Photo courtesy of bark! bark! bark! Jacob Cooper maintains several music, Web design and photography projects, but says he would continue to play music if he could only choose one.

Jacob Cooper knows how to do everything. Web design? Yes. Instrument programming? Check. Photography? Check. So it makes sense that once his main project, The Harps, went on hiatus, he would start another musical project on his own. Drawing on his design skills as well as his desire to create more experimental, electronic music, Cooper launched bark! bark! bark!. His music for bark! bark! bark! oscillates from orderly mid-tempo beats to frenetic dance songs; from melody to atonality, sometimes within the same song. Cooper uses a full band for his live performances, and often uses projected graphics and film clips to accompany each song. He spoke to the Wildcat about his music, and about his upcoming shows both on campus and off.

Wildcat: Can you quickly describe all the musical projects you have going on right now?

Cooper: The Harps is a crazy trash rock band I play drums for. We have fun, but we're taking a break until May. I also play bass for New Socialist Man, a pretty high-energy rock-out band. bark! bark! bark! is just solo stuff that I sing with and is a little more experimental and upbeat with drum machines, keyboards, computers, and other things that basically make noise. I write and record all the stuff myself, but live I have a support band that plays behind me.

Wildcat: What are some of the differences between working with a group of people and doing solo work?

Cooper: I love working with a group of people in a band because the energy is a lot stronger. You can just play out and worry about the instruments you are responsible to play. That's why I have a band playing behind my solo stuff. In the studio I can just do things on my own. That, and I can't play guitar and sing at the same time. It sounds like shit.

Wildcat: Which do you find easier: working alone or working with others?

Cooper: I guess for some people it varies. But doing solo work allows me to be a perfectionist and make changes to songs. Being in a band is a democratic thing, but you can't do tons of things at once with solo stuff.

Wildcat: One of your other musical projects has music composed around photographs given to you by friends, and you do all the Web sites for your projects. Can you explain how the visual elements of your work relate to your music?

Cooper: Not really at all. As far as fading.org goes, I try to get a feeling from each photograph and just lay down the track off of that. But for Web sites I really don't base it off everything. I guess I'm really cool and creative, and I have a lot of ideas. And I'm extremely awesome. Neat, huh?

Wildcat: If you had to chose between creating only visual art or only music, what would you chose?

Cooper: I would definitely choose music. I'm just better at it, and it's better therapy for me. I can't sit down and just make things happen when I'm trying to work with visual art. Music is just good for putting it to life situations. Visual art seems more of interpretation of thoughts and ideas.

Wildcat: What sort of equipment do you use? What is your songwriting process like?

Cooper: I usually get ideas from sitting down and programming a couple of things. I like to keep a keyboard handy. Then I set it up in a song structure format. I usually record anything I mess with. That's basically the beginning of how it works. I add layers of things and write lyrics. After it's in that format, the format that I usually leave it in for releasing and studio work, I show a group of people that agrees to do the backup stuff with me for live shows. These people tend to vary based on their schedules and whatnot. They will listen to the CDs and we will basically break down each part to have each musician play on instruments. It's a long process for show purposes, but I think in the end its worth it.

- bark! bark! bark! is at www.bark-bark-bark.com