Kudos to CooDos: Camille Estrada is a Multi-Media Artist to Watch
By Isabella Kelly-Goss
Image Shared by Camille Estrada.
Musician and artist Camille Estrada is busier than ever as she juggles her band Calico Plaid’s new album, opening an online store for her art brand CooDos, and releasing her new comic, Max and Bunny.
Camille is the lead singer and songwriter for alt-rock band Calico Plaid, which is currently working on their third album to be released by early next year. Their first two albums, Crumbled Up and Self-Indulgent, came out in 2019 and 2022. They recently released two new singles, “Alone With Your Thoughts” and “Girl Nightmare.”
Inspired by old-school punk and lots of pop music, Camille expects the new album to branch out into evolved styles like they explored in “Girl Nightmare.” During the songwriting process, Camille is in charge of demoing lyrics and vocals, along with her rhythm guitar, before handing it over to her partner, Nic. Nic and Camille are college sweethearts who met at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where they created Calico Plaid.
Image Shared by Camille Estrada.
“Nic and I basically had opposite experiences at Berklee; he enjoyed it and got his degree. I absolutely hated it and dropped out!” Camille said, "So for me, I guess my time at Berklee made me realize that I just wanted music to be an art form and not have the pressure of making it my career. I’m much more comfortable doing art as my career and using music purely as a self-expression outlet.”
Almost ten years later, Calico Plaid includes producer, drummer, and Nic’s childhood best friend, John Terry. Terry produces all of their music, as well as plays the drums for their tracks. While he plays live whenever he can, his other bands, Ohkaya and Dance With the Dead, keep him pretty busy.
Their official live band line-up includes their bassist Coral, who is also in bands Apophy and Blood Nyph, and rhythm guitarist Caitlin Edwards, who also plays solo and in a Chicago Ska band called Bumsy and the Moochers. Nic, outside of Calico Plaid, is involved with multiple bands, including Ohkaya, Latter, and plays live bass for popular band Beach Bunny.
After leaving Berklee, Camille decided to attend school for animation, where she eventually got her degree. There she honed her skills as an illustrator, and even recently painted two kick-drum covers for Beach Bunny drummer Jon Alvarado. Now her artist persona, CooDos, has become her career while she explores musical endeavours. For those wondering, the name CooDos came to be while searching for an Instagram username as she was getting started.
“It’s meant to be a play on the word kudos,” Camille explained of the name’s origin, “because that’s what I was going to social media for, a little praise.”
Camille uses social media to promote the sale of her multi-media physical art, like stickers, prints, polymer keychains, and more. She said she enjoys rotating mediums to avoid burnout.
Though she has been using socials for some time, Camille said selling online can be difficult. As a way to combat this difficulty, Camille began turning to in-person markets.
“Events like maker’s markets have changed everything for me,” she said. “The fact that I can go to these events, actually make money, and get people's personal reaction to my work has been really fulfilling. It’s validating to see that people do respond positively to my work in real life.. Social media can make you feel so isolated even though it’s supposed to connect everyone.”
Her artwork is also available in Chicago at stores like Buddy Chicago, Rotofugi, and some of the Good Things Vending Machines. Her upcoming markets include Renegade Chicago on September 6 and Pool Party at the Salt Shed on September 7.
Her art style is vibrant, expressive, and slightly edgy. Inspired by animations such as Adventure Time, classic cartoons from the 20s and 30s, and one of her favorite short films, Kick-heart, she sticks to her intuition to guide her through her creative process.
Image Shared by Camille Estrada.
This intuition is exactly what helped bring about her latest creation, a comic called Max and Bunny. Camille recently debuted the first print issue at CAKE Chicago.
“The process is a lot of self-fulfillment, creating things that I want to look at and that give me pleasure. It’s also a lot of accepting how things are and whatever comes out. In general, I don’t actually practice or take a traditional approach to character design,” she elaborated. “Max and Bunny, especially, were mainly improvised when I started making the comic. I started with a general idea of what kind of characters I wanted for the story and just went from there.”
With all her irons in different creative fires, Camille Estrada is sure to draw or sing her way into higher popularity within the next few years.
Those interested in CooDos can find her on Instagram and TikTok as @Coo.Dos, where you’ll also find links to her brand-new online store. As for Calico Plaid, their pop-punk sound can be found on all streaming platforms.
Image Shared by Camille Estrada.
