Cooper Stoulil’s early exploits into performing were with the Seattle-based alt-folk duo, Dravus House, fronted by Elena Loper. Loper would write, sing, and play beautiful, fingerpicked melodies, while Stoulil wove sparkly electric guitar riffs throughout. At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the two decided to go on hiatus indefinitely, choosing to focus on their own solo projects and the result is Someday in the Light, Again.
Someday in the Light, Again was recorded at The Brickyard Studio on Bainbridge Island, coming full circle for Stoulil. Owned and operated by Johnny Bregar, the studio is situated on a hill of rolling farmland densely surrounded by ferns and evergreens. Bregar played a vital role in the creation of Someday, both producing and engineering, as well as contributing instrumentation on most of the tracks. In other words, his spirit and fingerprints are sewn into all of it. Abby Gundersen (Noah Gundersen, William Fitzsimmons) makes a stunning appearance on the track Forever Time. In a midwinter correspondence to Abby about playing on the track, Cooper said ‘just do what you do.’ To be expected, the final result is a stunning arrangement of swelling heart-string yanking beauty.
Someday in the Light, Again is a collection of songs penciled over the past decade from dorm rooms, bedside hospital visits, road trips, and likely a bar near you. There are no storylines, but delicate motifs of a busy world longing for stillness. It is an album that invites you to sit down, throw a couple rocks in the water, and breathe a little more deeply.
Glide is premiering the video for “Professional Racecar Driver,” which stirs with the enigmatic grace of Bill Callahan and the dreamy Americana of Bonnie Prince Billy.
“Professional Racecar Driver” is about getting back in touch with a childhood dream, at least in a spiritual sense. Not because I want to actually be a racecar driver in any tangible way, but I do find myself wanting to move more deliberately in the world. It’s about the beauty and construction that chaos can offer, and that essentially was the underpinning of the video. In meeting with Ettie Wahl (Director of the video and core member of Bioluminescent Films production group), we used a lot of the lyrical material to carve out this non-existent alter-ego called Agent Cooper.
A heavy nod to Twin Peaks, though this agent is an agent of chaos, sabotaging his housemates for the purpose of causing a ruckus. We all have these characters in our lives, whether deliberately or unconsciously, they serve to perturb and shake us from our structured ways. These people are infuriating, but undeniably bringers of great change and new perspectives, and It is in this way that destruction can be one of the greatest forms of creation. Professional Racecar Driver is off of Cooper Stoulil’s newly released debut album called Somewhere in the Light, Again, available on all major streaming platforms.
