In 2022, Calgary native Devin Cooper released his Good Things EP, featuring 4 studio tracks which were accompanied by the same 4 tracks in a live acoustic setting. Fast forward 2 years and Devin has revisited the Good Things to release The Good Things Deluxe, this time with 11 studio tracks and still offering 11 live acoustic versions. We first came across Devin by chance 18 months ago during a trip to Calgary as he performed live during the intermission of a Calgary Flames NHL game. Devin has recently been out celebrating the release of the album with shows in Calgary and Nashville, before he continues the release party with dates in Red Deer and Medicine Hat and we caught up with him over zoom to find out more.
Hey, Devin. You all good? Yeah, absolutely.
I've got to say, I'm loving the room you're in right now. It makes my living room look really dull. It's my home studio workspace, so a good spot to hang out.
Just the seven guitars then to use in there, yeah? Yeah, there's about 10 more on this wall over here, and a few more up over here.
Is that your kind of hiding place then at home, is it? Yeah, exactly.
You’ve been down in Nashville this past week to celebrate the launch of the album, how was that? It was fantastic. It was an absolute blast. Played two shows down there.Raised Rowdy, songwriters round with Ben Chase and Mariah Stokes at Losers, and then Whiskey Jam with the full band and brought everybody down.
Is it cool to be able to do a full band show down in Nashville, kind of so far from home? Yeah, it was really cool. That was the first kind of like, I guess that was the first out of country full band thing that we've done. And to be able to bring the guys down was just, yeah, it was an absolute blast.
How did it go down there with the crowd? Because I guess have you done a few acoustic sets there before but not full band? Yeah, I've jumped on a few songwriter rounds kind of last minute and stuff like that. We opened up the night for Whiskey Jam, so we were the first band on, and the room was packed when we started playing, which was awesome. Everybody was out for the kick-off of the night and seemed to go over well.Everyone enjoyed it. We had a great time, had a lot of great feedback. And now we're just looking forward to going back again.
You've got a couple of shows coming up to still kind of celebrate the release of the album. Absolutely. And then have a bunch more that we're going to be announcing as well pretty soon that we're just working on right now.
The Good Things Deluxe has been out for a few weeks now, was it a relief to have it out after two years since the original EP? Yeah, it's good. It's a relief and it's encouragement to work harder to, you know, get as many people to hear it as possible.
I first came across you about two years back now at a Calgary Flames game. You were playing the intermission. So, it's been quite cool to obviously have followed you over these two years and now see the new music coming out. Is that something you do quite often at the Flames games? No, that was a one-off time. We haven't done it since, but it's funny that you say that. I'm actually playing at another hockey game in Calgary tonight for the AJHL, which is kind of like the Junior A adult team kind of thing. That's for the, I guess, just become adults kind of working their way up kind of thing. So I'm playing the intermission there tonight, actually. So it's funny that you saw me at the Flames intermission.
But now you've kind of released the new album. Was it always the idea to add it as a second part to Good Things? I think it wasn't always the idea, actually. I started writing all the songs that were going to be my sophomore record, and then as I was looking at all of the songs that I was writing, I realized that they were basically a continuation of that story that I'd started. When I looked back at the original four tunes that were on the Good Things EP, the story wasn't finished. It didn't feel right to me to not finish out that story, so I put all these songs together as one big package and kind of complete this Good Things chapter.
It's great to see that you still stuck with the studio and the live song mix. What made you want to do that mix on the original EP? I've always been a big fan of hearing my favourite fully produced songs played live acoustic, where bands will be on a tour and they'll stop in at a radio station and play the tunes live acoustic on air for the fans before the show that night. It just gives a different perspective on the song as well as, that's how all these songs were written, just acoustic guitars sitting around playing and singing. It kind of shows the initial conception of how that song was created.
Have you ever been tempted to kind of do the full band live one on it? Yeah, we're working on something.
The videos I've seen online and the show I saw at the Saddledome, the full band just adds a whole new element to the songs, doesn't it? Yeah, absolutely. The live acoustic stuff was recorded out at OCL Studios outside of Calgary here, and they have a massive live room where we get to record in, and we were able to have 40 of my biggest fans and supporters in the room with us. We're working on doing a full band version of that now.
I've seen you quite like a guitar riff as well though. I do like to play the occasional guitar lick.Definitely like to do it
You wrote all of the 11 tracks. Is that quite cool to now see it out there in full, knowing that you've had a hand in every single one of them? It is cool. And it's also cool because all the songs that were co-written by me, they were just written with me and a bunch of my friends. It's a big group of friends that were able to bring this whole story together, bring this whole package together.I think it's really special that I got to do it with some of my best friends.
Behind you, you have the vinyl. How nice was it when that box arrived with all those vinyl? It was really nice and really cool. To see it in your hands and be able to open it up and get the full package of everything that's there. Growing up, I listened to vinyl as a kid and always would open it up and read the liner notes and see who played on what, and just being able to hold something physical in your hand and then put it on and listen to it.It's really cool to have my own version of that now.
Has it been on repeat a little bit recently then? It has been on repeat. I've played it probably a few too many times around the house. I thought I was going to be sick of the songs by now, and then I got it on vinyl and it's a whole new experience.It just sounds totally different.
Was the original EP released on CD or anything? Just CD it was released on. We did CDs and vinyl with this one and the CD is cool. Again, that was like, you know, you get in the car and put it in and listen to it there.It was really cool, but there's just something different about vinyl. You just have to go to that effort. It's got to be in the house to listen to it. I feel like you're more present when you're listening to vinyl as well, because you've got to flip the sides over and change it. And it's a whole process to put it on and sit down and you know, you can't be jumping around the house and having the vinyl skip and things like that.I feel like it's a more present listening experience.
I guess when there's 22 tracks on the album, it kind of gives you an excuse to put it over two vinyl as well! It does. Yeah. It wouldn't fit all onto one. It's cool being able to have the two and whole big package. It's a lot of fun
Recently in Canada, you've had the CCMA Awards up in Edmonton. Did you manage to get up there for the weekend? I was up there for the weekend. I had a bit of media and just got to go around, check out a bunch of shows that a bunch of friends were playing at. It was a fairly low-key year for me this year.The record had just come out, so it was kind of just catching up with pals, sharing some news about the record. We can work for some nominations next year.
I know last year you had quite a good success at the Alberta Awards. Do you feel that momentum is still building, and it's built up to this release now? Absolutely. Yeah. It's been a long kind of steady build, which is kind of the biggest thing you can hope for.You don't want to have a big spike and try and recover from that. It's a long, slow, steady build. I'm excited to see what comes from this record and who we can reach with it and see where it could take us.
How has the reaction been then to the new songs? I know you did a show in Calgary, haven't you? And you've got a couple more coming up. Yeah, absolutely. The reaction has been great. People are loving it, been selling a ton of vinyl.People have been sending me messages, sharing it every day. I guess it is a bit of a relief, like you said, to finally have this body of work out and just get to share it with people and hear their reaction to it, hear what the songs mean to them. Now it gives me an opportunity to start working on the new stuff as well.
Is this now got you motivated to go, right now it is time for the sophomore. Have you got stuff ready for it already, or is it a work in progress? There's a lot of stuff ready. It was hard to choose the 11 songs for this record! Over the last probably four years. I've probably written three or 400 songs! To only choose 11 of those for this project was difficult to try and pick the ones that told this story the correct way. I'm looking forward to revisiting that whole catalogue again, and kind of seeing what the next chapter is going to be and writing a bunch more new stuff as well and kind of seeing where it goes.
Are you hoping to potentially keep writing all your own stuff or do you think you would eventually reach out to people and pick up cuts by other artists? I'm definitely open to outside cuts. I mean, at the end of the day, I feel like the best song wins whoever wrote it. It doesn't really matter.It's been really cool that I've been able to write all of these ones and have a hand in that, but I'm never opposed to having songs pitched to me. Or it's like I said, the best song wins. If someone's got a great song that they want to pitch to me, or we're able to come across something that finishes off a project or really speaks to me, I'm absolutely open to that
I understand it's not just music that keeps you busy. You're quite into your motorbikes. I am. I unfortunately have not got to ride a lot this year. I'm going to go up to my hometown on Saturday and go for a ride with my dad because I've only been able to get out twice this year, which has not been fun.
But I guess the Rocky Mountains aren't exactly the worst place to go for a bike ride. No, they're not. It's a pretty beautiful out here.
You've also been doing your charity work with the Ride to Remember with the Alzheimer’s Society of Calgary. How good is it to see the growth of that as well over the years? It's been really cool. There's been a ton of support from the local community, and everyone involved. It's definitely not just myself that has brought this together.There's a huge group of people that are involved in making this happen and to see it grow and us be able to raise more money every year for the Alzheimer's Society of Calgary is really inspiring to see that the communities behind the support behind the initiative and everyone who's come on board, it's been an absolute blast. I'm excited to see what we can do for the sixth annual event.
Does it feel crazy that you've now done it for five years already? When you started, did you kind of have a long-term goal of going for five, six, ten years, or was it just a plan to be a one-off? I think I knew I wanted to do something. I didn't know if Ride to Remember was going to be the thing that continued on, but after the first year we had such great support from everyone around that it was like, it would be a shame not to do this again. Hearing everyone's stories of their family members who have been living with dementia and Alzheimer's or are currently going through it and how the money is really impacting the community. It's something that I knew we had to keep doing.
What have you now got planned then for the rest of 2024 as we somehow coming towards the end of the year, another year already? I know, I can't believe it's the end of the year. It's been a whirlwind of a year. There's a ton more shows coming.I'm basically just going to be playing everywhere we possibly can for the rest of the year. We've got kind of a few dates around the country that we're getting ready to announce and gear up for 2025. Lots of writing, lots of playing and maybe a couple of music videos.
Well, I know we're a long way away from you in England, but there's always international shows! Do you think international is on your radar? It's 100% on the radar and doing everything we can to try and make that work.
I like the sound of that. It's going to be good.
No, well, thanks so much for the time. I really appreciate it. Thank you very much. And hopefully we'll see you not at a flames game next time, but on your side of the pond.
Devin Cooper’s Good Things Deluxe is out now on all streaming sites, and of course you can order the vinyl from his online store. To find out more about Devin, head to his official site and be sure to follow him on socials too.