Our ethos is pretty simple – to be ambitious about making music we’re proud of. And to have a nice time.” Greg, Cocoa Futures
Scotland-bred and London-based, Cocoa Futures are the brainchild of frontman Greg (vocals/bass). They specialise in pristine pop harmonics crossed with a taste for the unexpected. Greg assembled a band including Dave (drums), Zoe (keys) and Jack (guitar) and first came to prominence in 2014 through the self-released upbeat singles ‘Do Something’ and ‘Scotland’, while commanding distinguished reviews for their select live shows, which included the Great Escape and Camden Crawl festivals. This early promise served as a staging post for the band to determine their musical direction and decamp to the studio to write. And write. Crafting and developing manifold demos became a daily pastime for Greg and when he sent a batch of these over to producer Marc Withasee (Micachu & the Shapes), he received a wordless reply that contained an amazing first draft of what would evolve into ‘The Blue’. Withasee and Cocoa Futures bonded over a love of ‘messed up’ pop and the producer was instrumental in setting tempos, tweaking arrangements and bringing out the band’s penchant for building tracks around loops and effects as they collaborated on the four-song ‘Blue’ EP, completed in early 2016. When Greg shared the results with Lost In The Manor Records, the label wasted no time in offering the band a contract and the EP’s release will coincide with a number of key London launch dates. ‘Blue’, mixed by Max Taylor and mastered by Jason Mitchell, is immediate yet intriguing, a collection of fantastic pop moments wrapped up in music of great depth, and its release seems set to propel Cocoa Futures to the frontline of UK pop’s key innovators.
In this interview feature, we chat with Cocoa Futures about music, influences, the newest project, and more.
Full Q&A, links, and streams below.
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
Hello! I think I’ve always been drawn to music with strong melodies and interesting production. I don’t think I did that thing where people think pop is a dirty word. So really, it just kinda turned out that way rather than any sort of grand plan.
What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?
I think most people have got that thing that they really like. For me, it’s music. After learning to play the guitar through other people’s songs, I guess I was just more into making my own stuff up. Most of it was terrible but over time you improve, and it feels like a great thing to be able to make something yourself.
In terms of pushing it out to the public, that feels like a natural thing to do when you’ve made something you’re proud of. Luckily, we’re got a great label -Lost in the Manor – who feel the same!
Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?
There’s so much great music in London that it’s easy to get inspired here. The problem is sometimes knowing which gigs to go to because there’s so many. But yeah, other artists in London are definitely an influence. Also, great books and the people I’m lucky to know.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
I guess we were trying to make pop in an interesting way, that do everything all the things that a commercial pop record might. I think it’s a challenge to make something catchy AND have depth – I think that’s what we were going for on the EP.
What was the last song you listened to?
Sugar Minott – ‘Good thing going’. TUNE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBj7Llo4wVM
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
I like owning music that I really enjoy on vinyl. But I’m not really that precious about it otherwise – a banging tune is a banging tune, whatever the format!
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
I’ve recently been getting really into Bandcamp as a way to discover new music. Their weekly emails with featured artists, and the way you can check out what fans are supporting/listening to, is great. Plus I think there’s something cool about supporting artists directly.
Gotta say though – Spotify’s Discover Weekly is sometimes really great too.
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?
I think for a lot of young bands, affording some PR to promote a release or a song can be pretty expensive. And it feels like that’s something you need in order to cut through all the noise. It’s a bit of a shame that there’s probably some amazing music out there, that we’ll probably never hear because young bands couldn’t afford it that.
On the plus side, I reckon that’s a better problem to have than how the music industry worked before – with a few record companies deciding and owning all the music. So it could be worse 🙂
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?
Sure – you can keep up to date with what we’re up to below:
- http://www.facebook.com/cocoafutures
- http://twitter.com/cocoafuture
- http://soundcloud.com/cocoafuture
Anything else you’d like to add before signing off?
Thanks for the chat! Hope to see you in the States sometime 🙂
