Native to the Ukraine but now in Boston, indie pop singer/songwriter Lina Cooper has an impressive and life-long history with music as well as a never ending passion to create her own sounds.
Influenced by and playing since a very young age, Lina’s influences range from a wide array of classical arrangements to the smorgasbord of styles that fall into the contemporary music category.
Her latest single, By Abe’s, is a minimal, piano-driven track that puts Lina’s strong, passionate voice on full display. Even more impressive, Lina writes, records, performs and produces her own music, including this new single.
Currently double majoring in Contemporary Writing & Production and Songwriting (with a minor in Conducting) at Berklee College of Music, Lina has no plans of slowing down anytime soon. In fact, she has a growing catalog of music that is to be released in the near future.
Learn more and connect directly Lina Cooper on her official website.
Listen to By Abe’s on Spotify or YouTube.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
I was born in Donetsk, Ukraine and moved to Boston about 4 years ago. I’ve been playing music since I was about 8 years old, but it was mainly classical due to the boarding school I was going to being strictly classical. But during my spare time I would always listen to pop, alternative, indie, rock, hip-hop and in general more contemporary music. I started writing songs around the same time and haven’t really stopped ever since. Add four years of Berklee jazz influence to that and you will get the recipe of my music.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
I always loved writing, composing, singing, listening to music. It always brought joy to me even during the toughest times and I honestly don’t think I ever had a choice to do anything else. I just always knew I was going to do this. I am in love with what I do and I guess this is it. Very simple, unfortunately.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
This is my first solo original song that I’ve released on the streaming platforms. It is very minimalistic, very stripped down, but very emotional at the same time. It is also the most personal work of mine. I was going through a major depressive episode when I started writing this song, so it has a pretty sad tone to it. The whole point of this song was… Basically, if you could crack my chest right open and look inside my soul, what would you see? What would you hear? It would be these images, this song, these sounds. The song mostly talks about my issues, but it was also addressed to a specific person. I just met somebody in the middle of this episode right when I started writing these lyrics. And the whole year of 2019 was just a mess. Like dozens of relationships that didn’t work out and brought a lot of pain. So this song was asking all these questions. Are you ready? Will you stay with me? Will you be different from them all? Will you handle all of my baggage? And although, the whole song sounds like I am not winning this battle with myself, the last line of the song holds a lot of hope and excitement about the future. It was my way of coming out of this dark place.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
It definitely is hard to get a lot of attention, when you’re not doing the most pure popular genres(pop, hip-hop, EDM). And also, it is pretty hard to translate the production sound of my songs onto the stage, so we have to rearrange most of the songs.
I am my own producer, so it definitely helped me with being able to bring to life the vision of my music by myself. And for me it is very important to take part in every aspect of making of the song.
What was the last song you listened to?
I’ve been listening to the new record by Halsey called “Manic” every day since it came out. The last song was “killing boys” of that record. It’s amazing, go check it out.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Unfortunately, I don’t have a way of playing anything but mp3s. My roommate has a record player, so vinyls are an option sometimes, but mostly mp3s and that makes me very sad. I would love to own a CD player(mine is back home in Ukraine) again.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
I have been using Apple Music ever since I came to the US, but lately I’ve been thinking of getting Spotify as well… I really like their playlists, being able to see the streams and follow artists.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
Definitely, my instagram. My username is @lina_cooper . I post a lot of exclusive and new content every day and I am very easily reachable there. You can also check my website which is just linacooper.com or my facebook.
Anything else before we sign off?
Just want to say a huge thank you for this opportunity! Wish you luck with everything you are doing!
