Buzzcuts and Bedroom Pop with Frankie Cosmos

Cover photo from American Songwriter

Name: Greta

Pronouns: she/her

Age: 26

Zodiac: Aries sun, Gemini rising, Cancer moon

OFF THE RECORD: Recently I’ve been seeing just about everyone doing DIY buzzcuts. But clearly you were way ahead of the game because in January you posted a picture from 2017 with your hair chopped off. What inspired this change, and what did you enjoy most about it?

FRANKIE COSMOS: i haven’t buzzed my hair in a few years, but i had a buzzcut from 2016-2018 (and then i got tired of buzzing it and have just been kinda letting it grow since then)! i had always wanted to, and my friend sarah had said “everyone should have a buzzcut at some point”, and i just thought, “now is my time to try this”. we were on tour with big thief (nov 2016), and adrienne had a buzzcut and was talking to me about the experience of getting comfortable with your own face without hair to hide behind. i had just gone through a really painful breakup, and i just wanted to love myself and do something for myself that would feel good and not worry about how i was going to look. i loved everything about having a buzzcut and will probably have one again some day. the only reason i stopped buzzing it was just that you have to keep doing haircuts, and i got lazy.

OTR: Now, of course, we gotta talk about your music. What made you go into this particular field of artistry? Have you always been a creative mind?

FC: i have always made art in my spare time; i’m a dabbler. i have a hard time picking an art form and calling it “mine”… but music has just stuck as something that i always return to. it just feels good. i took piano lessons since i was a kid, and there’s a certain brain place that music has always taken me to!

OTR: I can’t help but notice how much impact you’ve made on the bedroom pop scene. Clairo is one artist who seems to look up to you a lot, her songs giving off a similar, dreamy, soft feel. What’s it like to see successful artists such as Clairo being able to look back and cite you as a significant influence on their craft?

FC: it feels good! I appreciate the artists that came before me that inspired me and made me feel like i could make something, and i’m happy to have been that for someone else.

OTR: Bouncing off that idea of bedroom pop, is that the genre you’d categorize yourself as being in? Bedroom pop is sometimes criticized for not being “real music”. What do you think about this?

FC: i find genre titles really limiting! like, one person's song they make in their bedroom isn’t always comparable to another person's song they made in their bedroom. same with any genre. i guess i just think of genres as a way to compare art to each other, which is as senseless to me as rating art with numerical values. as for the distinction between “real music” and “not real music”, everyone should be able to make music if they want, and that can look like whatever they want it to or whatever they have access to!

OTR: Enough with the serious questions. If you could be reborn again as something/someone else (a celeb, a fruit, a bug...anything!), what/who would it be, and why?

FC: a dog 100%!!!! i would love to just lounge and get pet and play with other dogs.

OTR: Opinion on astrology? Real or just a myth?

FC: real. you just have to believe!

OTR: If you could go anywhere right now (could be a fictional place, too), where would it be?

FC: a room filled with good dogs that want to snuggle me.

OTR: What are your favorite colors?

FC: depends on the day/thing! dolphin grey has always been my “favorite color”. i love red paint. blue and purple lights. the first time i fainted the whole world turned green and pink around me. yellow t-shirts make me feel like charlie brown in a good way! i like all the colors!

OTR: What are your opinions on Friends, the TV show?

FC: i associate it with being in a hotel on tour and turning the tv on. i know it pretty well just from that. but when i’ve tried to watch it outside of that scenario, the laughtrack gives me a headache.

OTR: Any upcoming projects?

FC: going live playing songs on instagram every friday night at 9pm eastern time (@frankiecombos). we are also having a clearance sale on our merch website and giving all our profits to world central kitchen.

OTR: Finally, what’s a song you’d recommend everyone go listen to right this minute (a song by you or anyone else)?

FC: “mostly m.e.” by lomelda.

Thanks again, Frankie Cosmos, for chatting with us! Make sure to check out her Spotify below!