Hollie Cook

“Oh here I go again, more love songs!” Hollie Cook laughs. If there’s a theme that the London-based reggae vocalist and songwriter returns to more than any other, it’s love. The magical and the melancholy, the heart-lifting and heart-breaking, you name it, Cook is there for it. “It is just my favourite,” she enthuses. “It makes me feel more alive than anything else!” On the cusp of releasing her fifth album, Shy Girl, Cook is going back to her roots – tight grooves, beautiful vocals and catchy melodies – more self-assured and more open to vulnerability than ever before.

Although it was the lovers rock of Janet Kay and the rocksteady of Phyllis Dillon that would ultimately steal her heart, Hollie Cook’s journey in music has been about finding her own way. Daughter of Sex Pistols’ drummer Paul Cook, she was first drawn to the big walls of sound that backed the close harmonies of ‘60s girl groups and classic Motown 45s. Pop was her puppy love and growing up she found herself gravitating towards strong female personalities like Björk, Courtney Love, and Mariah Carey. Then one day, she absent-mindedly tagged one of her early MySpace tracks with the words “tropical pop”. It stuck.

That Cook ended up falling for reggae owed much to living in 2000s London, where she connected the dots of soundsystem culture between Notting Hill Carnival and iconic nights at Plastic People, The End and Gaz’ Rockin’ Blues. “I always felt a bit like an outsider in both social and music scenes,” she explains, too interested in too much to settle for just one thing. You could say she needed a mentor.

And who better than the ultimate riot grrrl, Ari Up? Cook was only 19 when Ari invited her to join feminist post-punk icons The Slits on a reunion tour. What began as a few live dates became four years of worldwide shows and an industry crash course like no other. “I’m not a natural show-off,” Cook says, “but I think that experience helped nurture my individualism and carefree attitude. Ari was so true to herself and that made me feel so safe and so powerful.” It was all the inspiration she needed to take the next step.

Joining up with producer Prince Fatty, whose clean, instrumental, analogue aesthetic caught her ear, Cook cut a single called ‘Milk & Honey’ that would form the basis of her self-titled debut, released by Mr Bongo in 2011 to widespread acclaim. A soulful collection of originals and covers, such as Rachel Sweet’s ‘It’s So Different Here’, it featured the Pioneers’ George Dekker, Omar Lyefook and Slits’ producer Dennis Bovell, laying foundations on which Cook could build a sound of her own.

Dubbed out by Prince Fatty for a 2012 rerelease, Cook’s debut was followed by 2014’s Twice, also on Mr Bongo, before a four-year hiatus saw her begin a new chapter, working with Youth, formerly of Killing Joke and a producer whose CV reads like a who’s who of post-punk, pop and rave royalty.

With fresh input, Cook stretched her legs in new directions, lacing her dub-wise productions with more experimental sensibilities and releasing the ambitious Vessels of Love in 2018 and Happy Hour in 2022 on Merge Records, while never straying too far from the core of her musical identity. “I think that my approach has always come from the world of harmony and melody,” she explains. “That’s how I always find my expression.”

Her new album, Shy Girl, is perhaps Cook’s most authentic yet. Almost three years in the making, it has also been her most challenging. Beset by writer’s block, she switched up her process and headed for the studio with long-time collaborators The General Roots Band to write in a more fluid and collective manner. Recorded across New York, LA, Spain and London, some tunes were developed over time, others, like title track ‘Shy Girl’, came together in moments of spontaneous intuition.

The result is a vibrant, confident record that speaks of the full spectrum of emotions. From the melancholy musings of ‘Night Night’ to the nocturnal dizzy dance of ‘Rockaway’, and ‘Rivers Run Deep’, which she describes as a “sweet song of hope and friendship”, Shy Girl confirms Cook’s place as reggae’s orator of love, in all its guises.

“My albums are very much a process of me trying to be as open and honest as I can be,” Cook says. “The Shy Girl theme is me. It’s just about being my most vulnerable self and being as true to the music that I love as possible.” Almost fifteen years since her debut, Hollie Cook is returning to the sound which first captured her heart, and it rings truer than ever.