Pierre Cook combines three seemingly diverse things into one person – teaching, classical music and, perhaps most surprising of all, hip-hop.
Cook, who teaches at Ecole Boreale, is a hip-hop recording artist motivated by popular music.
"A lot of Top 40 influences, a lot of hip-hop influences, and a lot of my classical background comes through, as well, because I'm a classically-trained pianist," he said.
The 29-year-old explained he infuses his music with a lot of pi
Photo courtesy of Pierre Cook
ano and orchestration.
"But on the other side, I'm coming back to that urban music that I'm just obsessed with," he said. "I'm always looking for new sounds. I'm always looking for different ways to present something that's already been presented before."
Some people find it surprising that he creates hip-hop music, especially considering his background in classical music.
"I have a taste for urban music," he said. "But it's something that I like to take and meld to my own way. So yeah, people do find it surprising, but once you know me on a personal level there's really no surprise there. You can find me beatboxing – and that's making beats with my mouth – on a very frequent basis. I think that's my calling card at school."
Perhaps also surprisingly, he has never recorded classical music.
Cook records his music at a home studio, where he created his latest digital single Your Song Will Carry On, which was released on Jan. 31 on most major music streaming services.
"For those that are connected in that digital music world, they will very easily find it," he noted.
The new song will also be part of a digital album of about five songs – which in years gone by might have been referred to as an EP – that is scheduled for release in July.
"I'm calling it '10 Years' because this year is going to be my 10-year anniversary with my wife. We've been together for 10 years," Cook said. "A fair amount of the songs are based on or are inspired by that relationship and the durability."
His first digital album of five songs was released in 2018. It was called To My Sons, and focused on his two children.
Cook, who considers Ottawa to be his hometown, earned a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in music, notably piano performance, from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont.
At Ecole Boreale, he teaches Grade 1 and Grade 2.
"But I also have the great pleasure to teach some of the older kids a music class," he said, noting that is for students in Grade 5 and Grade 6.
Cook said he came to Hay River last year because his family was looking to get out of the city.
"We were looking also to explore parts of the North," he said. "The Northwest Territories called to us not only because it was something we had talked about before but also because of the French school board."
Cook noted that, as an independent artist, he primarily creates music for the love of doing it.
"I could have said maybe five or six years ago I still had dreams of making it big, so to speak," he said. "The reality is, as an independent musician, it's a slow process. It's a process that demands a lot of time. It's a process that is slow-moving, especially depending on how much time you dedicate to it. My ultimate goal as a musician is just to keep releasing music, keep doing what I love and really bringing it to as many ears as possible."