”American Idol is a massive enterprise, and the fact that they devote an entire program to the plight of those around us, that’s no small thing,” says season 7 champ David Cook, who traveled to the Biruh Tesfa school in Ethiopia to film a segment for this year’s Idol Gives Back, a two-hour telecast that will raise money for charities like the United Nations Foundation, Children’s Health Fund, and Malaria No More. ”With the state that the economy is in, it’s easy to be insular,” says Cook. ”But school supplies for each girl [cost] less than $10 per year. It’s tangible and it’s absolutely attainable.’” (Source)

David Cook is a busy, busy bee, but one who’s not going to be rushed. The American Idol season 7 champ has been working since January on writing and recording songs for his sophomore album, and while he’s well aware that an Idol results-night performance slot would be the perfect launching pad for a new single, he’s nevertheless more concerned with quality than cross-promotional synergy. We caught up by phone with Cook as he did interviews to promote his work on Idol Gives Back (set to air April 21 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox), and while we’ll cover details of his recent trip to Ethiopia in an upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly and in a subsequent blog post, we didn’t want to wait to share scoop on what he’s been up to in the studio, and who he’s been doing it with. Read on!

Is there a possibility you’ll be debuting a single on Idol before the season is over?
Well, we’re working on it, and it’s definitely something I’m cognizant of. I would love to be able to debut a single on Idol this year. But at the same time we certainly don’t want to rush anything. Rest assured, we’re trying very, very hard. I can give a definite maybe at this point.

Is it better than a 50-50 chance?
It really is a coin flip right now. I would say no, it’s not better than 50-50, but it’s not worse than that either.

Any new collaborators you’ve worked with since our last chat in February? Any flights of fancy you’ve gone on for the new album? Last time we spoke you had mentioned wanting to do a song that’s all vocals, no instruments.
I’ve been so busy traveling lately that we haven’t gotten to really delve into that too much. In reference to the all-vocals idea, I’ve got one or two songs in the till right now that could work in that direction, but the demos, as such, are instrumental. As for new collaborators, I got a chance to work with Matt Squire (Good Charlotte, 3OH!3) a little bit. Wrote a song with him and Claude Kelly called “Four-Letter Word” that I’m really excited about.

Is that a romantic song or an angry song? That title could go either way.
It’s actually a little bit of both. So it’s an angry love song. [Laughs.]

And who else have you hit the studio with of late?
I actually worked on a few songs now with a couple guys from the UK: Jim Irvin and Julian Emery. We did a song called “Paper Heart” and one called “We Believe.” And we just finished a song yesterday called “Alibi.”

How would you describe the music you’re making with them?
The choruses on all those songs are massive. They’re just massive choruses. And I will say they have pushed me vocally on these demos more than probably anybody else has. I’m definitely hitting high register on the choruses. The choruses are very open, very U2-esque, and the vocals are just up there, which pushes the intensity of them a little bit.

Was this a deliberate goal of yours?
My goal at the beginning of this was that I wanted to make a record that really, really pushed the concept of dynamic. Really pushed the interplay between loud and soft, the slow and the fast. And to make a record that catered more to the live show, and that had a versatility. To make a record that could be played at a coffee shop with an acoustic guitar, or that could be played with a mile-long catwalk in the middle of Madison Square Garden. I wanted to try to work on the interplay of opposites, I suppose.

And by “played in a coffee shop,” you mean “perform on Idolatry,” yes?
Exactly! [Laughs.] Don’t let anybody fool you, American public. Idolatry does have a 200-foot catwalk.

Totally. Any planned collaborators you’re hoping to work with before it’s all said and done?
I’m actually leaving for Nashville next week. I’m gonna write with Zac Maloy, the guy who I wrote “Lie” and “Life on the Moon” with for the last record, and he also wrote “Come Back to Me.” And then I think we’re talking about Ryan Tedder the end of this month or early next month.

I think you should write with Dolly Parton when you’re in Nashville. I still love your cover of “Little Sparrow” from the week she mentored on Idol. How genius would that be?
You know, I’m not opposed. [Laughs.] We’ll throw you a five-percent songwriter’s credit or something if it works out. (Source)

Appearances
2009 February 12 – “American Idol” Experience At Walt Disney World
2009 May 20 – American Idol Season 8 Grand Finale
2009 June 25 – Fuse’s No. 1 Countdown
2009 July 13 – MLB Home Run Derby
2009 August 11 – Hard Rock Cafe
2009 December 9 – We The Kings “Smile Kid” Album Release Party
2010 March 17 – American Idol
2010 March 18 – Visiting the “If I Can Dream” House

Tour
2009 May 2 – West Palm Beach, FL
2009 November 27 – St Petersburg, FL

TV Appearances
2009 January 11 – E!’s Golden Globe Pre Show
2009 February 2 – E! News
2009 March 25 – Daily 10
2009 August 29 – Saturday Night Live

Misc
On the Set: Come Back To Me
Sketchers Ads
Twitter

Special thanks to Jess for some of the appearance/tour photos.

Season 7 winner David Cook returns to the “American Idol” stage on Wednesday, much to this writer’s delight. The 27-year-old Missouri native, who recently moved to L.A. but insists he still has one foot in his home state, is currently working on the follow-up to his platinum-selling self-titled debut, though he won’t be playing a new song on “Idol.” Instead, Cook, like the Top 12 contestants, will pay tribute to the Rolling Stones with his band’s rockin’ rendition of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” that’s sure to be a gas, gas, gas.

But on the album front, Cook recently returned from songwriting sessions in Europe and is just about done with the demoing phase for his sophomore effort. He’s co-written upward of 30 songs, with another 10 to 15 in the pipeline. He played two for us on Monday night, following a rehearsal for his “Idol” gig. Snap judgment? We’ll give it three Hs: heavy, hooky and full of heart. Cook’s voice has never sounded better. Like a favorite pair of boots, the wear and scruff only accentuate the quality leather from which it’s made. (Yes, that’s how we like to think of Cook — with leather.)

Cook hopes to have a single ready in April, with the album to be released over the summer, which means he’ll soon have to sequester himself in a recording studio (a producer has yet to be chosen). That may be part of the reason for this unexpected “Idol” appearance. Cook is also scheduled to visit the “If I Can Dream” house on Thursday night (fans can talk to him live via the “Dream” house Twitter). And guess who’s tagging along?

Until then, the always eloquent and insightful David Cook gives us a career update and also his view on what the Season 9 Top 12 are going through right now.

This ‘Idol’ performance sort of seemed to come over of nowhere…

It was a late addition to the calendar. We kind of cooked this all together within the last week. I’m excited about it and also a little nervous to be performing such an iconic band’s song — you want to do it well. But I’m looking forward to getting back and seeing everybody on “Idol,” as well as the new contestants.

You’ve appeared on the show a couple times since your win, but are you so happy not to be  judged each time?

More than you know.

Tim Urban, one of the current Top 12 finalists, performed your song “Come Back to Me” during Hollywood week. What was that like for you?

I saw that, actually. It was cool. I was flattered. Hollywood week is so tough, and I thought he did a great job with the song. He seemed a little nervous, which I probably would have been too. But yeah, I saw the sales numbers go up a little bit from that, so that was very much appreciated. He’s helped me pay my bills. If Tim wants to do another one, I wouldn’t be opposed.

Watching it must have been surreal.

I get kind of freaked out watching the episodes, because I remember Hollywood week — being at the hotel bar, working on my song and thinking, “What am I doing here?” I buddied up with Josiah Leming,  Michael Johns, and Carly Smithson all during that week. We would hang out, and just be like, “What is going on?” So since then, I empathize with the people that have had to go through that.

What are they going through right now?

Man, it’s tough. Being this close to the Top 10 and the tour and all that stuff. Ten was a milestone for me. I started out like, “OK, I made 24, now I want to make 12.” Once I made 12, I said 10, then I made five and wanted to make three, for the hometown visit, then two and so on. It’s tough now, every person that goes home, the bar gets raised a little bit. Once you start getting down to the last few, you just don’t know.

David, you’re someone who really made a name for himself by changing up a lot of the arrangements, yet this season has been getting a lot of criticism for trying — and failing — too hard to twist things up.

Sometimes I feel like too much emphasis is put on changing the arrangement or changing the vibe of the song. That’s not necessarily what you have to do, you just have to make the song your own, whatever that means. For me, what worked is I knew my voice, but it’s also about internalizing the song and putting it out there in a way that makes it believable coming out of your mouth. That’s the big difference between “Idol” and karaoke.

You once made a crack about being a grandfather to these new contestants two seasons on, but Lee Dewyze is someone who can be looked at as a disciple of sorts.

Lee’s interesting to me, he’s got kind of a husky rock voice for sure, it seems like his musical tastes are a little different. I’d be interested in seeing what he does not only in the next few weeks but post-”Idol.” That may be jumping the gun a bit, but he’s a talented dude, and I think he’s definitely heading in the right direction.

Anyone else stand out in your mind?

I really like Crystal, I think she’s got a lot of talent and I’m looking forward to seeing her stretch her boundaries a little bit. I don’t know, the people I’ve gotten into this season aren’t on it anymore. I really liked Katelyn Epperly. I thought she was great. If it were up to me, she’d be in the top 12.

What about the criticism about this season? A lot of fans are saying it’s just not as exciting as previous years.

We had criticism too. I saw a random article [recently] that asked, “Has Idol jumped the shark?” It’s such a weird argument to make because it’s still pulling 24 million to 30 million viewers per week, so you take it all with a grain of salt. I think by bringing Ellen in, the show’s different for sure, but I don’t know that enough time has gone by to really pass that kind of judgment.

I would say we haven’t heard much about your record, but you tweet about your progress pretty much nonstop. There’s an art to Twitter, don’t you think?

There is, man. I do this all the time — I type something, step back, look at it, then I read it and think, “Who’s gonna maybe get [angry about] this?” And if I think enough people will …  I don’t tweet it. I try to censor myself a little bit, because my brain sometimes comes up with stuff that has no business being on a public forum.

Speaking of words in another context, what are some of your new lyrics about?

It was interesting, I kind of write subconsciously and then look back at it, and a lot of the songs are about loss. But not in a hopeless sense. I wrote a song with David Hodges called “Tonight Is on Our Side,” and the chorus goes: “So I’m leaving / See you in another life / Still I’m breathing our memories of our last July.” On the surface, what I was singing about was young love, high school, the summer before they go off to different colleges and they know they’re gonna split up, but they have that night. It’s almost like being on that precipice of loss and that sense of calm about it. I haven’t deciphered it all yet. Probably a lot is about Adam. [David's brother died of cancer in 2009.] Yeah, but some hopefulness has come out of that situation too.

Are you gonna write us some love songs?

[Laughs] Right now, I’ve got a song that I worked on with Kevin Griffin and Jamie Houston called “Fade Into Me.” It’s a love song, but those are tough for me, because I hate the whole, “Ooh girl, I love you, baby.” That doesn’t really vibe well with me, so in order to sing a love song, it has to say the same thing in a really different way, and “Fade Into Me” does that, which is really cool.

You recorded in London, Stockholm, New York City, all in the dead of winter. Should we be expecting a cold-weather record?

Vancouver too, which was surprisingly mild. It was like 55 degrees a month before the Winter Olympics. I’ve been joking about it. Even on the tour, I remember we hit Long Island when a massive snowstorm started back in February of last year. And then, we didn’t get to Canada until October of last year, when it got cold again, then New York, Vancouver, London and Stockholm.

Do you feel like you have more freedom to do what you want on this album than the first?

In the sense of time, yes. You know, the last record was tough, because a lot of my voice was used in correspondence, through e-mail and iChat and stuff like that. I’m just stoked about being able to go in the studio everyday and really shape this record a little bit more fervently. I think any extra voice in the process has come from having more time to conceptualize an idea or a theme. I knew from Day One what I wanted the second record to sound like and what I wanted to get across, and to be able to have the time to actually implement that has been great. Plus, I learned a lot from going out on the road, and I want this record to have more of a live feel — to take whoever’s listening to it from point A to point B. And hopefully a bunch of places in between.

What have you been listening to lately?

A lot of Mae, Jimmy Eat World. … I got the new Massive Attack record, which is really good. It’s a little outside of my thought process right now, but I really like it. And I’ve been listening to a lot of comedy, like Lewis Black and David Cross.

So you’re looking at a couple months of recording to have it out in the summer.

If it were up to me, I wanted it out yesterday. I tell my manager this story all the time. My first record with my band Axion, we rehearsed for a few weeks, went in the studio, cut eight songs in two days, and we had a record. That’s how my head is — let’s just get it done and put it out. That’s not the best way to do it, obviously, but I get kind of uptight about how long this takes. I want to put a record out just as much as my fans want me to, if not more, because I don’t like being in one place for too long. I love being on the road, and I hate routine, so I’m just champing at the bit to get rolling. And in order to do that, I need to get this record out.

Any special guests planned for the album?

No, but you know what? Consider this my open invitation, anybody that wants to come help on this record, please come help. It’ll be fun, I’ll buy some beer. (Source)

SO cool! It’s moments like that that help vindicate the agonizing over lyrics and chord structure and melodies, etc. etc….

Via @thedavidcook