JP Cooper has done the legwork. He spent many years working in bars and coffee shops, playing in bands, and doing the rounds in the Manchester music circuit. He has written hundreds of songs as a solo artist as well as with a wide variety of collaborators, a couple of which became global hits-that-will-not-die. Perfect Strangers with Jonas Blue has over 2 billion worldwide streams to date, and his own September Song is now closing in on 1 billion worldwide streams, not to mention a handful of his own songs streaming in the 100’s of millions.
And he’s ticked all the boxes when it comes to music industry milestones. The singer-songwriter’s 2017 debut album Raised Under Grey Skies has sold in old-fashioned numbers: one and a half million copies at time of writing. His 18 million monthly listeners, across all DSPs, have contributed to a grand – very grand – total of almost six billion total streams and counting. JP has built a successful international solo career based on a combination of pure songcraft and relentless graft.
“My early EPs and my first album reached so many people on a personal level,” he reflects, “so they’ve built a relationship with them – and even now they keep doing their thing which is great. The pop songs just blew everything wide open and took me on a journey that I never expected to be on. Don’t get me wrong, it was an amazing time, I consider myself fortunate and I appreciate all the opportunities that came with it, but I was definitely unprepared! [laughs]”
JP had a productive few years following the release of his debut album. He released the hugely successful EP Too Close and the global hit song Sing It With Me, collaborated with a wide variety of artists including Bugsy Malone, Gabrielle Aplin, Swiss Hip Hop legend Stress, French-Lebonese Jazz trumpet superstar Ibrahim Maalouf and Stef LonDon. He’s played sold-out shows in numerous countries from Capetown to Tokyo, all whilst adding to his ever-expanding collection of new material for himself and fellow artists.
Fast forward to 2020 and COVID, when everything came to a grinding halt.
“It was a trying time, but thankfully it gave me the space to really pull myself together. A big thing for me during that period was to take stock of where I’d been and where I was going,” he continues. “Up until then, I’d really been working from a place of survival. I’d never reset, so all my decisions were made from that place. But I realised I wasn’t there anymore. I could make creative decisions and be bolder with them, not be so fearful, not worry too much about it from the industry side. I’d earned my stripes. It was nice to be gifted a new mindset, and make music from that position.”
Opening the curtain on that new album SHE was the single Holy Water, a rootsy, gospel-tinged stomping hymn to family and the difficulties that can arise therein. It was a bold opening statement that was more akin to his original material than the later pop-infused tracks that had made him a household name. “I’ve got deep roots in gospel music, real musicianship and playing in bands, so I wanted to make that statement with this single. I don’t want to try and emulate pop stars, well because I’m not a pop star at heart. I’d stepped into that world and it felt like an ill-fitting jacket. But this felt more like me. It felt more about the record as a whole.” His sophomore album SHE is that paradoxical thing: a collection of songs that weave a coherent narrative and hang well together as an album, but that also work brilliantly as rich, stand-alone tracks. JP’s songwriting sparks individual moments that come together into a beautiful musical conflagration.
It is now 2024 and JP is poised to release his third album, the details for which are incoming but suffice to say it’s the sound of an artist developing, stretching and reaching, both inwards and outwards. He has put in the work, reached the milestones and done himself proud. “And I’m only just getting started,” he promises.
