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Name: Cody Frost
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, tattoo- and make-up artist
Nationality: British
Recent release: Cody Frost's new mixtape, TEETH, is out via The Orchard.
Recommendations: I’m currently reading “a treatise on possibility: perspectives on humanity hereafter” by Rou Reynolds. He writes books about his inspiration behind his music. Also highly recommend listening to “when it lands” by Rainbow Kitten Surprise!!!

If you enjoyed this interview with Cody Frost and would like to find out more, visit her official website. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, twitter, and Soundcloud.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I started singing at a really young age but didn’t really start writing properly until I hit 18!

I wanted to be a performer, a story teller like the musicians I’d looked up to, I knew that from super early actually.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

It activates every section of my brain. It’s the only time I truly feel focused. When a song really captures me I start daydreaming about the little scenes that people have set within the song.

I listen to music at any given opportunity, it really helps me when I’m doing anything creative.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

I started out just super frustrated in everything I did, it really fuelled me for a long time. I spent a long time really analysing what I wanted out of my music and over that time I think I learnt to be patient.

I really feel over this past year I’ve developed a hunger for music even more, I can definitely feel a change coming on, I feel more focussed and actually a little confident about putting my music out there.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

I have always kinda known what I want to be, and I guess that means that when I writing I struggle to be anything other than what I am. I love songs
that make my head buzz because there are weird harmonies of a fast talking parts and cool synths.

I think people like that I'm just doing whatever I like. I think people can also relate to frustrations I've dealt with, mostly working in shit jobs.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

CHAOS, freedom to create, and a need for something more.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

I just make whatever feels right, although I think I owe a lot to the some of the music that came before mine. I always look to create new sounds though, I like genre blending a lot.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

I had to use a guitar for a long time because I had no laptop, no iPhone and virtually no other instruments. I’ve played it in my mixtape though so I haven’t completely abandoned it!

I record a lot of voice notes to write songs (very useful). And I basically start all my songs in GarageBand now. (laughs) I love making weird synths.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

Depends on which day! I work a lot so its usually filled with making music or tattooing!

I get up at 10am, (A bit of a night owl), go tattoo some nice people, stop by my friend's bar for a brew and then go home and write music in my bedroom (on a VERY productive day).

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

I wrote BERLIN in a cafe in Berlin on my phone, took it home and lost the file. Years later Covid hit and I was making a lot of music in my room and rebuilt the song out of boredom.

Then I took it to my producer and cowriter Dan during a writing session (a month in a cottage in the middle of nowhere) and we had so much fun making that song, it felt natural. It was probably the first song I wrote with the mixtape in mind.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

I love to be in a room full of people when I’m writing but I do find it a little distracting. Me and Dan make a great team because he understands my brain and what we make together is really my favourite.

I really also only like to write my lyrics and melody on my own, it can be very personal to me.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

I hope I can just find a few people that feel like me. That's why I fell in love with music in the first place, I found people who thought like me. The artists that I like the most are the ones who make me feel seen.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

I went though a rough breakup last year. I found myself pouring myself into my music whilst also just quietly listening to music for a minute.

I think it honestly is one of the main reasons I’m alive. I believe it's intrinsic to my mental wellbeing, both listening and creating.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?

I think a lot of musicians I listen to have this amazing way of connecting important knowledge to the people. I grew up listening to plenty of artists sharing important information about climate change and they really changed my perspective on life.

But also I love everything about the impacts that music have on your brain and dopamine levels.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Writing music involves so many different emotions and for me, its one of the only times I really concentrate. I’m almost obsessed with lyric writing, it's like I can feel little lights in my brain beaming.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

It’s mad how we’re all just silly little people listening to silly little sounds and it makes us move around and smile, or cry. For me it’s lyrics that really hit the hardest.