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Leeds' based singer-songwriter, Rachel Cook won the Bright Young Things '08 competition this year but she's actually rather keen to make sure people know that it's a band effort.

Together with mates from Leeds College of Music, where she is a student, Rachel has already put out a DIY single of a few hundred copies and is now ready to follow that up with tunes that start off from an acoustic base but bring in other elements on her new EP.

The eponymous Rachel Cook

Vocalist Rachel is complemented by guitarist Adam Martin who also contributes to the songwriting and production side of the band; percussionist Ste Anderson whose main instrument in the band is the cajon - a kind of box drum - and the line-up is completed by backing vocalists Jen Armstrong and Emily Lynn.

Rachel Cook have gigged around Leeds in the last year or so and their biggest gig to date was at Manchester Pride on August Bank Holiday weekend 2008. We talked to Rachel and Adam about the band.

"We've been together about a year or so. It's so easy to form musical partnerships at the college (Leeds College of Music) as it seems every five minutes people come up to you asking if you want to be in a band with them or collaborate in some way."

"Despite being fans of acoustic music and singer-songwriters, we're aware of how many deadly dull ones are out there so we wanted to be as far from that as we could. Which is probably why there are now five of us - because that sight of lone singer/songwriters on a stage can set off the heebie-jeebies in some people!"

"We're not interested in being morose and introspective, we try and mess with the tempos and do stuff that ranges from almost genteel folky numbers to basically what is acoustic pop music. We're not purists though - there are occasional electronic elements to a song if we think it adds the right 'something' to the song."

Rachel Cook at Manchester Pride 2008

"Winning Bright Young Things was great and led to a fair few offers of gigs and management but you have to keep your wits about you as there are plenty of sharks out there - that's something that the lecturers at college tell us all the time! We did get a gig at Manchester Pride (a huge gay & lesbian event) though, and that was a bit daunting as it was the biggest audience we've faced and probably not our usual type of audience -Adam and Ste had to keep a low profile in the Exclusively Women tent, I can tell you! - but it's always good to stretch yourself."

"We're not desperate to get signed and make it big - if it happens, great, but we want to put out our stuff the way we want it. Also we're still learning so we're glad to get all the experience and exposure we can at the moment, which hopefully the EP can do. It's a fairly small pressing on our own label, Draft Productions, and it's nice to have that cottage industry feel about the whole thing!"ΜύΜύ