Written by: Lilianna Gracia
Crafting a new sound and building her brand, Avery Cochrane is the next pop star we all need to keep our eyes out for. For only five years, Avery has been creating music. She started her musical journey as a freshman in college, as a passion project, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Since then, that project has transformed into honing in on her message as an artist to share her “existential thought provoking” lyrics to the world. Taking the time to talk with us, Avery Cochrane made time around her most recent release, “Griever,” to sit down and talk with us about her journey and what is to come!
Starting our conversation, we wanted to hear about what has led her to this moment in her career. From developing her sound and talking about influences, Avery shared that she’s taken a mosaic of different sounds and artists as inspiration for the music she creates . From Taylor Swift’s lyrics and storytelling to Indie Sleaze 2010s hitters like MGMT, the inspiration is present through Avery’s emotional lyrics with fun synths that make you feel like dancing. She said, “I think I borrow from a lot of pop music song writing techniques. I listen to a lot of the pop girls, mainly the singer-songwriter pop girls…[Also] the indie sleaze stuff. I grew up on jazz too, so I grew up improvising over jazz chord progressions; which kinda forced me to learn how to write melodies…there’s so much, I can [really] keep going.”
Even though she released her first EP, Athletic Genius, in 2022, Avery’s music has evolved heavily since then. At the time of its creation, the singer-songwriter was just learning about music and production. Nonetheless, Avery was proud of her songwriting, music, and the independence she had during the process. She thinks of the EP as more of “a collection of pop songs” and has been evolving her sound and songwriting since. Taking time to work on herself, she shared that her music is now more self reflective and aware of who she is, allowing her to be more vulnerable in what she is releasing. Honing in on what she wants to say and maturing has allowed her to become more confessional in her music, such as one of her recent releases, “Shapeshifting on a Saturday Night”.
When discussing “Shapeshifting on a Saturday Night,” the song that helped her take off, Avery shared that her writing in the song felt special compared to her previous work, so she decided to tease it. With her previous releases, Avery felt that her songs did not perform well, emphasizing that the numbers don’t lie in the promotion process, even when looking at social numbers. However, while teasing “Shapeshifting on a Saturday Night,” Avery got signed to her current label, S-Curve records, and ended up redoing the entire track to make it perfect. She noted,“when I wrote Shapeshifting, I felt special about that song and that there was a magic there when I started to tease it…I learned that a good song is kinda all you need. I never really spent [my own] money on it; eventually my label spent some ad boosts, but even if you don’t have a song that people don’t want to listen to, the videos won’t take off. It’s like a double edge sword, it’s bittersweet. The song comes first, it’s what you sought out to do in the first place.” All in all, stating that the truest marketing tip for aspiring musicians is “if you are marketing music as your product, you better make sure that song is damn good!”
Continuing the conversation on “Shapeshifting on a Saturday Night,” we asked Avery about what it was like to create the music video for that song. Like the release itself, the video was worked on for a long time, with her creative director being a friend she met on TikTok who reached out to Avery. Within building the treatment, she wanted a “Fun, party scene, [with] dancers, big hair, makeup, but still existential with the main character feeling out of place” to showcase all the superficial things that can be seen as escapism. These ideas and themes in the video perfectly capture the lyrics and sonic push of the song, as it deals with the struggle of fitting in places where you don’t feel like you do.
When discussing the video itself, Avery brought up how, as a queer artist, people took her best friend at the end of the video being there to help her see reality as a more romantic aspect due to Avery’s openness about being a bisexual woman. While the ending shows the power of the human connection, she understands where the confusion comes from. She notes that no matter what, all her songs are queer, even the ones about men due to the queer perspective she views the world from due to her sexuality. Infiltrating all of her art, even if it is just the thought of feeling different from other people.
Moving into what is coming next, we asked Avery about her upcoming performance in San Diego this month and later in March at M3F festival. For San Diego, Avery shared that since she went to San Diego State University, she is excited to see the people she went to school with in a city she loves. Then, for M3F, it was surreal for her to see her name alongside a crazy lineup with other artists such as 2hollis and Magdalena Bay in a new market she has never performed in. But for both, Avery shared she is excited to play her music and see how it performs, especially unreleased tracks she plans to share.
When asking about her, now, newest single,“Griever”, Avery talked about the writing process for the song being different from the other releases she has put out. The single, which was released on January 16th, is one of her first songs she has written from ground zero in a writing session. She worked with producer Matais Mora, who is credited with artists such as Linkin Park and Rebecca Black. Sharing that the song came intuitively and with lots of references, Avery and Matias were able to build out a more alt-pop song for Avery’s catalogue, making a mark as being “sonically different from everything else [she] has released and will be releasing” and the fastest song she has ever written, all starting with an idea from her notes app saying “i got fired as the restaurant singer”.
Over the past five years, we were curious about Avery’s biggest pinch-me moments. She shared that there have been a lot, but the most special came from the people who run the Seattle Burner throwing the release party for “Shapeshifting on a Saturday Night”. Avery shares, “I really wasn’t expecting that many people to come at all…the room was packed. There [were] at least 100 people and it might have been less, but it was a room full of people I did not really know at all…I got to sing Shapeshifting for them and all these strangers were singing along and it just felt so good. It just felt so surreal and that is what I imagine it feels like to play for 1,000 people…to sing a song that lifts people’s spirits, and makes people want to dance, and rejoice with them, and celebrate with them when they had no obligation to be there or show up to that. It was a really special night and something that I will always remember”.
At this point, you must be wondering, what is next for Avery Cochrane? With “Griever” just releasing (actually the night of when we chatted), Avery shared that her EP Male Validation and Other Drugs is set to release in March. Her main focus for the year is smashing this EP and performing more shows – even discussing potentially performing her first Los Angeles headline show.
With “Griever” marking a bold shift in sound and Male Validation and Other Drugs on the horizon, one thing is clear: Avery Cochrane is entering a new chapter in her career. One that is rooted in her own self-confidence, vulnerability, and clear intention for her craft. Her artistry is driven by her raw honesty and instinct to not just brand herself, but connect with people through good music. As she starts moving to bigger stages and new markets, Avery Cochrane is sure to build a lasting career in music.
Be sure to Presave Avery’s New EP Male Validation & Other Drugs!
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