Cosette Behind the Velvet Curtain

By Luna O’Brien

Cosette Lunsford appeared on the electric blue horizon, or perhaps the endless ocean, with a glowing orb before her heart. An ex-lover told her that golden hour is the best free lighting you can find in LA. He was a director, but really, just another two-faced actor. At high noon on a weekday, when she told me all of this, Cosette was sitting and grinning in her all-white bedroom. The musician herself resembled an angel, and beside her blonde crown were orchids the color of the sky. Her voice carried that same esoteric pull of the moon and tides. 

Elise Kosco 

A self-described Ableton Enthusiast, Cosette surfed the electro/glitchpop wave earlier than her peers.  She had escaped from Nashville two years prior—“it was a little too trad wife”—and set off westbound for California, for inspiration, for understanding. She champions freestyle verse and sound-selecting based on intuition. Her lyrics are particularly candid, operating for the sake of humor as well as the heart.

“I was given this gift,” she tells me about her recent single, “magic,” the song that pulls back the velvet curtain on a certain act: the director’s Love Scandal, Sex as Performance, the Truths we Give and Take. Said gift is her experience that alchemized into such a creation. “I was making music the entire time.” 

In conversation with Gut Instinct Media, our heroine invites the audience to follow the story with their ears and eyes. 

Gut Instinct (GI): When did it first click? 

Cosette (C): I always knew I was gonna do music. The angle I wanted was to be a self-produced artist; a lot of my favorite artists were self-produced, and I didn’t have a lot of female examples of it. My instrument was my voice.

At Berkeley, I was showing a couple friends a song I had written, and it was the first time someone had reacted positively to my original music that wasn’t family. I was like, Gasp, Really?! It was the positive reinforcement I needed to keep going. 

GI: What kind of songs were you writing back then?

C: They would start on piano. The first one was called “With You” and I wrote it about a car accident I got in with this ex-boyfriend. 

From the beginning, the throughline is coming-of-age. Diary-entry style music. It’s very analytical in processing my emotions, but also, it’s me trying to understand why things happen. We try to be empathetic for the other person. It’s usually about love. 

GI: What’s the story behind “magic”? 

C: Everything I usually freestyle, because I love producing so much. I start with some type of base beat; from there, there’s a couple phrases or words you’ll keep, or the whole thing will just kind of flow out. For “magic”, it all flowed out. 

I was dating a director. I ended up finding out he was cheating on me by sexting people on his phone…Not fun. The rest of the EP ended up being me processing them, trying to process me, trying to understand—why. 

You’re a director, but aren’t you an actor? You were acting this whole time. How much of it is real, how much of it is a lie? Specifically, “magic” is about how much of sex is a performance. Are you just pretending during sex? I’m not talking dirty; I’m being honest and saying how I feel. 

So I have my magic still, my peace of mind and intentions. That’s where the orb comes in. I have my magic, and I gave it to you; I’m assigning it to you.

Elise Kosco 

GI: I think we’re in a real performative culture at the moment; we forget that the relationships we have are for us. The connection you have with someone is because they inspire or invoke something in you. 

C: I still don’t know. It’s like, looking at yourself, how much of my desperation is coming through? How much am I begging? 

GI: That’s giving magic to the wrong people. 

C: Exactly. That’s why I give it all, take it back, make it right. The chorus is about reclaiming. 

GI: How has your music evolved? 

C: Through practice, I’ve solidified my sound and taste. When you’re an artist first starting out, your taste is here, but your ability is there. Part of the journey is trying to bridge the gap. I’ve always had an ear and an eye, but the more I practice production, the better producer I became. 

In the beginning, as a female producer, I wanted to prove I could do it in a loud way… I’ve always loved a good clean pop song. I was in a phase of not wanting to make that, but now that’s out of the way, I’m more interested in when to give and when to take. I think that’s what this last year has been about—control.

GI: What do you look and listen for?

C: I’m inspired by movies recently. Have you seen Closer (2004)? It has that photo of Natalie Portman in a pink wig. I was watching and was like, is this movie a play? The stage design and words are so poetic. I saw All That Jazz (1979) with this whole sequence of a bed on a stage. It reminded me of what I’m talking about in “magic”. 

GI: When you talk about these movies that blend film with stageplay, does that provoke your own music to be genre-bending?

C: I was never forced into any one genre anyway, and I never became the best at one thing ever. I was never trained on how to make a certain type of beat, so this is all me guessing… The only throughline is my voice and the harmonies. 

I have a massive sample folder with everything from everywhere. They’re not grouped off by genre–I’m just sound selecting based on intuition. Everything I produce is based on intuition. A very hip hop snare may be what feels best even when I’m about to do a rock-style guitar, ‘cause these decisions compound. 

A lot of times my goal is to make people laugh on wordplay, or make myself laugh. I’m writing very specific literal things that are true in my life, but if you didn’t know me, you wouldn't necessarily catch it. Whenever I’m laughing while recording is the best feeling. 

GI: What’s true to you, but vague enough? 

C: Time flies, I’m single again. My work husband and I are now just friends. All ‘cause I drank wine on the beach and swore off men.

GI: How’s LA? 

C: I drove here; that’s one of my favorite parts. I road-tripped from Tennessee, and I was by myself, and it was gorgeous. It was 5 days of I’m free!

I’m a water sign. What sign are you? I’m a Cancer, and so, I love the ocean. I love being able to ground myself in that way… It’s nice to be somewhere I’m not weird. 

GI: What else has been inspiring to you in the day-to-day?

C: I’ve been surfing for the first time. Oh, and sunset has become a big deal for me— the orb only begins to glow at sunset. Something my ex-boyfriend-director taught me was that it was the most flattering lighting for free… I’m inspired by sunsets; I’m always chasing them. I’ve found some really interesting, weird, cool places just by chasing the beauty or the adventure. 

GI: Is having a working relationship with the world around you and the world in you important to you?

C: It’s in everything I do. It feels god-given to look up at this specific time, catch this exit, follow it, trust how you feel about it. 

GI: Tell me about the orb.

C: The orb represents your inner light, energy, aura. I love the way that I feel when I have it in my hands. I have a dance background. As a child, we would put ribbons on a stick, then circle them and play with them.

It’s very intuitive; it makes you move when you have it. And also for crowd interaction, I would pass them out, and people would rave with them. 

Elise Kosco 

GI: How is it performing live?

C: When I opened for Erin [LeCount], that’s the last time I performed live. I saw that as a boot camp opportunity to step into my pop star self through practice and persona and outfit. I took everything more seriously than before. I got new clothes, new equipment; I was sober for it. Yeah, I just ran it and ran it…

For me, I want to give a show when I’m giving a show. My focus this last time was, how do I bring the energy of the room up, up, up, up? How do I raise everyone? 

I intertwined a bit of production stuff, little DJ moments, to show the crowd that is an aspect of me. But when I go on there, I am ready to perform in a very stereotypical pop star way. 

GI: I can see how that’s exactly the genre-bending we were talking about earlier. 

C: I’m trying to experiment with performance. I would love to bring a string quartet type of vibe. 

I’m interested in all the different ways you can present the music. It depends on what the intention is. 

GI: If you could share your intention for upcoming music, what would it be? 

C: My intention was to just be honest with myself. And analyze what the fuck happened. Hopefully it’s inspiring. I love when anyone is inspired to make art; I think the more art is made, the more opportunities people are reminded that they can do it themselves. 

And I hope anyone who went through a breakup laughs.