“I can’t wait to have it live on my coffee table forever,” says corook, singer-songwriter turned singer-songwriter-author-of-an-adorable-children’s-book. The starry-eyed performer has threaded themselves into the fabric of true Nashville storytelling with lyrics that touch hearts, resonate globally, and can be spun into tales that inspire the next generation.
Corook is a queer and personable indie pop artist, a Nashvillian by-way-of Pittsburgh, and a 28-year-old with an alternative rock flair that leaves you lovingly wondering how the heck this is their first headlining tour and where the heck is their full-length debut LP. The sights and sounds of corook are so true to who they are. It’s theatrical in an understated way, simply described as appreciation and validation put to memorable, melodic song time-and-time again. We love it, the world is loving it, and the tour dates rolling along are proving such in the most personal, raw of ways. If attending a corook show isn’t enough to show you that, then maybe this little conversation we were honored to have with them will be.
Tour is just kicking off. How are you feeling? How is everything going? It looks amazing from what we have seen online with the gifts, the performances, everything.
Oh, thank you. Atlanta was last night. It was the first night of tour and we were all feeling really fresh and energized. The guys that I tour with, it was their first time headlining with me, so it was a much different experience than what we’re all used to. We’ve been winning over crowds as much as possible for the last two years as a [supporting act], so it was really nice to all three of us kind of take it all in and see a room full of people that just came to see us. It was super fun, like you said, with wonderful gifts and such sweet people. It was great.
I love to hear that, especially with these songs and the serious person project. It’s exciting that this era of yours is the one that is getting the headliner treatment because I do think it is your most cohesive and strongest work to date. So many people are resonating with so many songs, but did any stand out to you on stage last night that fans were maybe surprisingly the most into that you didn’t expect?
You know, there’s this one song off of the first EP that I ever released; it’s called “IDK God” and I’m always so surprised by how that song has been given a brand new life whenever we play it live. I think that there’s a good amount of people that haven’t heard that one, but then once we play it, they kind of leave looking for it. I always love playing that song. It feels really special and almost silent, but at this point I think a good amount of people also know and love the little quirks of it and will sing out certain lyrics. It has become a really fun one.
With that in mind and with a whole bunch more of the serious person project coming later this month, what are you looking forward to with releasing new music during a tour?
The second part of serious person is coming out very soon. I feel like it really is the other side of serious person. I’m glad we did it in two different EPs because it was kind of heavy for the first EP and the second one just kind of goes really hard with a lot of emotion and a lot of energy. It’s kind of the not so serious side of the serious person era which was kind of inevitable I feel like with who I am. It’s really fun and we’re playing some of the songs on the tour, specifically one called “Party, Party, Party.” I mean, it’s just a party song and it’s fun to play live and everybody was getting down to it last night, so I think it’ll be fun on this tour.
On that same note of this release and leading up to it, “emergency contact” is out and it is quite possibly my favorite single of yours. For you, when you are picking what songs get a single release and have a little bit of a life of their own, do you know right away what song is going be a single? Or is it more of a process of discovering what sets the tone for the songs to come?
That’s a really great question and I think it kind of happens differently every time. With that song specifically, it didn’t really stand out as a single to me for the first few demos that we made. Then my drummer actually came and asked to drum on the song and that really took it into its own little world and allowed me to explore what I actually heard the song as in my head – just groovier and tighter and chiller in a way that had so much character. By the time it was done it was just really obvious that it had to be a single, you know?
I kind of have to ask about “if i were a fish,” the freakin’ book. How did that happen? It is so thrilling. It looks so cute. I can only imagine what whirlwind it has been.
[Laughs] It has been crazy! Honestly, it just happened so organically. When the song was released there were a lot of book people that were like, “This could be a book! This could be a book!” We finally agreed to do it with somebody after some time and once we started the process and started to see the illustrations, Olivia [Barton] and I were like, “What were we on the day that we wrote this song? It literally reads like Dr. Seuss!” It’s crazy – when you separate the lyrics from the song, it really is just a picture book. It feels like such a natural extension of what the song is and what it means to us. I’m just so excited to hold it in my hands and to see it.
Of course, and now that we’ve got serious person (part two) as an EP officially on the way, what do you think is going to come next? Is there gonna be a ‘part three’ or is this gonna kind of wrap it up? Is the tour kind of a really great finale to everything? I do think that this is a monumental era for you and for the crew and for the fans, as well.
Thank you. Yeah, I think serious person really sums up corook in such a timeless way. I do think that (part two) is going to be the last part of serious person for now. I can totally see myself down the road maybe adding to part three, part four, or part five, but I have no idea when. I do have something else that I’m working on after this second part, though, so technically serious person (part two) should be the end for now.
FOR TICKETS TO SEE COROOK LIVE ON TOUR, INCLUDING RIGHT HERE IN NYC THIS THURSDAY, CLICK HERE!
