Speaking to the Hyperdub luminary and showing her brand new video
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Hyperdub, we're posting a handful of video articles about this awesome record label today. Here's the premiere of Cooly Gs new video, "Wait Til' Night".
If it wasn’t obvious from the tracklist (“Your Sex,” “1st Time,” “Freak You,” “Fuck With You”), Cooly G’s got one thing on her mind when it comes to her new album for Hyperdub, Wait ‘Til Night. The title track is also the first on the record, and it’s a soft and sweet four minute meet-cute that’s kind of like the calm before a really sexy storm. Likewise, the video - premiering above - is a tentative first date brought to life, with London tourist attractions, shared candyfloss and his ‘n’ hers outfits all present and correct. We caught up with Cooly G to find out about the real-life date that culminated in her writing this song, and how Jeremih and The Weeknd inspired this “raunchy” new turn in her sound.
Tell me about this video, what was the idea behind it?
It’s based on a first date that I went on when I was 21. The song is about it as well, so I just basically re-enacted it - we did go to all those places, and we went into the arcades. We walked all the way back from there to Brixton. I stopped off in Kennington, and that’s where I started making up the song, as I was walking. That exact song. That’s how it all happened, while we were walking home. That song’s a very old song.
It’s so sweet how the video’s based on a real experience. Is the same true of the album?
It’s mainly based on fantasies. They’re fantasies but it’s like, trying to make them come real as well. Well, I’m making them come real.
You and the guy in the video, you’ve got matching outfits. Is that an important requirement for potential baes?
No, definitely not! I just wanted to keep it how I was: I was a tomboy, didn’t really want to wear dresses. The next video that I do, for “So Deep,” is gonna be a bit more - I don’t know if “raunchy” is the word, but a bit more sexy. All the images in all the videos I do now, it’s going to be like a growth. It’ll be a little bit more explicit. Just being me. This whole new album is me, really, and people just don’t know it.
So we’re getting the real story of Cooly G now?
I dunno, I’m just being comfortable with myself now. I’ve been a certain way for the last five years, having kids and stuff, I lost a bit of confidence. Now, I’m getting over all of that with myself and my personal life, and I’m quite sexual - that’s what I am. I’ve been hiding myself for a long long time, I’ve been single as well, but now I just want to be me and be happy. To be sexual and funny and dramatic. I’m just becoming myself again and finding myself.
I spoke to you back in January around the release of your EP and you talked about this record - you told me you’d made it in six weeks over Christmas. What was that experience like?
It was literally two weeks. The two week half term. I just worked every single day and finished the whole thing - and then when the kids [went back to] school, I would mix down tracks and clean them up or whatever. But I finished everything in the two week space when the kids went to my mum’s. I don’t know what happened. There was a tweet that Jeremih tweeted, that he was looking for beats for his new album. Obviously that’s like an R&B album. So I thought, “fuck it, I’m gonna make him a tune and try and send it to him.” When I made the tune “Want,” I was like, “nah, fuck that, I’m keeping this for myself. I’m gonna make my album now.” Then the half term came up, so I was like “mum, you’ve got to take [the kids], I need to do this.” I just literally got into my zone from then. Every time I was making a tune I was just zoning into a different world. It’s like I was here, but I wasn’t here. I was non-stop working on it. I was in a fantasy zone. I didn’t have the children around for two weeks so I got to do things that I couldn’t do, tiny things like just get up and go to the shop at 12 at night. Tiny little things that I can’t do as a single mum.
It’s interesting that this started out because of Jeremih - there’s a ton of male voices making R&B that’s explicitly, exclusively about sex. It’s cool that you made that beat for him and then you were like, “no, actually, I’ve got my own stuff I want to express on this.”
Yeah, because I went to see the The Weeknd live as well, and I was listening to him a lot, and I was like, “wow, they’re expressing themselves, man. I need to do that. I need to not be hiding away from things.” It was listening to The Weeknd, and that “Fuck U All The Time” tune that was big - I was like “oh my god, that tune is so sick, and that’s something I would say just hanging around with friends and making jokes.” It kind of woke me up a little bit. It was like, express yourself. Don’t hide. Don’t just be angry all the time making hard beats.
