Rocker and “American Idol” winner David Cook is expected to bring his new music to the Massachusetts shores and a New Hampshire town on his upcoming tour.
Cook will perform on Sept. 26 at the Blue Ocean Music Hall in Salisbury and Sept. 28 at Tupelo Music Hall in Derry, New Hampshire.
“There’s just something inherently romantic about going on the road and playing music for people,” he said. “Places like Derry and Salisbury are some of my favorites. Sitting at home (in Missouri) before “American Idol,” you’d never imagine coming somewhere like Derry, but then you go there and see it’s pretty rad. Experiences places like that around the country keeps me coming back.”
Cook’s career took off after he won Season 7 of “American Idol” in 2008. He’s released four full-length albums, one from his pre-Idol days, and three extended play albums. He has sold more than 2 million albums and more than 5 million tracks worldwide. His self-titled, major-label debut “David Cook” went platinum, as did its singles “The Time of My Life “ and “Light On.”
Cook released his fourth studio album “Digital Vein” independently in 2015. He landed on Broadway in 2018, debuting in the role of Charlie Price in “Kinky Boots.”
Along with his musical successes, Cook has worked with organizations driving research and treatment for brain cancer and brain tumors after his brother, Adam Cook, died in 2009. He’s helped raise more than $1.8 million with his fans through different fundraising projects.
“I count myself extremely lucky that I’ve been able to do this for as long as I have,” Cook said. “To be 17 years removed from ‘Idol’ is crazy to think about. I’m still able to put out new music, play these songs and get a response from people is something I can’t put into words.”
“I just wanted 10 good years out of this after ‘Idol,’” he said with a laugh.
The tour comes on the heels of his latest EP titled “The Hero.” It’s the first of three planned EP releases before working on a full length, he said. Fans can expect to hear newer songs like “Disappear,” but also the tunes which introduced Cook to them following “American Idol.”
When Cook won the television singing competition, it was the first season where contestants could play their instruments. For Cook, he said it was a huge help.
“We had so many incredible voices in our season that l don’t know that I would have been able to keep up had we not been able to bring in musicality and instrumentation as well,” he said.
In the last decade, Cook became an independent artist. It’s a move that has allowed for more creative freedom. He equated it to life before “American Idol,” with the exception of having more resources and life experiences to draw on.
But now 17 years removed, Cook looks back on his time in the “pop culture zeitgeist” as what shaped his career and songwriting during what he called “professional musician boot camp for four-and-a-half months on television.”
He said the experience gave him more insight into the process of making music in his infancy stage of songwriting and performing.
“Everyone who puts out music says what they are doing currently is the strongest, and I firmly believe that,” Cook said. “I honestly credit ‘Idol’ as I learned a lot about everything, except the proper way to cut my hair.”
Over the last several years, Cook has leaned in on writing a handful of songs at a time, rather than putting out a full length album.
“I’ve really enjoyed the short story format of an EP and letting each one be its own living, breathing ecosystem,” he said. “A lot of the time you’re writing a full length within a specific period of time, the songs can become informed by the same period in your life and the whole record is one big snapshot.”
Cook said he wanted the track listings on “The Hero” and the two forthcoming Eps to be different from each other and something new that fuels his excitement to play a show every night.
“I wanted the songs on each EP to feel distinctly different sonically,” he said. “With ‘The Hero,’ I wanted the songs to feel anthemic and hopeful.”
“Disappear” and “Rendezvous” fit the bill for the EP, the latter song being one of the first songs he’s incorporated horns. The track features saxophonist David Besonen from Ben Rector’s band.
Cook looks forward to playing his new material, and said he likely won’t be able to sit on the unreleased songs he’s working on in the studio without growing impatient waiting to play them.
But he doesn’t forget the songs that have built his fanbase and the multi generations who have connected with him through “American Idol.”
Playing songs like “Light On,” one of his first singles released after the television show hits different for Cook, but in a good way.
“I think about what ‘Light On’ meant to me when I first started playing it and what it means to me now,” Cook said. “I don’t know that I’m more appreciative now, but I’m certainly appreciative differently than I was when the song first came out.”
He recalled a recent acoustic gig in Orlando where he closed the show with the hit. He said he closed his eyes and when he opened them, he saw the crowd holding up their phones with flashlights. Cook remembered the “phone thing” just starting when the song came out in 2008, trickling in the crowd with lighters.
Then Cook had a writing session in July where one of the songwriters told him how he used to watch “American Idol” when he was a kid.
“Those moments still catch me off guard,” he said. “One of these days when I’m sitting in a rocking chair on the porch, I’m going to have to process the last 17 years, but I haven’t done that just yet.”