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Dec 01, 2016 Ultimate Painting By Mark Redfern Photography by John Strut

My Firsts is our email interview series where we ask musicians to tell us about their first life experiences, be it early childhood ones (first word, first concert, etc.) or their first tastes of being a musician (first band, first tour, etc.). For this My Firsts we talk to Jack Cooper of Ultimate Painting. The British-based duo (which also features James Hoare of Veronica Falls) recently released their third album, Dusk, via Trouble in Mind. Cooper is also in the band Mazes. Read on as Cooper talks about his first kiss and broken heart, the first album he bought and first movie he saw in the theater, his first pet, Knight Rider, and the first time he got fired.

First pet?

My sister and I had two rabbits. Mine was imaginatively called Thumper and because we also had wild rabbits in our garden, I decided to let them go. I guess I was inspired by Watership Down. In retrospect it was a bit stupid, but to live is to fly.

First broken bone?

I managed to get to 29 without breaking any bones. My old band Mazes was on tour with a band from the U.S. called Box Elders. After a show I got in a scuffle with a friend and he punched my hand and broke my finger. We had to cancel the tour but it got me out of a load of other things for six weeks, so that was good.

First time you had to go to the hospital?

When I was about 6, I got salmonella when I was on holiday with my family. I’m told I very nearly died and the huge amount of antibiotics I was given by the Spanish doctors messed up my immune system well into my teens. I developed a load of different allergies and I was generally pretty susceptible to illness until I was about 18, when I seemed to grow out of a lot of it. The plus side, which I didn’t really see at the time, was that I looked very young for my age.

First person you kissed?

I don’t remember her name. I was a very late bloomer and girls in my year didn’t really see me as someone they might want to kiss. I remember being 18 and working on the promenade in Blackpool and an old couple asked if I was a boy or a girl, which I thought was cool but it didn’t really help attracting the interest of girls I liked. I guess I was probably 18 when I kissed someone. She worked in WHSmith, which is a chain of bookshops, and I asked her on a date, as was the custom of the time. We kissed at the end of the night and I can’t even begin to tell you how weird and bad it was.

First time your heart was broken?

Probably the next day, when she ignored my call.

First movie you saw in the movie theater?

Ghostbusters. My dad took me twice and I was absolutely obsessed. I remember calling round to see my dad’s friend on the way and him telling his buddy we were going to see it again in a jokey put-upon way. I remember being embarrassed, ha. I think I was probably 3.

First TV show you were obsessed with?

Knight Rider. We went to visit my grandparents and my granddad, who I miss very much said “Jack, come and watch this with me, it’s about a car that talks.” It literally blew my mind. A few weeks later, he bought me the A-Team van as a present and said “It’s Knight Rider‘s cousins” and I was like “I’m in!”

First album you bought?

Michael Jackson: Bad. I was both in love and terrified of Michael Jackson. My mum’s friends kid showed me a magazine article about Michael Jackson’s plastic surgery and it really freaked me out. I was weird like that. I threw away a copy of Smash Hits that had Shane MacGowan in because his teeth scared me. I was about 7 but still…

First concert you went to?

The Levellers in Blackpool. My friend bought me tickets and I hadn’t heard of them. They were rubbish. I saw Freddie and the Dreamers with my mum when I was much younger. This was in the mid-‘80s, so admittedly not the classic line-up, if there ever was one.

First time you got drunk?

I don’t remember, which I suppose is the point.

First job you had?

I washed cars for some second hand lots near my house when I was 15. Just rode down there one day and asked them for a job. The next summer I began working on the beach in Blackpool renting deckchairs, which is still the best job I’ve ever had.

First time you got fired?

My dad fired me. I was working in his warehouse and a couple of my fellow employees pinned me down and threatened me as a joke. I told my dad and he said he didn’t think I should work there anymore. No nepotism in my family.

First car you owed?

I had a black Mini Cooper

First country you visited outside of your own?

The USA. A lot of my family live in America and I visited them in Fort Lauderdale before I was 1.

First instrument?

Classical guitar. I was too young and weak to hold down the strings properly and my teacher Ray was a little stiff.

First band you were in?

The Chi. We played a couple of shows and the big talking point was that we had a female singer who didn’t go to our school. We entered the school talent contest and had to get permission for her to come in. We played “Sally Cinnamon” and “I Wanna Be Adored” by The Stone Roses and “Vaseline” by Elastica (the meaning was lost on us—we were 16). We lost to a band who played “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis.

First recording device?

One of those really small Tascam 4-Tracks. It was the best.

First professional recording session?

I was playing with my friend Al who recorded under the name Jim Noir. We recorded a radio session at Abbey Road. That was the first proper studio I’d been in.

First interview with music journalist types?

My friends and I used to enter fake bands into the local paper’s Battle of the Bands and I guess that was the first bit of a press I ever got. My friend Big Kev masterminded all of this. We had Jethro Bampton’s Dancing Circles, The STDs, and my favorite Badger.

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