It isn’t often that the music industry experiences an artist with a story. Meet iSO, a former Georgia, North of ATL resident turned Houston resident with lots of experiences and stories worth sharing. Growing up as an unapologetic kid, iSO was always sure of himself. Having this understanding from an early age allowed iSO’s character to burst through, which is heavily reflected in the music he makes today. 

Wanting to combat an overly-saturated music industry, iSO set off on a mission to bring humanness back to music. We’re here today to talk about iSO’s newest release ‘KOOK,’ a 12-song album that details the eccentric lifestyle iSO is currently embodying, which hopefully encourages others to do the same. 

Q: What is KOOK?

A: The term Kook originally came from a cartoon I would watch as a kid, ‘Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!’ By definition, it means “one whose ideas or actions are eccentric, fantastic, or insane. So I took that definition and embraced it. To me, it’s allowing yourself to live an eccentric lifestyle, being unapologetically yourself, and living in your truest form.

Q: What does KOOK mean to you?

A: It’s just a lifestyle, an energy, or an aura that can’t be replicated. A one of a kind type of thing.

Q: How long have you been working on the project?

A: Mannn, I’ve been working on the album for 3 years with my producer Evrt. It’s been a long time coming and I’m just super excited to finally let the world hear it. It’s super special to me too because the rollout process has been something new that I wanted to try. I released 3 songs as an Ep in May, June, July, & September. I put all of those songs together and released them as an album, KOOK. 

Q: What was the direction and inspiration behind the cover art?

A: I’ve always been into characters. I love coming up with different ideas for how characters would look and really just putting my own twist on them. But specifically for this album, the dress and gloves were inspired by 50’s fashion and also a bit of Young Thug’s fashion when he wore a dress for his iconic album cover ‘JEFFERY.’ 

Q: What are some of your musical inspirations?

A: I got to say Young Thug, Lil Uzi, Michael Jackson, Takeoff, and Chris Brown. I get my inspirations for live performances from Thug, Michael Jackson, Takeoff, and Chris Brown. They’re really great performers and honestly, I wouldn’t be the artist I am today if it wasn’t for them making music. 

Q: What’s something that we might not know about this album?

A: Everything came natural to me for this album. I was able to make a song in 15, 30 minutes max. I also co-produced the 1st track on the album, ‘WELCOME TO ALL WOOKS (iNTRO.)’ That’s something I’ve been tapping in with recently, producing. 

Q: What’s your favorite track on the album? 

A: Man, that’s a hard question. I guess I have to go with ‘LEAVE iT 2 ME (PANIC),’ ‘DiRTY featuring Mercury,’ and ‘KOOK FREESTYLE’ because that really kicked off the whole project. 

Q: You’ve opened up a new chapter of your life, a new era, the KOOK era. What’s next for iSO? 

A: I’m gonna be releasing a new project starting next year. I’m calling it ‘Arts and Crafts.’ I’ll probably release it during Spring time, just so I can allow KOOK some time to breathe. Since I love creating characters, I also want to start creating shows, short films, or movies. I’m a very creative person so I just want to be able to fulfill the creative side of me and have people know me for more than just the music. Oh also, lookout for the expansion pack of ‘KOOK’ coming out November 28th. 

Stream ‘KOOK’ out now across all streaming platforms!