Studio 2.0 Artist Profile:Cookin Soul
“Music is about feeling. You’ll feel when it’s right.”
Cookin Soul is an artist and producer who originally hails from Spain and is currently based in Amsterdam. In 2013, he won a Latin Grammy for his work on Mala Rodriguez’s Bruja album, and has also worked with Freddie Gibbs, Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, Nipsey Hussle and others.
“But I consider myself very versatile. I can do a lot of different styles.”
Cookin Soul grew up in the culturally-rich city of Valencia, located on Spain’s southeastern coast where the Turia River meets the Mediterranean Sea. His gateway to hip-hop was through watching American basketball, and also his older brother, a DJ with a penchant for ‘90s hip hop. He played around with beatmaking programs on his PlayStation 2 as well as his PC, before graduating to an MPC and also starting to build a vinyl collection.
Music Style
Warm, soulful, versatile
Current Go-To Setup
Serato Studio with MPC Live II
Influences
Classic American hip-hop, basketball, Michael Jordan
He came to prominence in the early Internet era, connecting with other artists via channels like MySpace which he used to reach out to DJs, A&Rs and artist to get their emails. He eventually got a placement with The Game, a dream come true for a young wide-eyed producer from Spain. Fast forward to present day and Cookin Soul is still using the internet to reach his global network: his YouTube channel boasts 475K+ subscribers and features a treasure trove of music videos, mixtapes, recorded beat making sessions and tutorials.
“It’s a revolution, definitely. And it’s life changing, at least for me as a creator.”
Cookin Soul operates by a personal rule that if an idea isn’t going anywhere in 10-15 minutes, to start over. He also draws on his passion for basketball when looking for inspiration to stay dedicated to his craft. The same way an NBA superstar might wake up at 6AM to shoot hoops, he always stays on top of his digging and beatmaking.
For someone who has loved samples for his whole career, Serato Stems opens a world of possibilities for Cookin Soul. Using a kitchen metaphor one might expect from an artist with his moniker, he likens Stems to being able to separate the flavors from a fully-prepared dish.
Classic video game consoles
(SNES, Dreamcast, NES Classic)
Classic drum machines
(sp1200, MPC 2000xl, sp404)
Vinyl records
for sampling
Action figures
