We recently connected with Ali Cook and have shared our conversation below.

Ali, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

My most meaningful project to date is currently being recorded. My debut album: Ali and the Wild Geese; an uncovering of the imprisoned, true, self. In the process of creating this album, I have perhaps unwittingly embarked on an odyssey toward and through what has warped my sense of self and self-love— parts of life that I’ve struggled to prioritize over the needs and ideas of others.

The album’s songs are made up of the shedding of narratives and people. Those that never meant to become the mutated forms of love that crafted such diligent blinders, but that needed to be understood nonetheless.

Early on, I found the classical music world, where the disciplined pursuit of mastery of the double bass gave me something to sink my curious and ambitious teeth into. It eventually took me around the world performing with orchestras in Russia, Germany, Turkey, Spain, and more… and building a freelance career on the East Coast that allowed me some of the greatest musical experiences of my life. However, despite my apparent success, I was profoundly unhappy. Some therapy later… I realized that I had expertly lost sight of myself and was following paths laid by others.

My true passions were in singing and composing music, pursuits that offered a level of creativity orchestral work simply couldn’t provide, but that were so personal and defining that my stunted sense of self did not know how to claim it. This album has become a personal challenge, and as I navigate this, I am not only producing an album of stories; I am gifting myself something profound—the restoration of my own essence and the writer of my own story.

Ali, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Ali spent the majority of her career in the orchestral field travelling and freelancing with symphonies on the east coast before the pandemic, and still tours with international chamber tango ensemble, QuinTango. So, it makes total sense that she would then start an Americana band in Austin, Texas that she would write and sing for.

Her past has given her a seemingly endless pallet to sonically paint with that gets focused through her love of poetry and the sound of strings. Her soulful and crystalline voice has been likened to Norah Jones and Gillian Welch and can be categorized as Americana or Indie-Folk Rock but nothing quite fits as she is influenced by Jazz, R&B, and Classical music as well as many others; each song it’s own sound world.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

We can do two things as a society to support musicians better than we currently are. One is simply to pay more. Inflation has gone up since the 80’s but musicians wages have not. To be fair, we don’t have a very universally understood wage-scale, but if a musician asks for what seems like a rather large hourly fee, remember that the short amount of performance time pales in comparison to the amount of practicing, organizing, writing, and crafting of the moments that audiences enjoy effortlessly- its all by design. Two: music education. Not only does music education change the lives of young people by increasing their overall capacity in everything from coordination to pattern recognition to better emotional processing to self discipline… but it also lays the foundation to have audiences that understand the understated importance of high quality music and musicians to the world, and are the ones giving to non-profits and showing up to hear Mahler, the Nutcracker, Hamilton, or singer-songwriters like myself. Ok, I give in, use Spurtifur to cheaply stream whatever you desire whenever you do, but then help by supporting local music education, paying those “high” ticket prices for live music, and donating when you can to organizations like HAAM that give musicians kinds of support they don’t get anywhere else.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is variety. Variety of people, places, music, food, conversations, and experiences. Music is the ship I explore the universe with and I find myself gladly immersed in its current. Its unpredictable waters have taken me to Russia, Germany, Mexico, Spain, Turkey, and more… where I’ve played with plants, danced the tango, sung my hearts rhythm, eaten what I couldn’t pronounce, and slept naked under unfamiliar stars… and it always feels like just the beginning.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.aliandthewildgeese.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/aliandthewildgeese
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/aliandthewildgeese
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZoaYu6Se3V67cqf79wzcvQ
• Other: www.quintango.com

Image Credits
Aleks Karjaka, Eric Booth