Joachim Cooder produced his dad Ry’s new retrospective double disc The UFO Has Landed; he got to make the ultimate mixtape by picking which cuts would represent the elder Cooder’s four decades’ worth of recorded output. Popdose bent the 30-year-old drummer’s ear and discussed what it was like hanging out with a working musician for a dad who built a reputation as a musical scholar, gifted movie soundtrack composer, and all-around fan of American roots sounds.

Popdose:  What was it like growing up Ry Cooder’s son?

Joachim Cooder: Well, I guess it was great. I don’t think you think about it while it’s happening, but it’s where I kind of developed who I am as a musician, being around everybody. I’m a drummer, so I guess Jim Keltner was a huge influence on me. How Ry is with people and musicians helped shaped me into how I look at things in music and the world. It was just me, my mom, and him, so we traveled with him when he went on tour when I was young. I guess it was a great childhood; still is.

What kind of music did he play around the house?

JC: So much. There was always—I guess there was a lot of blues, but, then, I remember also listening to Huey Lewis. I don’t know why or where, but I remember seeing that in vinyl and I just loved it. I must have been really young. Maybe they knew each other. But, I mean, a lot of old Django-Reinhardt-style guitar music and old jazz. He loves this Latin radio thing on the weekend. That’ll always be playing in the house, some station—KXLU. I was exposed to a lot of older music that is not obviously in pop culture: old reggae, he gave me a lot of ska records when I was young, James Brown.

Did you ever get into it over a record you brought home, like Nine Inch Nails or something?

JC: No, nothing that crazy. When I was really young, when CDs first came out, I had George Michael’s first record, and the Bangles’ first record, and I just loved it. But he never ridiculed me; he was always very supportive of anything that I liked. And, I guess, say what you will about George Michael, but those are well-crafted pop smash hits.

So he never told you that you couldn’t listen to, say, Mötley Crüe?

JC: No. In fact, that was another—I remember, in Japan on his—what tour would that have been? It must have been the Rhythm tour—I wanted to see Mötley Crüe, who were playing in Japan at the same time, and he just had one of the helpers who was taking us around take me to go see it. Obviously he wasn’t going to go to that. Never anything too heavy or crazy or loud like Tool or Nine Inch Nails; that’s all just too crazy for me, and would have been too crazy for him. (more…)