Johnny Cooper Talks About Recording in Abilene, Picking Music for Live Shows + More in Exclusive Interview

Johnny Cooper is coming to Abilene for the KEAN 105 Free Summer Concert Friday night (7/26). He has been keeping busy in the studio and on the road this year, and we're glad he was able to take some time to visit with us and let us know the latest in the world of Johnny Cooper in a visit to the KEAN Afternoon Show.

The first part of our conversation included talk about his new EP. Johnny says "We've actually released our first two songs off our brand new EP called 'Red Sessions'. And we actually recorded everything right there in Abilene at Big Note Studio. My buddy Terry Mashburn over there has a wonderful little studio and he actually, once upon a time, played in a band with my dad. So, we got to record everything in Abilene. It was a lot of fun.". Cooper elaborated on the session, and talked more about working on it in Abilene:

We also had the chance to play one of his brand new songs, 'Heartbreak Masquerade'. Take a listen to the song, which is also featured on Cooper's latest project, 'The Red Sessions' EP:

In the second part of my conversation with Johnny Cooper, we talked about whether he changes things up with his live show from time to time, or if he focuses on putting on the same awesome show each night. He tells us, "We actually just put together a new set list about two weeks ago, so we're just now kinda getting the swing of everything fired all cylinders. What's cool about the new set list is we really just tried to across the board give everybody from our first record to our latest one...it's fun for me because, you know, you get to dive back to the times that I was 15 and 16 years old of just starting out playing music and some of the songs people really connected with when they first heard my music. And then you're also going to get stuff that's brand new, that still to a lot of people haven't had a chance to hear it. And I've always thought that the best way to get that across is during a live format...you can't hide anything in a live performance. It's either going to be good or it's going to be bad.". He also mentioned that he likes to bring some older songs that were never released to radio into the live shows just to give them some attention he feels they deserve. Here's part 2:

It's always good to talk with Johnny, partly because he's a great guy who really knows his stuff. But also because that usually means he's coming to play somewhere nearby. If you haven't seen a Johnny Cooper live show, make it a point to be at one soon. Once you do, you'll have a new level of appreciation for Cooper's talent as an all-around musician.