Welcome to the blog Cosette Gobat, a DIY experimentalist and dream pop queen, who also happens to have the same name as a character in my all-time favorite musical, Les Misérables (sorry had to throw that in). Cosette Gobat was signed to her first record label, Decapolis Records, at just 14 years old in June 2012. Within that first year, she released an EP titled Moving On, which took off her career as a performer. Cosette started touring the east coast of the US when she was in high school and moved to Philadelphia after signing another contract with the label KBM Productions in August 2015, with the release of an electronic pop EP, Blindside.
In Philly, she went to pursue a degree in Media Production at Temple University and started playing in local bands such as Missed Universe, Popular Kid, and Mind Erase Her. In 2017 she began to self-produce music and released an experimental solo project called “i tried my best” in May of that year. Cosette was working at radio stations as an on-air talent and photographer, and as an audio engineer at recording studios. She even began to collect her own clients and worked with well-known artists such as The Wombats, Caroline Rose, Ali Barter, The Beths, Castlecomer, and more. In September 2019, Cosette toured the UK playing shows, primarily in the London music scene.
In July of 2020 she returned to London and released her sonic debut album, Couteau (meaning ‘knife’ in French), which captures transformative sounds in a calm, engaging melody. Check Cosette out on Facebook, Instagram, and Spotify.
On her new album, Cosette said:
Couteau is an album about grief, loss, and recovery. I had begun the production of my debut album back in January 2019, but re-wrote an entire album with a completely new angle by March 2020. The album plays with all my music inspirations with the use of a variety of genres including classical, indie, shoegaze, and folk rock.
I dip into different parts of myself, and explore guitar gain, vocal manipulation, and even spoken word. The album was all written, produced, mixed, and mastered by myself in my small bedroom. This project kept my soul alive during lockdown, and became the essence of my life in complete isolation.
What did you discover in yourself while writing and recording Couteau?
This question kind of goes with the above…basically this album was a big form of recovery for emotional and physical trauma, and I learned a lot about myself and life in the process of writing and recording it. Because Couteau was recorded in almost complete isolation, it’s a symbol of personal, deep reflection I think. I was left completely alone to deal solely with my thoughts, many of them which I have spent lots of energy repressing in previous years.
What do you miss most about performing to a live audience?
I miss performing live a LOT. It is pretty much the essence of existence for me, if that makes any sense! It’s what I love about being a musician the most. I really love meeting new people, I think that may be one of the most special things about being a musician- learning from other people’s experiences, and being inspired by their work and personal expression.
I also miss going out for a drink with some live music! (However, here in London that’s already coming back to life!). I actually played a bunch of ‘quarantine’ virtual gigs…livestreaming on social media and venue pages..it just wasn’t the same unfortunately. No one to high-five after the performance! But I was inspired by people’s strong will to keep live music alive..even through a pandemic where you can’t even see another human!
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