Cosette Lunsford is a dreamer with an eye for what’s next in bedroom pop music. Her art is a manifestation of an inner light that’s equal parts mystifying and human. With her sun sign in Cancer, the singer-songwriter and producer alchemizes coming-of-age misfortunes into tender-hearted lyrical prose set to a backdrop of glitchy, Oklou-inspired beats. On the opposite side of the same coin, Cosette’s moon sign sits in Virgo, facilitating a strong sense of independence as she writes, produces, mixes, and masters most of her own tracks. However, her autonomy is less about isolation and more about freedom of expression. Despite having studied at Berklee, Cosette isn’t confined to the mathematical laws of music production. She takes the agonizing absurdity of life and metamorphoses it into soft-glitched confessionals assembled with complete self-determination.
Insightful, good-willed, and beaming with moonlit charm, Cosette gave us an unmasked look into her creative universe. Talking everything from spirituality and astrology to her latest track “Magic” and the trials and tribulations of being raised in the South, Cosette makes vulnerability look effortless.
Interview by Alli Lindsey
Header Image by Glitterflick & Random Docthermann
Let’s start with the hard-hitting questions. What is your zodiac sign?
I’m a Cancer!
Do you know your big three?
This is the best first question ever! I am a Cancer sun, Virgo moon, and a Leo rising. The rest of my big six (Venus, Sun, Mercury) are in Cancer in the 12th house.
Do you think your signs influence your music and art?
Maybe! I think they help me interpret myself. I’ve always been fascinated with astrology. The more I started to learn about it, the more magical life seemed to be. I’ve never purposely used my chart in my music. But the way all of my Cancer placements give me a sensitivity helps me verbally express my emotional capacity. My Leo rising helps with my stage performance and the entrepreneurship of this project. My Virgo moon helps me analyze all of those emotions that I feel – I think that shows up the most in my music. Like “this happened because of this, this, and this” and that’s why you’re feeling like “this, this, and this.” But they all work together to support what the other lacks.
You make dreamy, glitchy, bedroom-pop music, but what are some surprising genres that you find inspiration in?
I think people would be surprised to know that I first learned what a producer was through hip-hop and rap. That was super big in high school for me – it was getting a lot of radio play. From 2014 to 2018, we had Travis Scott, The Weeknd, and Chance the Rapper come up, which people would always play at parties. Around that same time, I discovered that a lot of those artists were self-produced. Tyler, the Creator, too. All of those artists were so elevated and put on a pedestal during that time, and I knew I wanted to be respected in a similar way. We didn’t really see a lot of female producers being put on that pedestal, so when it was time for me to learn how to make music, I knew I wanted self-production to be part of the equation. I wanted to be interviewed and talked about in a similar way.
You write, produce, mix, and master so much of your music. Which aspect was the hardest to get comfortable with?
I was kind of figuring it all out at the same time. I kind of started writing first. As a kid, I would always write, sing, and put on performances in plays and musicals. The learning curve for production was difficult, obviously, but I think the hardest part was figuring out the writing. For a while there, I didn’t really know how all of that worked, because it’s such an intuitive, individual process. Production felt like more of a science – the more you do it, the more you get it. But I was scared of writing for a while, because it’s super vulnerable. If you cover a song and people don’t like it, you can chalk it up to them not liking the song. But if they don’t like your original song, it’s more of a statement about your art.
“I experience negative things, and I alchemize them into something positive.”
Writing a song on paper can read well, but fitting it into a rhythm can be challenging. Do you ever get caught up in the mathematical aspects of producing and songwriting?
Well, no, because I don’t see it like that. The more I was able to produce for myself, the less confined I felt. I don’t feel confined by any rules in music.
What draws you to the independence of creating your music from top to bottom?
I feel like I can truly draw from the ether by working independently. When there’s no one there telling you what’s right and wrong, then I can do whatever I want. If it’s exciting and fun to me, then that’s the most fun I could possibly have. It’s so much fun, and I can enter this flow state. I’ve been interested in spirituality for a while, and someone said recently that the key to life is to follow your highest excitement at every opportunity. And excitement doesn’t have to be super literal. But I’m able to follow my highest excitement by myself, without the perception of someone else. Even the way I’ve introduced collaboration is through allowing myself that independence. I need alone time to really understand what I am feeling.
Earlier, you gestured towards your room when mentioning a safe space to create music. Is your bedroom a sanctuary for you?
Totally! Yeah, it is. I don’t have much equipment, but I have my speakers, my interface, my mic, and my guitar. But I do think that having it feel right is a huge part of it. I love the alternate lighting. I like it pretty in here. I like it clean. I also like to be clean. I like to shower before I create music. I don’t know if that’s something with water signs, but I like to shower and be in comfy clothes before I start the process. Candles and ambiance!
You’re also heavily involved in your own creative direction. What are some of the non-musical aspects you enjoy about being an artist?
I like making meaning out of my experiences. Music makes it feel like there’s a purpose to my life experiences. I experience negative things, and I alchemize them into something positive. My world experiences give my life chapters. Time capsules that will forever be there. I can make something out of nothing.
“Love is synchronicity!”
That’s a very metaphysical answer. Going back to spirituality, what are some spiritual philosophies that you align with? Manifestation? Yoga?
I’ve always loved astrology! It’s a fun way to look at the world. It adds magic to it. I appreciate yoga, but I don’t have a lot of rituals. I haven’t read a lot of books on the subject, and I don’t have my spirituality organized in any way. I hope that when I talk about spirituality in my art and music that it’s not off-putting to anybody who has had religious trauma. I grew up in the South, and I went to a very conservative, Christian high school that really put a bad taste in my mouth for Christianity. When you say the word God, its meaning depends on what lens you’re looking at it through. It’s always made me nervous that people see my use of the word God through a conservative, Christian lens. For me, it’s just a relation to some type of higher power. There’s a push and pull of giving and receiving information from a higher power. Manifestation makes a lot of sense to me because I have asked questions and gotten answers back through signs and synchronicity. Love is synchronicity! The number six and the color blue feel personal to me, so when that shows up in my reality, I see that as communication from the universe. Some people might think that’s crazy, and that’s fine. I’m not here to mission anything. That’s another thing that makes me nervous from my upbringing. I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything, but I have no doubt that reality reflects what you are personally believing. The things that have made the most sense for me to believe in are kind of abstract, like synchronicity, manifestation, and astrology.
You’re from Tennessee, which is very conservative and Christian. Though you’re neither, what pieces of your Southern upbringing have stayed with you?
More of it stayed with me than I realized. The pieces that have really remained are community and neighbors. I love talking to anybody and everybody – on walks, in restaurants. I enjoy trying to be friends with my neighbors. Southern hospitality, too. Also feeling blindly safe. I feel like most people have good intentions, which is maybe naive. Aspects of country music remind me of home now, but when I was living in Nashville, I never purposely put it on. But now that I’m not there, when I hear a steel guitar or an accent with twang, it’s so comforting to me. I’ve been having fun putting pieces of that into my art now.
“I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything.”
Did you grow up listening to the classic country girls, like Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and the Dixie Chicks?
Not really, no! A little bit of the Dixie Chicks – “Wide Open Spaces” is classic. But that music reminds me of being in my friends’ cars. It reminds me of my youth. But I did go to the Country Music Awards growing up. So that music does remind me of my time in Nashville. Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour was my first “oh, I really love this” moment for girl country.
I want to discuss the orb! Tell us about your relationship with the orb.
It was the happiest accident. I didn’t intend for it to be a signifier for me, but I’m so glad that the orb is in my life. I wish I had it here with me now. I bought a bunch of them because I had a show. I was opening for poptropicaslutz! last year, and I wanted to elevate my production value. Part of what makes a show so sick is how sick it looks. Costuming, obviously, but also the stage design. I hadn’t invested any time in that because I was always practicing my voice. But for this show, I wanted to get there early and set up the stage in a way that made sense to me. So I brought drapes from my bedroom to ruche up around the table, and I was like, do I want candles too? But I couldn’t do real fire. Then I thought of the orbs! At first, they were just there to look cool. But then I realized I could play with one, and it would look so cool on stage. So I did one song with one orb. Then I went on tour with Erin LeCount, and I realized I could pass the orbs out. I can’t do confetti yet, but I can do the orbs! And I used them for more than one song this time. Then I released “Magic”, featured it in the visualizers, and the orb became a talking piece. Now I’m going to take my orb with me everywhere I go. We love the orb.
How do you find the courage to write about intimacy and sex the way you did in “Magic”?
It’s been a journey. Sex and dating are a huge part of that song. I used to feel so shy about writing about sex, but it would feel dishonest to myself not to address it. I didn’t want it to feel vulgar. My intention wasn’t to be sexy. I wanted to dissect and understand sex’s influence on my dynamic with this specific person. The song is actually about cheating. It’s about their performance with sex. I see “Magic” as a song about vulnerability and honesty. It was nerve-wracking to go there, but I think it’s important in overcoming my Southern, Christian upbringing. I needed to accept that it’s not taboo. I’m still learning about how I want to address it. But if I get cheated on, it affects how I view sex. That’s what I was writing about, and it had to be done.
How do you manage a desire to express yourself while maintaining personal boundaries and privacy?
I’m not keeping too much to myself right now. If the person I’m writing about wants me to keep things to myself, then they should just treat me better. It would be different if the whole world knew who I was talking about. But I’m in a very sweet spot where only my personal friends know who I’m talking about in my music. I’m still niche enough that there’s no public speculation about who exactly I’m writing about. That’s a luxury I’m going to enjoy while I have it.
Is your music more about self-expression or sharing a motif with the world?
Right now, it’s self-expression. It’s just about chapters of my life and what I’m going through – becoming a woman, growing up, learning about love and relationships, and being my own person. There’s no agenda besides exploring who I’m becoming.
Follow Cosette for more:
www.instagram.com/cosettelunsford
