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Let me introduce you to… The Coop-Miester … The Cooper Mini … The Coop Boop Be Doop … The other words that rhyme with Coop or Cooper …The one and only super duper SCOTT COOPER!

“Robots and monkeys are just about my favourite thing on this earth. Goddamn they make me laugh. Especially retro looking robots with accordion arms,” the Canadian singer-songwriter told me when I talked to him a while back. Oh, and since he is a musician, he sort of likes music too. He told me about a really extraordinary show he played recently: “It was the best thing I've ever done. Played with the full band in a 150-year-old church theater. No religious affiliations or anything, it was just stunningly beautiful and had the best natural reverb I've ever heard. The whole point was to do something totally different than the usual bar show. It was something for myself and serious music lovers.”

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When Scott became a part of my world I was consumed by his song, "Tilt-A-Whirl," which I featured on Episode 11 of the Merry Andrews show. With his voice and Caroline Brooks’ swirling together in lyrics like, “You say I took your heart on a joy ride like an old Tilt-A-Whirl, I won’t waste anymore of your time, you’re a beautiful girl,” I was hooked like the Captain. “Caroline is a great friend with a breathtaking voice. She's in an amazing female roots trio called The Good Lovelies, everyone should check them out. When I started hanging out and singing with her, all I could think about was ‘I need to have her on my record.’ So I re-wrote 'Tilt-A-Whirl' to be this linear story song, with the payoff being the perspective flip from me to the woman I'm singing about. The song is about a few things ... mostly recognizing and trying to break bad patterns and callousness with other people's hearts. It's a dark tune about self-involvement that turns into one of hope. Rather than rest on the pain and regret of a broken heart (or the guilt of breaking of someone's heart), this woman flips the switch, so to speak and instead turned those behaviors into something positive and changed a life. Hope that makes sense. Sorry if I've ruined any kind of meaning for you. Hahaha,” he said.

Elliot Smith influences much of Scott’s music. When I asked Scott what he'd want to discuss with Mr. Smith if the late artist was still gracing this Earth with his thaumaturgy, Scott told me, “I think I'd be interested to know about where his head was early on in his career. Everyone knows he struggled with addiction and depression near the end, but what about those first few records? That's the heaviest thing about Elliot now - his death has affected the way we listen to his music, especially for those who discover him posthumously. There's just this cloud of tragedy that will always hang over it now. On one hand it gives you goose bumps and makes it extra powerful, but I wonder from an artistic standpoint if that's really what people are supposed to get from it? Roman Candle and Either/Or are my favorite records of his...I've always found them to be so beautiful and human. He wasn't dead, or necessarily so desperate when I discovered and fell in love with those albums many years ago. I just want to keep those feelings preserved ... maybe it's not right, I don't know. It's certainly interesting to think about. I could talk about this stuff all day!”

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Even more exciting than Scott’s music career is the recent birth of he and his wife Stacey’s son “Our baby boy (Sam Aengus Cooper) arrived into the world a little over 3 weeks ago. He was 5 weeks premature. The last few weeks of my life have been a whirlwind of hospitals, sleepless nights, doctor's etc...all the while trying to figure out the whole ‘dad’ thing. We're coming along well now, but it's definitely been a trip. He's the best thing I've ever been a part of. I know that 100%. And my wife Stacey is the greatest lady ever,” Scott said. When I asked if he would encourage his son to play music, he replied, “My lifestyle revolves around music in so many ways, I'm not sure how he won't be affected and influenced by that in some way. I'm in this headspace where I'm really feeling desperate to not project any kind of expectation on him. I love the romantic notion that we'll sit around playing records and guitars...I'm hopeful that we will all enjoy music together, but I'm totally OK if he doesn't care about it at all. I just want him to be who he wants to be."

Interesting Fact: Babies, music, and Scott’s day job as an audio engineer will never come between Scott and his love of shoes. ”I've got a sneaker fetish. Not like a sexual fetish, I just mean, I really dig them sneaks. I have at least 15 pairs on the go right now. That seems like a lot for a dude? I've got my next 5 pairs all plotted out. Actually, I could go buy 15 more right now without batting an eyelash. It's a problem,” he said.

Scott is done with shows for a little while. He played a lot in the last year with the release of his Tiny Increments album, but with the arrival of his son, all he wants to do right now is focus on him. “I have been writing, though. I have no idea how it will all turn out. Could be an album of lullabies, I dunno. It seems like, no matter what I have on the go, I inevitably figure out a way to get some new music cooking and start obsessing about that,” Scott said.

For a totally different vibe, you can also check out Scott’s secret project. “I have a top secret weirdo electro crazy self indulgent musical alter-ego Metaphive. Now that I'm done my new record, I plan on getting extra silly with it,” he told me.

Keep on singing in your sweet and stylish sneaks, Scott! (See what I did there? Lot’s of S’s.)

Videos: "Everytime"

"Tilt-A-Whirl"

"The Summer Song," an interview, then, "Who You Were."

You will love Scott Cooper if you love Joshua Radin, Matt Nathanson, and Damien Rice.

Scott Cooper at MySpace

The Merry Andrews Show at MySpace