Q&A: Degrees, College Debt & Friendships on Corook's Debut EP 'achoo!'
COLLEGE DEBT IS A COMMONALITY — that is shared amongst most young adults today. Although we all have our own reasons for attending college and experience it differently, one thing we can all agree on is that college is hard — not just on our pockets but emotionally and sometimes physically. There are the Gen Ed requirements that make us ask, “Why do I even need this course?”, week-long all-nighters, and missing the friendships we cherished back in high school. Corrine Savage, better known as Corook, is a singer-songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and a self-described “huge fuckin’ dork.”
Hailing from outside of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Corook is currently based in Nashville, Tennessee, and notes Drake, Gwen Stefani, and Mac Miller as her influences. She shares her college experience on her debut EP, Achoo!, exploring everything related to the college experience. In her own words, Corook describes her EP as “... A weird world that includes speaking simlish, roleplaying my father, my phobia of snakessssssss, and a song written by ADHD itself. In every case though, the humor is simply the white bread slices to the gooey condiments of vulnerability we call peanut butter and jelly. So grab your butter knife, add banana if you’re feeling spicy, and dig into my trauma. achoo! bless me.” Adding a bit of humor to a very familiar and relatable topic, achoo! follows her debut singles, “sims,” “idk god” and “bad friend” and is composed of seven humorous, relatable, and thoughtful tracks along with three new songs. One of them being “snakes” which received great feedback after being teased across social media and being performed during live shows while on tour and simply expressing her fear of snakes. Corook is a total vibe and an artist to look out for. She is not only a talented artist, but she’s super hilarious (go watch her IG reels — you won’t regret it) and quite literally a queer icon who is here to break down deep-rooted stereotypes in the music industry.
Read down below to get to know more about Corook and how achoo! came to life.
LUNA: Hey Corook! It’s nice to meet you! Can you introduce yourself a bit?
COROOK: Yeah! I'm Corook. I have college debt, I went to Berkeley and I graduated. I enjoy solving Rubik's Cubes. I do not enjoy snakes. I have a sweet dog — her name is Colby … She's the sweetest dog. I got her at a shelter [about] a year ago; she's a pandemic dog. And I'm currently on tour!
LUNA: Ahh yes, college! (laughs.) Can totally relate. Since we’re on the topic, congrats on your debut EP, achoo! I know the EP dives into topics like college experiences, friendships, etc. What sparked the motivation to create this EP?
COROOK: While living as a college student at a basic … baseline, I graduated from Berkeley in 2017. Afterward, I just spent the next few years trying to find my next project and figure out what I wanted to do. I was in a band in college, and I just wanted to figure out my voice as an artist. As I continued to write the songs, it turned out that I had a lot in me about college, with being in college debt [and] missing all my friends because we all moved to different cities and we had to separate. That was really sad and hard for me. It was a natural theme within the EP, but I didn't really see it coming until I put it together. I was like, “Okay, this is about school and college.”
LUNA: I was able to listen to the EP and I love how relatable and realistic it is, yet it carries a sense of humor behind it. My favorite tracks on there are “degree” and “distracted.” Can you go into the creative process behind these tracks?
COROOK: It’s a good thing you picked those two songs because I feel like those two processes were extremely different. When I was writing “degree,” I was still working a full-time job outside of music — I was a babysitter. So I didn't have as much time to do music. I lived in this big house in Nashville with a bunch of roommates. And it was … truly a gem of a time whenever there was no one home because that meant I could blast my music and write freely without anybody hearing me. And it was one of those days [when I wrote “degree”]. I didn't have to work. I didn't have any roommates around. I was just kind of like, “Okay, cool! This is awesome!” [ I asked myself,] “How weird can I get?” and the chorus came out pretty quickly.
It’s about college and being in debt. It felt like this really silly juxtaposition of a more hip hop beat that … I feel like talks a lot more about being rich and having a lot of money, whereas I thought it would be really funny if I did a spin on it where I was just really broke because I have a lot of debt (laughs). And I think a lot of people are. From there, it was when I got super weird. I was like, “Okay, well, I'll just pitch up my voice and then I'll sound like an interviewer,” and then on top of that, sound like my dad. So that was truly a fully Corook moment, whereas “distracted” was more of a writing session. I actually wrote that song with Josie Dunn, who's one of my really good friends that was in Nashville. She's an artist herself; it was our first time meeting and I was really nervous. I was just getting into co-writing, and it kind of just came out of us. We wrote this chorus first and the first line is “I've been a little distracted.” We added some lines to it and then from there I think the verses are what really make that song what it is. We were just like, “Let's just be really random because, you know, we're talking about being distracted.” And so that was also a very similar process of being silly and thinking outside the box. But I was doing that with a friend so I guess that's the main difference.
LUNA: How would you describe your artistry?
COROOK: This project is the first time I've felt truly 100% myself with the music that I'm making. I feel like I've injected my personality into it, which has been a hard process. I mean, I've been writing since I was in middle school and now I'm 27 now so it's taken a long time to get to where I am where I feel like I'm actually being myself. I guess I would describe it as thoughtful, but funny.
LUNA: Apart from Drake, Mac Miller and Gwen Stefani, who are your musical influences?
COROOK: It's been a lot of creating. I usually go through phases of listening and then creating. I've been in that very creative phase obviously — I haven't been listening much. But when I do turn stuff on, it's usually just different albums from different eras. In college, I listened to a lot of jazz music like Robert Glasper. I love his new album. Also, I’m currently on tour with a bunch of jazz drummers so I'm listening to a ton of jazz. But whenever I really want to be inspired, I love to listen to my peers — so a bunch of my co-writers like Carolyn Pennell. My girlfriend — I went with her a lot. Her name's Olivia Barton. And I love to just turn on whatever playlist and just go through the top, like, five songs on whatever playlist, like the Lorem playlist or bedroom pop playlist [on Spotify]. I just love listening to people that are my age making music right now.
LUNA: I heard you’re opening for K.Flay! How do you feel? Are you excited?
COROOK: Oh, I'm ecstatic. It's been really fun. These shows are going to be the first time I've ever played live as Corook. I’ve been listening to K.Flay since I was in middle school. I remember looking her up on YouTube and then going into GarageBand to make beats and trying [to] rap as fast as she did with all of my friends. So it's a very full-circle moment for me to be on top of the cake.
LUNA: Especially now that shows are finally opening up again.
COROOK: Oh, yeah! Definitely. I haven't had any touring experience before but now that I'm doing it I understand why so many people have missed it so much.
LUNA: Any other plans for 2022?
COROOK: I'm working on my second EP — I imagine I'll release a few songs off that before the end of the year as well. I imagine I'll book another tour. I just did some dates with JP Saxe. This summer in June I'm really excited because I'm going to be playing in my hometown, which will be like I said — another very full-circle moment.
LUNA: Last question, for fun: What's the most useless/random talent you have?
COROOK: Oh, man. I would say Rubik's Cube. Like it's a cool party trick, but in terms of usefulness, nobody needs their Rubik's Cube solved. I'm honestly a huge dork and really got into it in high school. I have this one that has 12 sides to it; I have another one that has, like, 50 pieces on it. It's kind of wild and obsessive and truly useless (laughs).
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