To soul-funk artist Sydni Cook, music is much more than just something to listen to. Music, according to Cook, is a way to make an impact and radiate positivity.
Cook, a freshman at Georgia State, started playing music because her father played the guitar in several different bands. Cook grew up with music, listening to her father’s band practices and singing along to the music they made. She wrote her first song when she was four years old, and she hasn’t looked back since.
As time went on, so grew Cook’s curiosity and fascination with all things music. Her love of music prompted her family to place her in lessons with a vocal coach in the fourth grade.
One of Cook’s biggest music inspirations is Amy Winehouse, who she discovered in the 7th grade. Cook watched a documentary on Winehouse’s songwriting process and decided that she could do the same thing.
“Amy Winehouse has always been someone that I looked up to musically. She’s one of my biggest inspirations, and I have always loved her music,” Cook said.
The funk-soul sound that pours from Cook’s music comes from listening to her father’s classic rock taste and artists such as The Beatles and Etta James.
“My dad is really into classic rock, so I grew up listening to that a lot,” Cook said. I gradually got into funk music the past four or five years, though.”
In 2020, Cook created a funk band with some of her friends. While she loved working with her bandmates, she was older than them, and there was a slight maturity gap. This pushed her to start a solo career.
“I was the only girl in the group, and I was older than my bandmates,” Cook said. “The band was a really fun time, but we started doing our own thing,”
Cook began to professionally record and create music after her internship with Icon Studios, a recording studio located in Atlanta. Producers at Icon helped discover artists such as TLC and Outkast. Through this internship, Cook found a home with BNDWTH studios, finding producers and making original music.
“I would play my original songs, and they liked them,” she said. “I was able to get with a producer and learn so much about recording with BNDWTH.”
Cook, who is a media entrepreneurship major, makes music constantly. She writes songs just about every day and feels as if the songwriting process is so important to her career. Cook writes most of her music on guitar and piano, but she also works with her producer to create other beats and sounds.
When she is creating a new song, she brings her songbook to her producers and plays them music. From there, producers will take the song, and create audio and beats in order to make the song what it is when released.
“Whenever I write a new song, I play it for people and if they like it, the producer will start to play around with it and produce audio for it,” Cook said. “Revolution Tapes,” Cook’s EP released in 2021, is out on all streaming platforms. The EP, according to Cook, is something that she wants to have a positive impact on those who listen.
