Jem Cooke

West London, some time in the 80's and "Blue Peter" (BBC) is on the TV. One of its presenters, Tina Heath, is lying on a doctors table having an ultrasound which is being broadcast live across the UK. The doctor wiggles the thingy over her tummy into the right place and then points at the screen.... "And that, right there, is the baby's heartbeat." Hello! That's me in there. I am Jem Cooke, and this is my story. I grew up in West London as a bit of a studio baby, spending most of my time watching my Dad (Dave Cooke) work his magic in his studio in the garage, stalking him into giving me jobs, which he did and this kicked off my early life as a session singer (and breathe) with my first session being a jingle for The Evening Standard when I was 3 .I realised fairly early on that this was something I loved and that led to me knowing I always wanted to be in that environment, so with the encouragement of my old man, I carried on! When I was 13, I wrote my first song. I took 2 cassette players, recorded the vocal on one, then played it back and sang whilst recording on the other - I bounced them back and forth (an embarrassingly rookie version of tracking I'd seen in studio) and there I made my first mini production. Couldn't believe that something I'd written and sung actually sounded alright, so took it up to my Dad in the studio, and we recorded it properly. I knew I could sing but I never realised what a buzz I could get from writing songs, and that was the first time I knew that was what I wanted to do. Then I carried on with being a teenager - normal nightmare! But cutting that bit short, I got back into the music writing and then decided to get brave and start gigging. The first couple of years started in London, then as it picked up a bit of pace, it took me over to America to sing at a couple of festivals, including a gig at The Viper Room, which nearly blew my head off in how excited I was... and I ended up moving to New York, where I got a residency in The Bitter End. Parts of this were amazing, but it wasn't everything I thought it was going to be, I had no idea what to tell people about what I wanted to be, and after a while, I came back to London, if I'm honest, to start again. At the end of 2005, I left behind 3 years worth of songs, picked up my ukelele, and decided to start doing all my gigs acoustic rather than with a band like before. This kicked off as an experiment which turned into something people bought into quickly, so I carried on and started writing concentrating on becoming a proper lyricist...whatever that is.and started from scratch to try and work out who I was, so that the next time I walked into a label I would know what to say....I'm still not 100% sure to be honest! But I'll give it a go... The only way I can write is to write about what I know. None of my songs are 'a song for the sake of a song'. They're all about things that have actually happened, things I've seen, and things I've felt. They are my stories. "City Life" is about me and my friends taking too many drugs at a house party, "Miss you" is about realising how much I loved my boyfriend when he went on holiday, "Little Ray" & "Fallen" are about falling in love with the guy I left him for, "Never" is about when he broke my heart and all my hair fell out, "I was in Love" is about the moment I looked back and tried to let it go, "Party for One" is about my inability to remember people's names......"Morning Gorgeous" is about what I reckon my best friend is looking for The album "I am Jem Cooke" is a 3 year story. Part of that included a mini 'dark time' where I was in a little bit of a bad way for a minute, and it was only when I started writing about it that my head began to clear and I came out of it. And I reckon writing these wee tunes might just about have saved my life!! And I really hope you like them... I am my songs. I am a story teller. I am a hopeless romantic. I am a wreckhead I am an every girl. I am happy today I am in love again! I Am Jem Cooke Jem Cooke is a singer song-writer living in East London, gigging regularly around London (The Roundhouse/Ronnie Scott's/Indig02/The Bedford) and other music events (The Big Chill/BBC Emerging Proms), and more recently, touring in Germany, in 2010 and 2011, and session singing all over the UK, for which she has won a few awards. (ILR, Creative Circle and London International Advertising awards) Her first album, "I Am Jem Cooke" was released independently in September 2009. "Shhh", a new 6 song acoustic EP, has also just been released and both are available on iTunes "I Am Jem Cooke" and has just recently been licenced to German Label, A45 Records, for distribution in G.A.S. Territory (Germany/Austria/Switzerland)