Flooded with on-line hate, the musician corook determined to maintain swimming : NPR

Libby Danforth/Atlantic Data

Libby Danforth/Atlantic Data

corook was having a nasty day.

After studying a slew of hate feedback on-line directed at their gender id and the way they dressed, the 28-year-old Nashville-based musician wanted cheering up, in order that they and their companion turned to what they do greatest: music.

“My girlfriend was supporting me and wished to do one thing to make me really feel higher and determined: ‘Let’s write a music about it, let’s make like a extremely bizarre music. As a result of you recognize, I really like that you just’re bizarre and it is great that you just’re bizarre. So what is the weirdest thought which you could provide you with?’

“And so I mentioned, ‘I believe if I had been a fish I believe that the entire bizarre issues about me could be cool,’ and he or she was like, ‘that is bizarre, let’s do it.’ ”

The result’s the hit music “if i had been a fish.”

Initially a 49-second TikTok, corook (often known as Corinne Savage) goes on to sing about rocks and socks, adopted by the query that began all of it: “Why’s everyone on the web so imply?”

corook explains that the lyrics got here from a second of vulnerability as they had been coming to phrases with their gender id and feeling misplaced.

“I used to be clearly going via loads, personally, of accepting the truth that I am non-binary. … I believe it is laborious to not match right into a field each time everyone form of desires to have the ability to outline you merely.”

Dwelling exterior of the field can also be one thing corook does musically.

“I do not actually have a style,” the musician says. “Like, I really like making music. I really like making songs that inform a narrative. And a few of them sound extra like a [singer] songwriter, and a few of them sound extra like a pop tune.”

Their mix of kinds shines on “if i had been a fish.” Whereas the unique TikTok recording was written on only a guitar, the total size model options guitar, percussion, and corook’s favourite instrument, the kazoo.

The musical combination provides to the music’s optimistic spin on a tricky scenario, a follow corook is understood for bringing to their music.

“I believe that utilizing an upbeat tone to speak about one thing severe is form of my specialty. … And each time I found out that I might try this in music, it simply felt like a extremely huge lacking puzzle piece for me,” they are saying.

And “if i had been a fish” is resonating with audiences. With over 7 million streams on Spotify, the music has change into a self-acceptance anthem.

“I believe it is an fascinating factor that I wrote the music from a spot of like, ‘I do not slot in, I haven’t got a neighborhood. I do not really feel like individuals get me’ after which to have a response of hundreds of thousands of individuals say, ‘I get you and I need extra of this, and I really feel this fashion, too,’ ” corook says.

“I believe that has been profound, not solely as a musician in my profession, however simply as a human being. It has been actually therapeutic to be seen and heard by so many individuals.”

You possibly can hear “if i had been a fish” on corook’s forthcoming EP severe individual (half 1) out June 2.