Cook Allender has been building toward this. The New Orleans-born, Nashville-based rock artist releases his debut album ‘Music Your Parents Hate’ on May 15 via VibraHive Records, and the lead single “Free,” out now, sets the tone immediately. Driving guitars, anthemic energy and a chorus that delivers its thesis without flinching: “It’s my life to choose, it’s my soul to lose.” It’s a rock track built for volume and it earns every decibel. Listen here.
“This song is about throwing off the shackles,” says Allender. “No rules, no lanes, no stop signs, just water and wind.” The track closes the album, and that placement is deliberate. “That’s why it ends the record. It’s the feeling I want people left with.” For a debut full-length, that kind of architectural thinking signals an artist who has been doing this longer than the release date suggests.
Allender’s path to this record is anything but linear. Raised in New Orleans, he started writing original music at seven years old, then spent years moving through careers in finance, the military and the film industry before music pulled him back completely. That experience runs through ‘Music Your Parents Hate,’ a record that nods to Led Zeppelin, Stone Temple Pilots and Foo Fighters without borrowing from any of them. Loud, melodic and built for momentum.
As a writer, producer and visual director, Allender controls every dimension of his output, bringing a cinematic edge to guitar-forward rock that feels both immediate and expansive. With a second album already underway and a portion of proceeds going to no-kill animal shelters including Wags and Walks in Nashville, this is an artist operating with full conviction from day one.