Ray Cooper: In 2000 I went to Sweden, to a small red house near the forest and wild animals.
Biography Ray Cooper In 2000 I went to Sweden, to a small red house near the forest and wild animals. It was the love of winter, the folk music of Sweden and not least the love of a woman that drew me there. There is a melancholy in this music, I call it the "blues of the north". I call it home. Once - as a student at Brighton College of Art - I decided to follow my love of music. So I moved to London and ate very little for a few years. During this time I started playing with the OYSTERBAND, we released 19 albums and toured 27 countries. In 2013, the time had come for me to embark on my own artistic path, a move I have never regretted. I set up my own studio in a small log cabin and recorded my first album there. It has a very strong reference to history in general. The second album, released in 2010, has a stronger reference to the present and is also more personal. I see myself as a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist - I'm the kind of guy who sings to the cello, mandolin, guitar and piano. My heritage is half English, half Scottish, I don't have a hometown in the usual sense. I see myself as a Northern European and: a hopeless romantic. My view of history is driven by a desire to learn something from it for the present, to recognize the obvious repeating patterns. My ideas have their roots in stories, dreams, historical treatises, biographies, online news or simply encounters and conversations with people. Traditional tunes are woven into my music, they are powerful, strong and as much an essential part of my roots as rock'n'roll.
