COOLIO |INTERVIEW | EDGE RADIO 99.3 FM

Coolio shared a tray of fried chicken with Amanda along with his reflections on the psychology of eating too fast, TV cooking shows and his list of suspiciously non-committal new years resolutions.

A: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us today Coolio. Given that this is your very first visit to Tasmania, are you gonna get to take any time out to see the sights while you’re down here?

C: We’re pretty much in and out of Tasmania but I’m gonna go back to my hotel then we’re gonna head down to the dock … there's some kinda festival going on there near our hotel so we’re gonna go check that out.

A: The Taste Festival?

C: Yeah that's it!

A: Try some of the Tasmanian wine, it’s the best.

C: Tasmanian wine? Oh really Ok…

A: Yep try a pinot noir.

C: Say that again?

A: Pinot noir…

C: Oh really? OK I’ll try one of those, cause I like the way you say that. 

A: Speaking of cooking, you’ve had a bit of success as a TV chef of late yourself. Tell me a bit about that?  

*Coolio chewing* 

He says… gnawing on a drumstick…

C: Actually that was a wing. Haha I just ate a wing! Yeah actually we started out by doing our own cooking show online, that’s how we became popular and had about over 12 million hits online.

A: That's some pretty awesome success. What made you want to get into that line of TV?

C: We were watching a cooking show me and my boy Churez. He used to be my sous chef but now we sous for each other. This one time we were in different hotel rooms but we both happened to be watching a cooking show on the Food Network and there was this really boring cooking show on. There was this guy on the show who I guess wasn't really paying attention and he was boiling some water, I think he was gonna make some rice and he grabbed a pot without a pot holder on his hand and he burnt the shit out of his hand and he screamed "ARGH!" and he dropped the pot. My man ran out of his hotel room and I ran out of my mine and we yelled at each other “OH MAN DID YOU SEE THAT?!”  we had just randomly happened to be watching the same thing and from that we started talking about how boring cooking shows usually were cause that happened to be the funniest shit and one of the best things we'd ever seen on a cooking show.  I said to him “What if we had a cooking show?” and he said “We need to have a cooking show!”  and I said “Yeah! If we had a cooking show it'd be like this!” yeah... and from there I guess we started pretending like we had a cooking show.

The other reason I got into cooking is that when my mother passed away I had this period of time where I just didn’t enjoy meal time. I didn’t enjoy food and I didn't enjoy anything I ate, meal time was just like a chore. You know I was pretty much eating to live and I wasn't really enjoying any food. Then my kids started getting older and of course once kids start getting older they start talking about real shit. I used to eat really fast gobbling it up and just trying to be done with it and my oldest daughter Artisha said to me “Daddy, why do you eat like that? Whats wrong with you?!” So I told her you know “I just don't really enjoy it y’know?”.  We would go to dinner and I would just bring a book. So she said “That’s a problem. Maybe you need to get some help, get some therapy for that?” Of course, black people, we don't do therapy. So I just started thinking about it and it kinda hit home a little bit. So I started thinking OK, maybe I do need to figure out what's wrong. And I sat down one day and I psychoanalysed myself and I figured out that the reason was that nothing tasted the way I wanted it to taste; nothing tasted like my mothers food anymore.

So I set out to figure out how my mother cooked and I started asking questions from my family “How did mom make this, how did she do this how did she do that." And y’know through that process I figured out that I really had an exquisite palate. And that you know,  I can eat food and I can tell you exactly what's in it. From there I went online and I started training myself. I went through the curriculum of what a gourmet chef has to go through. I bought some of the equipment and I just started training myself to be a gourmet chef and I just had a knack for it. My mother was a great cook, my grandmother was a great cook, a couple of my aunts were really great cooks and it just was kinda natural y'know?

A: I love that your mothers cooking style still directly influences yours. Something else I wanted to touch on was that in 2008 you were spokesperson for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Group, educating students about global warming. Was the sustainable factor something that peaked your interest in terms of touring with the Falls Festival this year?

C: To be very honest with you, I didn’t do much research about the festival. I just kinda figured that out. I went to the toilet and I figured out “Ok, wait a minute there's something going on around here I don't know about. The loos!" Someone said to me “It’s a compost loo!". So yeah, I guess I kinda figured that out by accident.

A: Falls in Marion Bay is one of the most environmentally friendly festivals in the world so that’s a very happy accident indeed. So it’s been a couple of years since you released From the Bottom to the Top. Does the Australia / Switzerland tour mean you might have a whole new album’s worth of material up your sleeve?

C: Well, I’m always working on something. I just haven’t gone hard with creating music in the last couple of years 'cause stuff that’s out right now… it’s not my kinda thing. I don't tend to follow trends but in order to be successful right now I’d have to follow some trends. So for the moment I’m just seeing what I really wanna do with music right now.

A: You might find some inspiration on tour as well?

C: I might! I like dubstep. So I may do something with some dubstep music…

A: Any favourite albums from this year?

C:  I like Split Greens outta Vegas. Half the stuff I like I don't even know who made it, I just find it and I like the beats.

A: So with Falls being a New Year’s Eve festival, any New Year’s resolutions for you this time around?

C: I don’t make New Year's resolutions usually. But one thing I said I was gonna do in 2013 was just be more focused and just follow through on some more shit cause I tend to procrastinate on some things sometimes. I’m just gonna follow through a bit more and I’m just gonna slow down a bit more with the womanising… slow down a little more. Maybe it's time to not necessarily settle down but just… settle. Maybe just take it down a couple of notches. I work so hard and my family orientation has just kinda fallen off in the last few years I've just been working so hard. Yeah I’ve probably gotta reconnect with my family.

Coolio plays Falls Festival dates around the country in December and January 2012-2013.

-Amanda Laver