to be more like that especially before I had kids. Like I was always, um, like I did a biomedical science degree and I was health and fitness and personal training and all that sort of stuff along with the modeling and acting and. I was always the next thing, the next thing, the next thing. And it took me to have a marriage and a few kids and just sort of get to a point in my life. And I'm like, hang on a second. Um, I'm 30 and look at what I've done. And yet I have friends who I went to school with that still don't know what they're going to do with their lives.
Still single, you know, That miserable. And I'm like, okay, like actually I've been working really hard and I think I'm doing all right. So, but it's, that's kind of the positive sides of comparison is obviously you can pay yourself to other people and you'd be like, oh, why aren't I there and feel horrible about yourself.
But it's one of those things where it's like, just being grateful for what you're doing, but continue to work hard, continue to always be curious and positive and kind, and you know, you're going to be fine. And yeah, I'm actually, is there any shows and stuff? Oh, acting that you've done that you're proud of that, um, we can share for people to go check out that sort of stuff or,
Michael Cooke: well there's a show that I think it does. It does well in father, Brian, it's a BBC program. I think it's on the side of the night. A I'm going to be in, I'm going to be in that and January they aborted, they found it. Then that's gonna be in January. There's a few other things that I'm not like to speak about at the moment.
Um, TV wise, a but there's a few things coming up next.
Rae Leigh: oh, that's very exciting. Yeah. I've got some stuff coming out next year, so I don't like the DNA's it's um,
Michael Cooke: No, I know. I know. I know.
Rae Leigh: um, I'm the worst at that. sort of stuff, but yeah, you gotta be professional otherwise you might not ever get another job. so I get it.
Michael Cooke: No. Tell me about that. Tell me about it.
Rae Leigh: All right. Thank you very much.
Michael Cooke: Thank you so much
