Join us in the Coco cocoon
Maia Friedman, Oliver Hill and Dan Molad are beautiful humans making beautiful music. Old friends, close friends, with a wealth of sonic experience under their belts, the trio ternura have been putting their heads and hearts together for the past four years, weaving and nurturing a project dear to them all, the very special: Coco. The harvest is honest, vulnerable music. A sound bath, an orange open glow which keeps you warm in its cathartic embrace, the hope that their harmonies will set the world right.
At the start it felt natural to shield themselves behind the sound so when the stars aligned and we discovered Coco’s first ever track, Empty Beach, in 2020, we had no idea who these mysterious angels were or where they were from. It’s now been a year since they released their debut self-titled album into the wild, soon after they lifted the anonymous veil once and for all.
Image courtesy of Riley Engemoen and Liz Moskowitz
If until last year Coco were cocooning and creating, late this summer they spread their wings and flew the nest. Having recorded across the States at the Paella Pit, Three Sirens, a Texan Lake House and Joshua Tree, they graced the stage for the first time in LA last November, and in early September played London’s Omeara and End of the Road Festival with a mesmerising set we were lucky enough to catch…
A few weeks later we time travelled 8 hours from American mornings to an autumnal London evening and talked all things Coco from sowing band seeds in cafés to supporting the wonderful Kevin Morby on tour. May the Coco bird grace these lands for many years to come………
With the whish of a wand Maia launches our heads onto a rockface. We enter the metaverse and find ourselves “chilling on an amphitheatre in a park” (a Skype green screen). We are floating heads “like the busts of 19th century composers”… The scene is set.
It must be noted that Oliver with moustache is a spitting image of George Harrison with moustache.
LB: Where in the world is Coco at the moment?
Maia: So I’m in Brooklyn, New York.
Oliver: I’m in Los Angeles.
Dan: And I’m also in LA… in my studio just working on printing some stems and I’ve just finished an amazing breakfast sandwich from Bubs and Grandma.
When you perform it seems like all three of you are really meant to be there together on stage. How did you gravitate towards each other initially and start making music?
Maia: I met Danny around the same time that Oliver met Danny back in 2010/2011. I was working in a café as a barista, Danny was a regular and lived down the street so we became friends and the rest is history! And then Oliver…
Oliver: … had a band called Plume Giant in college (now Pavo Pavo) and we were looking for a producer for our next record so when one of the guys we were touring with was also in a band with Danny, he recommended he work on the record with us! And then I met Maia later through her band Uni Ika Ai. Brooklyn friends running in the same music-making circle…
Dan: Coco is essentially a product of us all having played loads of music with loads of people and saying ‘okay let’s take everything we’ve learnt and really try to make this a project that pushes our strengths to the highest of heights.’ Oliver and Maia are two of the most authentic people I know and that’s what makes it work and feel cohesive. No one is here faking it.
I can’t believe this summer was the first time you performed in the UK as a band. How was it?
Dan: It’s interesting performing in a club to 100 people having played much larger venues. Something about returning to the most intimate venues can be the most nerve-wracking because you feel like everyone sees you in all your vulnerability… and this music feels particularly vulnerable as well.
Maia: What was crazy was that our UK shows were our third and fourth shows ever (!) so it felt pretty special to come to London for our third show and not only have people show up, but actually sing along… and then to play End of the Road and have people pretty packed into the tent, also singing along! And that was only our fourth show…
Oliver: We knew London was home to most of our listeners so we had a feeling it might be a warm welcome… and it totally was.
You’ve recently released two singles, Omen and Rough Water which is a little rockier than previous sounds. How did they come into being?
Oliver: The way we write is that we get together for a few weeks at a time, every few months, and it’s very unstructured, unprepared and we definitely try to bring a playfulness to the space. Rough Water came out of a recording retreat in the Joshua Tree desert and there was just something about the way it was set up with all these very inviting drums…
How do you balance rehearsing, recording and performing?
Oliver: So far we’ve mostly been a studio band, definitely when it was an anonymous thing the idea was that we were only a studio band and tried to make it so that we didn’t have any of the other responsibilities of being in a band other than that. But then in the second half of this year we’ve been dipping our toes into a little touring… but we’re always keen to stay true to ourselves and make sure it’s an enjoyable experience where there isn’t burn out. The shows have been very rewarding so far, make it feel more real and allow us to connect with people who have been listening.
Image courtesy of the band
I can really tell that each one of you brings something so special to the dynamic and you all seem wonderfully calm… what keeps you calm and grounded?
Oliver: If only you knew what was going on!
Maia: Haha it’s all an illusion..! Exercise I suppose.
Dan: Coffee keeps me calm.
Maia: It keeps you calm?
Dan: No. No I don’t know what I’m saying…
Maia: Someone told me recently that you feel grounded when your soul is fully in your body… I like that idea.
Oliver: I think it’s important to try and practice daily gratitude about our jobs. Music is such a mystical force where people are moving around sound waves and tickling each other’s ear hairs in microscopically interesting ways and I just can’t think of something more abstract or a more beautiful way to spend a life… so I try and tell myself every day, thank God for music.
What role does music play in your life?
Dan: It’s like a lifeline… it’s all the best and most challenging things. It feeds our souls and eats away at you when it doesn’t feel right… I’m literally all music 24/7. When I think about it it kind of makes me sick.
Maia: I’ve listened to music throughout my whole life and couldn’t imagine not listening to it. Sometimes I’ll find a new album and just listen to it non-stop but then sometimes I hate it and will go through periods where I don’t want to hear anything. It’s funny how when music becomes your career, the purity of creativity and creation can get marred and sullied by the logical, administrative business side…
Oliver: … the more you should keep those things separate. That’s why having a good team is so important: delegating and not feeling like you’re worried about getting from A to B. You just exist in the tunes.
I spied there are a few Brazilian tracks on the Spotify playlists you curated, Jorge Ben, Milton Nascimento, Caetano… does that mean you’re fellow Brazilian music fans?
Oliver: Yeah that’s definitely something we’ve connected on. It’s a newer thing in my life, I mean I didn’t know Brazilian music at all until four years ago. It’s a whole other parallel universe. Like a whole other American music… There’s so much of it and there’s this through line of cleverness and something so suave about how they put it together.
You all have a beautiful way with words… where do you look for inspiration?
Oliver: I think we all have different flows with reading. Danny was over for dinner a couple nights ago and we were talking about what we’ve been reading. Right now, I’m reading the new Jhumpa Lahiri novel called Whereabouts which is sort of a memoire with lots of little vignettes about a single writer who’s moved to Italy. Each chapter is only about two pages describing these little spaces she’s occupying. It’s so distilled and compact, I just want to write down every sentence to remember and reconfigure it into a song. It’s been really a good source…
What are you listening to at the moment?
Maia: Okay there’s a record that I just love so much. Every song… I’m completely obsessed. It’s a friend’s record, almost all of the new music I listen to are friend’s records, but the artist is zannie and the record is How Do I Get That Star and… ohhh man… I just feel like each song is so unusual and out of this world. I mean zannie is a little out of this world… definitely extra-terrestrial which they reflect in their music.
Oliver: They opened our New York show with an amazing set.
Maia: I text them once a week being like “hey, just letting you know again how much I like your new record, again”!
Last but not least, what do you listen to on the Last Bus (subway) home?
Dan: The new Bjork podcast where she breaks down all of her records one by one… it’s incredible and she’s just so amazing. Her career’s spanned so many years so it’s pretty nostalgic reflecting on all her songs from different times in my life… and getting to hear her intent behind them is so special.
Maia: I’ve also been listening to a podcast on late subway rides home. It’s a theatrical podcast called Appearances by an Iranian American woman called Sharon Mashihi who talks about her upbringing and family dynamic in the wake of trying to figure out if she wants to have a kid or not. It’s not fully biographical but it’s very cool…
Oliver: Well… still on the Brazil thing… I didn’t know there was a second Clube da Esquina, the Milton Nascimento record, which is even more adventurous than the first in a way, but also has this grandiosity to it, all the amazing choir arrangements. So that’s what’s been most consistently spinning for me the last couple weeks and what I’d spin on the last subway home.
Image courtesy of Riley Engemoen and Liz Moskowitz
Thank you Coco, we love you,
Last Subway Magazine. X