CocoRosie

It’s only been a few years since you started (2004), does it feel like it took a while to get to where you are?

There was no while, it just happened.  Like how it starts to rain all of a sudden.  Five minutes previous: no cloud in the sky.

Where did you both grow up, and what were you like as kids?

Coco: We grew up here and there, Hawaii, Iowa, New York, Arizona… Sierra was a mermaid and very isolated.  I was a businessman early on, selling flowers, Chinese herbs, recycling cans, yard work, nanny… Sierra sand danced.  I [Bianca], read bone, wrote, and smoked and hustled.

---

Does one of you write the music and the other write the lyrics— is it one big collaboration?

It goes back and forth and forth and back… but I am more prone to write words and Sierra the melodic jewels…

Your first album was recorded in a bathtub in Paris. With the third album out now, are you establishing a routine at all?

There’s no routine, just exploration and phases.  Next we might be in a basement in Tunisia or Naples.

How would you compare this new album to the first two?

This new one is more grounded, more Earth-bound, more muddle and worm-filled.  The source is the heart and the weight of human experience.  The second one is astral, etheric; other planetary and past life travels...

Who does your cover art? On the album cover for Noah’s Ark, there looks to be some kind of unicorn orgy going on. I can’t quite tell if it’s hot or if the last vestige of my innocence has just been decimated.

I do the art, the drawings, etc… the cover for Noah’s Ark is just our rip off out of any children’s bible.  The new album cover was a collaboration with the artists Pierre et Gilles.

What kind of books are you reading these days?

I read mostly children’s books, books for young adults.  My favorite book is called Maniac Magee written by Jerry Spenelli.

Do you see a lot of your lyrics as satirical? For example, in the song “By Your Side,” you mention wanting to be a housewife and wanting to bake apple pies. Just out of curiosity, when’s the last time you baked an apple pie? Because, despite what the song suggests, I’m sensing that you might not actually want to be my housewife.

I love to cook and dream often of having babies.  I’m just looking for the right girl to settle down with.

---

My brother and I have never tried to form a hip-hop-infused, operatic rock duo featuring children’s toys, beatboxing, and harp parts. Maybe our bond would get even tighter. Just so he and I know, is there extra bickering that comes with recording and touring with a sibling?

Yes, at first.  But then you just ease into it like an arranged marriage.

What would you be doing career-wise if you didn’t have the band?

I would be a teacher.  Sierra... maybe a dancer, or... a garbage man.

Website

www.cocorosieland.com

Photo

Samantha West
Kai Regan

---