Music comes quite naturally for Stephen Kerr. Sole member of folk music outfit Cooney Thatcher, the 29 year-old resides in Western Mass where the trails are aplenty and the city is but a blip on the skyline. Growing up in a musical household with music teachers and musicians throughout the generations in his family, the desire to create was in his blood from a very young age. He began writing poetry before he was nine, eventually moving into songwriting and learning to play various instruments. “If you put something in my hands, I’ll try to make some music with it,” describes Kerr, who – at the moment – plays the upright bass, guitar, piano, French horn, trombone, trumpet and drums among others. 

Never far from his familial roots, even the name Cooney Thatcher is directly taken from his kin, Cooney being his father’s mother’s maiden name and Thatcher being his mother’s maiden name. It was important to Kerr that he used these names specifically as they are the “names that aren’t going to make it through due to the patrilineal naming system.” 

Being used to creating on his own, Kerr admittedly did not experience the same creative obstacles that many bands have over the past year in isolation. In fact, the added free time came with an uptick in productivity. Not that he necessarily needed the encouragement, already having committed to making one song a week back in 2019. “The more time I have, the more work I put in,” says Kerr. Taking his 2019 goal to a new level in 2021, the artist has vowed on his Instagram to do one song every day, which he still says can be less than the amount he normally creates. Difference being that each of these songs-of-the-day will actually be shared with listeners instead of just living in his head or in a saved voice memo. 

Kerr also plans to release an EP as Cooney Thatcher later this year. Titled There’s Your House, the six song release is named after an idea of self-awareness. “Like you’re in a plane, looking at your town [from above], maybe you can spot your house… seeing yourself from the outside.” The introspective release kicked off with it’s lead single “There’s Still Time” which dropped on the first of this month. A mellow trip with a jovial melody that will stick to your heart and in your mind. Subsequent singles are planned leading up to the May 1st release of the full EP. 

All of this productivity and creation stems from Kerr’s desire to define feelings of a specific nature. “Feelings that everybody has that haven’t yet been pin-pointed or expressed or consciously realized. People have these feelings all of the time. These swathes of emotion that aren’t easy to define. I try to capture one of these transitory feelings [with my music]… the more you play the more you can define these things that you couldn’t talk about before,” explains Kerr. Starting from such a young age Kerr has experienced a level of growth in this quest for explaining these feelings between feelings. “Who you are as a person changes over time but it’s the same material. Your job as a creative is to refine that material and morph it into different shapes. The more influences you take in can lead to you understanding [more of] yourself.”

Some of these influences are found in Brazilian singer-songwriter Gilberto Gil, American psych-folk musician Cass McCombs, children’s literary hero Shel Silverstein, and the one-of-a-kind avant-garde icon Bjork. The latter Kerr describes as the “perfect example of a consummate artist.” 

Moving forward, in addition to the There’s Your House EP due out May 1st, Kerr is planning to continue his song-a-day personal challenge, host biweekly live streams (in this case twice a month) and possibly formally release more tunes as well. “There’s a hell of a lot more music coming out,” admits Kerr, and for heaven’s sake we can’t wait to listen to it. 

You can stream Cooney Thatcher’s new single “There’s Still Time” below, and look out on Spotify for the new EP There’s Your House out May 1st! You can follow him for more updates on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.