Where are you two from?
Ezra: Texas
What is Cozi anda Flounder all about?
Ezra: We're a band but, really, it's centered with a father and daughter songwriting duo, then surrounded by a group of lifelong music friends. We all care deeply about making music and art that adds something beautiful, thoughtful, true...
Cozi: also magical and meaningful with a bit of funny.
Ezra: that too… into this world. So, that's what we try to do.
How do you describe your sound?
Ezra: Very carefully
Cozi: Cosmic Country is what we call it.
Ezra: It's really an Americana-ish kind of sound.
Who do you sound like?
Cozi: We're obsessed with Bob Denver, so..
Ezra: Yes, he is a mix of Bob Dylan and John Denver—my wife created him.
Cozi: Or, maybe some Cohen McCartney.
Ezra: Ya or Peter Paul and Petty too..
How did this start? The duo and cowriting, I mean...Cozi, you're younger than most songwriters I meet.
Ezra: She is, and I think that's what makes these songs so interesting to me. It's like a conversation between generations, put to music.
Cozi: He didn't want me to play music at all.
Ezra: Ya, I have done the deal for a long time—signed with some indies, publishing, touring, played some big showcases like SXSW and Kerrville, even had some L.A. deals and New York and after all that, I didn't want my daughter near the music industry… but she just wouldn't let up. She was writing songs regularly on her guitar, at around 10 or 11.
Cozi: Eventually, he had to invite me out to the studio.
Ezra: Yes, it was the beginning of the Cov ID scare. Studios closed, and I needed some vocals. She sang all over that album..
Cozi: Then we started writing.
Ezra: Ya, we wrote our first song together,
called Parables, on The Family Songbook album.
Ezra: She came to sing in my band, some songs we'd written together, and it just became evident to us all that these songs me and Cozi were writing were something else altogether.
Cozi: Lori Martin is our bass player on the album. And Aaron Thomas, Drums...
Ezra: He produced the project.
Cozi: And Sam Romero, he brings a lot of the ambient sounds to it…
Ezra: Oh and we have to mention Marc Frigo, he's not in the band, but his mix was right on target.
Where did you record the E.P.?
Ezra: In a forest ...
Cozi: ... a mystical forest.
Ezra: Sometimes it felt like it. It was really a beautiful experience of solitude, friends and music. All the lockdown things were happening in the cities; some studios were still closed, so we went off to an undisclosed S-h-t-f cabin in a big dark forest.
Cozi: We set up the studio and all our mics, but it was crazy; there were hardly any walls and no shower and blankets for doors.
Ezra: In the end, even the crickets from the forest made it on the album.
Cozi: Cicadas
Ezra: It was great. It let us just concentrate on the music. We were miles from any other humans. Aaron wanted a real live kind of sound with the performance, so we put each band member in different rooms.
Cozi: At Least one of the songs was one take…
Ezra: I think that was 'No One Can Take Away'..
Tell me about that song, No one can take it away. What is it about?
Ezra: well..
Cozi: I don't know how to answer the 'about' questions. It's hard to say with our songs what they are about, because I might write half the verse and Dad writes the other half.
Ezra: Ya, and it becomes about whatever it becomes. After these were written, I had to interpret them myself. This one is about loss, that we can't really hold on to much.
Cozi: the heart of us can't be lost..
Ezra: And the heavens can not..
Cozi: so we'll sing to those things
Ezra: there it is, we just got the meaning.
Before I let you go, I have to ask, who is, or what is The Flounder. What is that all about?
Cozi: Well, there is not much to say about flounders.
Ezra: I can't think of anything, not really an interesting fish.
Cozi: They are tasty.
Ezra: Yes, with oregano and butter.
I thought that might be the answer I would get. Best of luck with the release. When does this E.P. come out?
Cozi: Christmas eve 2021 and then on vinyl soon after that.
