A friendship that blossomed at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the four-piece band, Coconut Cream bring a contemporary spin to indie rock. Their debut EP What Kind of Music Do You Like to Listen To? is a collection of deeply personal stories of toxic relationships, breakups and finally going out and dating again, that are told eloquently, taking you back to those same experiences of your own love and loss. Together, Astari (vocals), Jasmine (drums), Oscar (guitar) and Chad (bass guitar), are preparing to hit the recording studio again, after bestowing on us an EP that leaves us wanting more. With new tunes on the horizon, the band is also preparing to play plenty more live shows across Australia.

Tell me a bit about Coconut Cream, how did it start?

Astari: We all actually met in our first year at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where we were all studying contemporary music. Jasmine and I actually met first and when we became friends I was like “we should start a band.” She was actually one of the only drummers in our course and a female drummer and I thought that was pretty cool. So, we started jamming, just the two of us which was pretty funny because it was drums and vocals and then we got the boys in. We messaged the Uni’s Facebook page saying we were looking for a bass and guitar player and then just trialed them out, that’s pretty much how we started.

How did you come up with the name?

Astari: It’s not super interesting, but Jasmine and I were really struggling to come up with a name and I think the hardest thing when you’re starting a band is figuring out what to call it. Jasmine and I were in Melbourne having drinks one night and we saw coconut cream on the menu and we just messaged the boys asking them what they thought about it for a name and they were both on board with it. So yeah, we stuck with that.

How did you get into music?

Oscar: I lived in a pretty rural area, in between The Hills and Hornsby, so at my primary school there were less than 100 kids. There was this one family at my school who were super into music and they would do the local tutoring. Their house was just around the corner from school, so like five of us would walk there every afternoon to go get lessons. It was actually really good, that’s pretty much how I started getting into music, I found a lot of joy in it and then began to explore it more as I got older.

Astari: I’ve pretty much always played music because my dad plays the guitar. I was in a lot of choirs, like classic choirs when I was a kid and then I went to a Performing Arts high school and was always in bands and ensembles. I wasn’t actually going to do music at Uni, I was actually going to do International Studies and I did that for a year and realised I should do what I actually want to do, which is music.

What musicians inspire your sound?

Oscar: We all come from pretty different musical backgrounds, so with writing, we take a lot of our interests and put that forward to the group and then we kind of bounce things off each other. In regards to a specific artist, Beebadoobee has been pretty inspiring lately. We love really powerful storytelling music, so we usually listen to that, see how we can build that up, figure it out and see what we can take from it.

Tell me more about your creative process?

Astari: So, usually with all the songs so far, I’ll write the track with acoustic guitar and singing and get the general idea of the track and the lyrics. Then, I’ll bring that to the band to show them what I have so far or what I envision the music to sound like. From there, everyone comes up with their parts pretty naturally. I will play it a couple of times and everyone will join in with their parts and we just go from there really and then make little changes. Most of my music comes from what is happening at the time for me. Each song is a little story of something I’ve gone through or experienced and I will just write how I am feeling. Our new EP is structured in a way that tells a story chronologically, Parking Ticket and Your Drug on Computers is based around a toxic relationship, it then moves into the breakup, which is our sadder songs like Overgrown and then the last song on the EP, What Kind of Music Do You Like To Listen To? Is about going out, meeting new people and dating. I didn’t mean to structure it like that but it kind of just made sense and it flows really nicely.

What has been the most exciting moment you’ve shared together as a band?

Oscar: At this point in time it would definitely be supporting The Middle Kids.

Astari: I would have to say it was when we went on tour two years ago, supporting this band called Ivy. It was so much fun and we had never done anything like that before.

What is your favourite song on your new EP and why?

Oscar: I like What Kind of Music Do You Like To Listen To? We had a writing week where we were recording demos because we knew we were going to start tracking. Astari wrote the lyrics a couple of days before and then we just fleshed it out. That song has a lot of fun memories associated with it and it was just a really good experience and I think that’s reflected in the final product.

Astari: Yeah, I would say that’s probably my favourite as well for the same reasons as Oscar. I also really like Parking Ticket, it was one of the first songs we wrote that made it onto the EP.

If you weren’t a musician, what would you be?

Oscar: I would probably be doing something like engineering, architecture or carpentry.

Astari: I’m not too sure, but I think I would still be doing something in the music realm like in event management or some kind of music event planning.

What’s next?

Oscar: We’re actually going to get recording and writing again soon. It feels like it’s been so long. It will be good to put out the new Coconut Cream because we’ve been sitting on those songs for over a year now and we’ve grown a bit since then. We want to keep creating, keep exploring and definitely play a lot more gigs coming out of COVID.