He wants to believe

>> Bluesabilly singer-songwriter Cooper Thomson insists the songs are out there

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

"I feel like I can't take credit for any of the songs because the songs are out there, around my shoulder or something, and you just have to be receptive to pick them up and play them." So from the ashes of his first band Beverly and his first devastating breakup, Cooper Thomson culled and compiled the melodic ditties for his debut Lamplight on Hutchison, an album almost entirely self-recorded save for some bass and "spiritual guidance" from cohort Shane. With the disc now a year old, Thomson is prepping a mini-album (The New Affair) and working the local club circuit with his band, now a quartet with the addition of flamboyant scenester Ryan on guitar and volatile caricature Derek (aka Bloodshot Bill) on drums. The Mirror stroked its chin as Thomson pondered fame, devotion and heel-clicking.



M: How's the music business treating you?

CT: With the type of songs that I write, it's not overnight success. Once it hits, it'll grow and grow and grow and hopefully I'll be able to play music when I'm 60 rather than just have a span of five years when I'm super-hot and then once I'm 30, it's over.

M: It's been pretty DIY up until now. I presume you're looking for label support?

CT: I'm not asking for a barrage of promotion or cardboard cut-outs of myself on the street, I just want the record to be in stores so when I leave a town after having played, people can get it. If I could have a career like Tom Waits, it would be a dream. Some people think he's the worst, but the ones who like him, love him. I want complete devotion from the people who do like me, because that's how I am.

M: You don't crave massive fame?

CT: (hesitantly) It'd be nice. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to meet some famous people. I think I'd have a great time. A lot of famous people seem really boring, so I could liven that up. Jesus Christ, if you're famous, roll with it.

M: But it sounds like you're wary of it.

CT: Well, if 10 million people buy your record you know that five million of them probably have some record that you hate, so how can they buy that record and yours? Anybody super-famous has to be suspicious of why that is. It can't be just about the music, something else has to have caught on, and I'd be curious as to what that would be because I don't have a gimmick.

M: You've got that hat. And Ryan told me you click your heels.

CT: Yeah, I guess I do. When the show's going well, I start clicking my heels, I don't know why. Maybe it's the boots. Everybody has their thing, I guess. I always wondered what my thing would be. You know Corey Hart had that clenched fist.

M: Like Billy Idol.

CT: Yeah, Billy Idol had that. I guess it just happens and you don't know it. Derek vomits on stage and I click my heels.

With Lederhosen Lucil at Club Zone on Friday, July 20, 9pm, $5