Every December, The Crude Life looks back at some of the year’s best highlights, personality profiles and news nuggets of note. This year, the Year In Review enters it’s 10th year. Here is today’s feature is an interview with Singer Songwriter Alma Cook and energy compliance officer.
Alma Cook joined Jason Spiess on the Zoom Line to talk about her new music video “5000 Candles” and the final stretch of completing her music album. Spiess contends that while many in the oil and gas industry are still searching for ways to connect with tomorrow’s leaders today, Alma is singing her way into their hearts and minds.
The two discuss the music video from the production elements to the industry workers in the video to the Bakken communities and the video footage included in the video. Cook who works for Cook Compliance Solutions during the day, found time on nights, weekends and in dreams to write and produce a song about flaring in the energy industry.
Last summer, Alma performed “5000 Candles” at the Bakken BBQ with children on stage to raise awareness about not only the issue with emission management, but also the solutions.
“5000 Candles” is the story of unexpected love for people, place, and industry. A tribute to the North Dakota oilfields, it humanizes a part of American life that’s typically kept behind a curtain.
In a culture that encourages us to airbrush our lives with Instagram filters and clever status updates, the emerging voice of pop/soul artist Alma is challenging this generation to pause and self-reflect. With a strong emphasis on message over medium, she sees art as a transformative tool and has made it her mission to teach listeners the value of honesty and vulnerability.
“Using songwriting to vent about breakups or whatever—there’s definitely a place for that,” Alma says. “But if you’re gonna make music your personal therapist, I hope you’re getting your money’s worth. You don’t go to therapy so that you can revel in your problems, you go because you want to understand and conquer them.”
For her, understanding and conquering problems begins with asking “why?” and ultimately “what next?” Alma aims to kickstart this dialogue through her songwriting, most often by being upfront about her own shortcomings.
“I basically just put all my dirt out there,” Alma laughs. “We all have this vague idea that ‘nobody’s perfect,’ but until you actually put a name to your imperfection—jealousy, anger, whatever—you won’t look it in the eye long enough to fight it. Honesty is power.”
Alma’s strong beliefs by no means come at the expense of musical creativity or spot-on delivery. Though she spent most of her teenage life as a self-described “closet singer,” the now 25-year-old Wisconsin native is equipped with unusually good instincts for performing, arranging and bandleading. While honing her musicianship at Columbia College Chicago, the soulful stylings of artists like Amel Larrieux and Lauryn Hill captured her attention, and at that point, “I was done,” Alma says. “I’d previously had this indie-pop thing going on—really quirky, bright—but once I found neosoul it was like I was finally enjoying music.”
In 2012, Alma released an EP titled Pass It On which showcases some of those earlier stylistic leanings. Her 2014 release, Tactics, more fully realizes the singer’s love for backbeats and basslines while also more clearly demonstrating her passion for meaningful messages.
LYRICS:
There’s a lot people running their mouth
That don’t stay the night, never come through town.
And some other people running about
That don’t take the time to suss you out.
Still some of us, every night,
We make a toast to you, like “Isn’t it nice
That somebody had the presence of mind
To speak over you, ‘Let there be light’?”
I know it doesn’t make me one of a kind
That I came to you at an opportune time,
And it doesn’t mean I’m one of the guys,
But I’m grateful you came & opened my eyes.
Still, none of us, up in the play,
We don’t think enough of the beauty we make.
It’s all work here, every day,
But when the lights go out, it’s then that I say:
CHORUS
Sight to behold—
Nothing you could do would make me go!
We’ll let the world judge what they don’t know.
Giving me a heartbeat,
Making me never wanna leave.
We’ll let the world judge, ‘cause they don’t see…
5000 candles,
5000 candles burning bright,
All the light you could handle,
5000 candles here at night.
They keep telling me it’s only a phase
And that soon enough, I’ll see that I’m craz-
-y for loving you the way that I do,
Because who could love somebody like you?
They say you’re too, too, too damn small,
And I won’t pretend it don’t matter at all,
But no matter what the trouble ahead,
I still won’t regret this time that I spent.
CHORUS
I wanna know who did that;
Show me the match that lit that sky.
Look at all those candles,
Ode to the light that caught my eye.
Never could forget that—
Stealing my breath & I don’t mind—
5000 candles,
5000 candles here at night.
Contact Alma by Media: press@hearalma.com
Bookings & other: info@hearalma.com
About The Crude Life
Award winning interviewer and broadcast journalist Jason Spiess and Content Correspondents engage with the industry’s best thinkers, writers, politicians, business leaders, scientists, entertainers, community leaders, cafe owners and other newsmakers in one-on-one interviews and round table discussions.
The Crude Life has been broadcasting on radio stations since 2012 and posts all updates and interviews on The Crude Life Social Media Network.
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Sponsors, Music and Other Show Notes
Studio Sponsor: The Industrial Forest
The Industrial Forest is a network of environmentally minded and socially conscious businesses that are using industrial innovations to build a network of sustainable forests across the United States.
Weekly Sponsor: Stephen Heins, The Practical Environmentalist
Historically, Heins has been a writer on subjects ranging from broadband and the US electricity grid, to environmental, energy and regulatory topics.
Heins is also a vocal advocate of the Internet of Everything, free trade, and global issues affecting the third of our planet that still lives in abject poverty.
Heins is troubled by the Carbon Tax, Cap & Trade, Carbon Offsets and Carbon Credits, because he questions their efficacy in solving the climate problem, are too gamable by rent seekers, and are fraught with unreliable accounting.
Heins worries that climate and other environmental reporting in the US and Europe has become too politicized, ignores the essential role carbon-based energy continues to play in the lives of billions, demonizes the promise and practicality of Nuclear Energy and cheerleads for renewable energy sources that cannot solve the real world problems of scarcity and poverty.
Weekly Sponsor: Great American Mining Co
Great American Mining monetizes wasted, stranded and undervalued gas throughout the oil and gas industry by using it as a power generation source for bitcoin mining. We bring the market and our expertise to the molecule. Our solutions make producers more efficient and profitable while helping to reduce flaring and venting throughout the oil and gas value chain.
Join Podcasters from across the world and all walks of life as they unite to bring civil solutions to life and liberty.
Studio Email and Inbox Sponsor: To Be Announced
Featured Music: Alma Cook
For guest, band or show topic requests, email studio@thecrudelife.com
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