EP Walkthru: Harry Cook - All Flaws

Naarm/Melbourne based composer and singer Harry Cook is an artist who has rigorous training as a classical pianist, working as a session musician for the likes of The Teskey Brothers, Best Western, Pierce Brothers, and WILSN over the years, building up to his debut as a solo artist which comes in the form of a pleasant EP titled: All Flaws.

Reminiscent of contemporary-classical pianists such as Nils Frahm and the chamber-folk work of artists like Sam Amidon, All Flaws is an eclectic collection of compositions ranging from post-apocalyptic prayers to introspective love songs. Opening with the title track All Flaws, a warm laid-back duet featuring Hannah Cameron which was originally released as a single in 2021, the 5-track release harnesses the grounding pitter-patter of piano and lush orchestral arrangements from skilled musicians into a beguiling canvas for Harry to detail sincere and thoughtful lyrics.

Out today, we asked Harry Cook to walk us through the debut EP track by track to learn what went into its makeup. So be sure to hit play on All Flaws, as you take a read through what he had to say below.

All Flaws

All Flaws is a track about self-deception in a close relationship, and how often those we love may see us very differently from how we see ourselves. Me and my partner were living in a small apartment at the time, so I tried to capture some of that feeling, both the warmth and coziness, but also the neurosis! As I was writing it became clear that to show how flawed our own self-talk can be, I needed both perspectives, so it naturally turned into a duet with each character discussing the other.

Amen

There’s this feeling I think, especially amongst people of my age and younger, of a kind of fatalistic inevitability when it comes to thinking about the climate. Maybe there is still time, and we can mitigate or reverse some of the effects we have had on the natural world, but even so it seems that no matter what choices we make as an individual we are still systemically complicit in the erosion of nature, and that we will see that erosion in larger and larger ways over our lifetimes. This song is about the universality of that feeling, and about the selfish part of me that wants it to be over, that wants the looming wave on the horizon to wash over the land.

As I Am

Sometimes I think we all can feel very out of place, like we are meant to be somewhere else, or be something else. ‘As I Am’ is a track about accepting your own weirdness and just trying to be honest about who you are, even if you don’t always succeed.

Yellow and Blue

Ok bear with me on this one. I was listening to a (very depressing) thing on the radio talking about how all our natural insect pollinators are dying out, and that insect biomass has dropped something like 70%. I was driving at the time heading west out of Melbourne, past these empty, barren fields that I assume have been earmarked by property developers for estates. This image came to me of a strange future, some cross between a science-fiction dystopia and a western, of a chain-gang working out in these empty fields with paint brushes to pollinate all the flowers, doing it by hand now that there were no insects. When I sat down to write, this strange protest song emerged.

Never Believed in Love

After not being able to sleep one night, I got up and wrote this tune on the piano, with the felt practice pedal on so I wouldn’t wake my partner. It’s a love song through and through, albeit one written by someone who thinks too much. The ending is supposed to feel how love feels, a combination of warmth, connection, and excitement that hopefully goes on forever.

Harry Cook's debut EP All Flaws is out now.

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