Last month at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, the 86-year-old Gospel and Soul legend Mavis Staples walked away with two awards for her 2025 album "Sad and Beautiful World," a collection of songs that offer hope in the face of adversity. The album has received praise for Staples’ rich and warm delivery, and the Grammy ceremony rightly focused on her power as an artist. But here in Durham, audiences were also cheering for local legend Brad Cook, whose skillful production of the album allowed Staples’ voice to shine with intimate clarity.
Cook moved to North Carolina in 2005 from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, where he grew up and went to college for special education and social work. Early in his career, Cook played in several bands, but his career took a turn when the band he played with at the time, Megafaun, went on hiatus. He actually left music altogether to help his friend Sam Ratto open Videri Chocolate Factory in downtown Raleigh.
In 2015, after spending a year and a half in the chocolate business, Brad's brother Phil asked him to produce his first solo record, "Southland Mission." He agreed, and then later that year, BJ Barham asked him to produce a record for his band American Aquarium.
Cook had always had an appreciation for music production, but never set out to make a career of it. "One thing led to another, and it just sort of started happening," he said.
Now, a little more than 10 years since "Southland Mission," he's one of the most in-demand record producers out there. Over the past decade, he has produced important records from Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, Snail Mail, and Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, to name just a few. For the most part, Cook works from his home studio located inside of his garage.
"[The studio] is where I've always had the most fun," he said. "It's where I'm my best self."
In 2026, Cook is busier than ever. When asked what he's most excited about at the moment, he immediately brought up "You're Free To Go," the forthcoming record by Durham-based folk artist Anjimile.
"I literally can't wait for people to hear this record," Cook said. "The writing is so powerful, and [Anjimile] is such a world class singer and instrumentalist. The world we got on that record is really cool."
Cook went on to say that Anjimile is the exact type of artist he most loves working with.
"As a producer, I really try to understand what a person's reality is, and then help them make the best, most authentic statement they can," he said. "I try to work with people like Mavis Staples and Anjimile who have a message. I'm trying to lift those voices up with my work."
Different styles for different artists
That work varies by project, says Cook.
"Sometimes I play a lot on records and engineer records, and sometimes I'm not on there at all," Cook said. "With Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, there's like eight musicians in the studio, so they've got plenty of people to play everything. They need an actual coach to organize the offense, because there's a lot of voices in the room."
Other times Cook is more hands-on in the studio. TikTok has surprisingly played a big role in his work lately.
"Over the past few years I've been on this circuit where labels are sending artists my way that they just signed because they blew up on TikTok," he said. "A lot of them are kids that are between 19 and 22 and they've never played a show before. Sometimes we end up forging a relationship, and other times I'm just there to teach them what a click track is and how to listen to their own voices in the headphones."
Before producing took over
Growing up in Wisconsin, Cook played in several bands. In the late 1990's he helped form Mount Vernon with his brother Phil, Joe Westerlund, and Justin Vernon, amongst others.
Mount Vernon eventually broke up, but in 2002 Cook, along with Phil, Yan Westerlund, and Justin Vernon started a new project, the experimental folk band DeYarmond Edison. After some local success in Wisconsin and self-releasing two records, the members of DeYarmond Edison decided they wanted to make a move and randomly chose the Triangle as a spot to relocate.
"One night, we all went out to dinner and were like 'Let's move to North Carolina,'" Cook said. "We had never been before. We came down. We checked it out. We loved it, and we quickly found a house on Craigslist and moved in."
After the move, Yan Westerlund left the band and was replaced by his brother Joe, who had recently moved to North Carolina after graduating from college in Vermont.
DeYarmond Edison was building a following in Raleigh, but after about a year in the Triangle, they broke up. Shortly after that, Vernon moved back to Wisconsin to start his solo project Bon Iver, and the other three members of DeYarmond Edison started a new psychedelic folk project called Megafaun.
From 2008 until 2012, Megafaun was one of the hottest bands from North Carolina. They blended folk melodies with experimental noise, free jazz and sound collages in a way that made them impossible to put in a single box. In that time they put out five records, four as Megafaun and one in collaboration with the composer and performance artist Arnold Dreyblatt.
Megafaun went on an indefinite hiatus in 2012, and at that point Cook says he considered leaving North Carolina, but ultimately decided against it. His parents had moved here, and he had also recently started dating the person he would eventually marry. Looking back, he's glad he never left.
"Having traveled the world many times over with Megafaun and all these different bands I've toured with, I still feel so inspired in Durham," he said. "I still wake up so hyped about this town every day."
These Days
As busy as his production schedule has been, in 2025 Cook also found the time to be in a band again. Last year he helped form Snocaps with his long time friends Katie and Allison Crutchfield, plus MJ Lenderman.
"About a year ago, Katie and I were working on something else, and she pitched this whole idea. She was like 'I think I want to make a record with my sister again, and I want you and [Lenderman] to do it with us.'"
Cook has been working with Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee since 2018. He produced her critically acclaimed 2020 record "Saint Cloud," and its 2024 follow up "Tigers Blood." Snocaps released their debut album on Halloween.
"Katie is like my deepest homie, best friend, and collaborator," he said. "We've really been on an incredible run of inspiring each other."
This wasn't the first time Cook had collaborated with MJ Lenderman either. The two have grown close in recent years, and Cook says Lenderman is like a younger brother to him.
"We have such a cool relationship," he said. "We're showing each other music all the time. We're recording each other all the time."
Cook says that he and Lenderman often record cover songs together for fun, and Lenderman also helps out in the studio on various projects every so often.
"[Lenderman] will come through and play uncredited on things, just because he loves the game so much."
After releasing their debut record, Snocaps went on a short tour of the U.S. It was the first time Cook had toured with a band in years.
"Did I get my ass kicked on a seven day tour? Absolutely. Was I out of practice? Absolutely. But we had so much fun while we were doing it."
