Coco’s Pop: the Genre-confused CocoRosie

The bizarre world of CocoRosie starts with the band’s unusual formation. Nomadic sisters Bianca “Coco” and Sierra “Rosie” Casady met up in Paris after having fallen out of touch for some years – and began making music. CocoRosie has now released four critically acclaimed albums (though they did earn some derision for the vomiting unicorn cover of their sophomore effort), and their eclectic sound has become the backdrop for Prada shows and Kenzo commercials. The girls gave us a peek into their world …

Seems you’re quite into dressing up. What will you be wearing in Beijing?
Never sure what we are gonna wear up to the last minute on stage and we often change during the show too. Really, it’s my favorite part!

Are Coco and Rosie different from Bianca and Sierra?
In some ways, yes, because our characters are defined in part by our voices – these voices have been uncovered through CocoRosie. I guess you could say our voices help us recognize the hidden creatures inside of us; we try to love them all even if they can be monstrous at times.

Your songs often have a cinematic quality – I can almost picture life in CocoRosie-land. What does it look like there?
Time and culture don’t exist, we worship the miracle of nature and the magic of creating one’s own reality through art and poetry.

Your critics have accused you of being “fake,” “disconnected from reality” and “frivolous.” How would you describe your critics?
Bored. Heteronormative. Cliché.

Neither of you finished high school. Any regrets? Do you feel you missed out on anything?
We were raised not to believe in school. I can’t imagine putting my kids in school.

There’s a lot of “evil” going around in your lyrics – where does that come from?
Seems there is evil everywhere and we are not afraid to invite it into our euphoric landscape. Without the light there is no dark, color theory, politics of love and poetry.

Family members also seem to crop up repeatedly ...
We work from the subconscious. It’s a way of processing, releasing the demons from our past and from our dream-life.

How do you feel being labeled “freak folk”?
I think it’s silly. If we identified as a visual artist duo, no one would call us “freak-painters.”

CocoRosie play at 9pm on Thursday, August 5, at Yugong Yishan. RMB 230/180 (advance).