Cooper Wolken is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Los Angeles. He writes tender, off-kilter songs that drift between memory, myth, and dream. His new record, Ovular Infinity, is less about answers and more about sitting with questions. The songs spiral in time, leaping from the hyper-personal to the cosmic and back again. Where his debut Chapters focused on solitude and memory, this one opens wider, orbiting themes of depression, rebirth, and belief with longing and insatiable curiosity. Ovular Infinity is due October 17th on SADFAM Records.
On the latest single from his upcoming LP, Wolken fights for his life with a folk-rock emotional outpouring of longing and hurt. “Way With Words” is a heartfelt, vulnerable, and poetic ballad with warping, searing guitars that add a jagged edge to the lush vocals. Ironically, Wolken’s vocal performance sounds as if he is being pierced by a sharp corner, letting out wistful lyrics and bottled-up feelings as if the weight of these emotions is cutting through his rib cage. This isn’t a ballad about defeat, though. Wolken is not crumbling under the pressure; instead, the artist is emerging with a fresh, honest perspective. “Way With Words” is a touching performance that doubles as a guiding light for anyone who has felt as lost as Wolken did when penning his latest single.
“‘Way With Words’ comes from a very personal place for me. I wrote it in the aftermath of a long cycle of dissociation and depression, just after coming up for air,” explains Wolken. “The song lingers in the struggle to be vulnerable and open about what’s going on inside, and how isolating it can feel to keep pain bottled up. After expressing these feelings and the need to ‘call one brief intermission,’ it finally releases into a cathartic waltz.”
