Emma Cook bottles up the peace of the day on soft “Of the Morning”

In the title track off her new record, Emma Cook puts the feeling in her pocket so that she can remain grounded. Cook muses on the simple joys of the early hours in “Of the Morning,” from savoring warm cups of coffee to being intentional with her daily routine. Marked by soft piano and a gentle slide guitar, the song, Cook says, is about being fully attuned to the present, a sensation that feels a lot like basking in the calm of an early morning. “You ask me what kind of person I am / waking up late, rising early in the AM / makes no difference, I’ll find morning,” Cook sings.

While being fully present is an ideal state of being, Cook says achieving it is easier said than done. She’s been learning how to foster it in her own life for years following the shock and the solitude of quarantine. “I wrote a lot of these songs after the isolation of the pandemic,” she says. “I was just in my head so much because I was alone, and that created a really different state of mind where I was up in my head. I needed some time to tune into the physical world. This album was written while I was really searching for presence in my life and learning how to slow down. Not in a way that lacks effort or ambition. Slowing down, finding that sense of morning, it's really about presence.”

In time, Cook fulfilled her goal of coming back down to earth. It took plenty of practice, and lots of engagement with her community. Based in the Green Mountain State of Vermont, USA, Cook was in the perfect place to embrace that personal change.

“There's a ton of natural beauty here, and I just love the community. People are championing you and really want to see each other succeed, so they really do their best for each other,” she says, mentioning the power of one of Vermont’s state mottos, “Hate has no home here.” With that inspiration from her community guiding her, Cook healed. Later, it pushed her to feel like it was just as important to keep chasing other dreams, which eventually sparked the creation of Of the Morning.

“I’m a kid’s musician, and I do sessions at a berry farm. Families come to the farm once a week, and after we do music and movement, we're all just picking blueberries and playing in the sandpit. In the fall, I do this in an apple orchard. Things are so tied to the seasons and there’s an ethos of connecting with the natural world. That is definitely a big part of my songwriting. It's connecting to the natural world, looking to the natural world, and being out there to find that presence and find those moments to slow down,” she says.

While Of the Morning’s title track is a soft work of piano and guitar, other tracks feature heavier lineups, like the organ and electric guitar in “1229,” or the soaring three-part harmonies of “Thirteen Moons.” It’s a folk record with tons of sonic variety suited exactly to Cook’s taste. While it’s a personal project through and through, it’s something Cook says she had to make for someone else: her newborn daughter.

“I had a very challenging postpartum experience. I think that is really common. Your whole identity shifts in a really profound way. Motherhood can take up your whole brain. I had this idea through postpartum of needing to fill my own cup so that I had more to give,” Cook says. “That was why I needed to continue to pursue this work, which I definitely feel is my life's calling. I was also like, I need to be as strong as I can be for this child so she can see me showing up fully and in good mental health. Part of that is continuing to create art.”

Preparing for a second baby in June, Cook is well aware of the intensity of motherhood, and has found perspective in the phrase ‘matrescence.’ “It's not in Webster's dictionary. It's a word that someone coined 30 years ago. It's basically about the profound multidimensional process of becoming a mother, encompassing the physical, emotional, hormonal and social changes. I read somewhere that this can be one of the most profound development processes for the brain. It's equated to adolescence in that way,” Cook says. “That is a profound shift. There's no reason to pretend it wasn't or lose myself in that either.”

While the drive for creating Of the Morning was a personal one, Cook says her producer Katie Martucci was integral to its creation. Used to self-producing her work, Cook decided to tap Martucci for some help this time around, as wrangling a newborn left her little time for much else. The decision, Cook says, was one of the best she could have made.

“The best part of all of my office jobs have been my coworkers. The hardest thing about being an independent musician, for me, is not having a coworker. Just having someone to bounce ideas off of and be like, is this cool? And then building something even better is amazing. I feel like that is what I had with Katie. Just being in conversation and creation with her, things got even better.”