Josh Kolm
ARTS EDITOR

Don’t let her sweet folk-pop fool you; singer-songwriter Crissi Cochrane is a workhorse.

From booking shows to making the art for her new EP, Pretty Alright, and maintaining her website, Cochrane handles every aspect of her career on her own.

“I hand off nothing. I do everything,” Cochrane said. “It’s easier than having to pay someone else to do everything. There’s not
that much money to go around, so it makes more sense at this point to do everything myself.”

Cochrane was born and raised in rural Nova Scotia before moving to Halifax. After three years there, she packed up and came to Windsor in 2010.

While Halifax has more of a reputation as a centre for artists, the move to Windsor made sense to her. “It’s close to Toronto.
There are lots of good people here. It’s close to the [United] States. It’s a really good spot for a musician to be in.”

Almost immediately, Cochrane found herself immersed in the music scene. She began hosting weekly shows at the FM Lounge with Jackie Robitaille, which birthed Cochrane’s recent trend of supplying her crowds with baked goods.

“The whole schtick was that it was going to be more like a music and craft show, with tables set up and baked goods and things. After we stopped the shows, I just made excuses to bake all the time, and I had all these cupcakes around. Now I get to satisfy my urge to bake without having to eat everything.”

Since then, Cochrane has become a fixture in the city, playing shows both as an opener and a headliner, at places ranging
from Phog Lounge to Shores of Erie Wine Festival. At CJAM’s Jammy Awards in April, she was voted Best Musician after having lived here for less than a year.

Being in Windsor has only strengthened her DIY approach, especially when it comes to booking.

“In Halifax I feel like people would just come to me and say, ‘Here’s this show that’s already planned, you want to jump on?’” Cochrane said. “But here, you have to be the one who makes things happen.

Which is pretty cool, because you have a lot of people who eventually become pillars for the community by putting on these kinds of things themselves.”

The EP follows her first full-length album, Darling, Darling, released last year. Recorded with Mike Kinsella in a Chicago studio with a full roster of technicians and other musicians, Pretty Alright takes a more intimate approach.

“I feel like there’s a lot of things happening on Darling, Darling and I think at points I’m not exactly in the foreground of everything. There’ll be a string quartet going on and all these band arrangements.”

“I was on such a tight schedule that I had a week to record and mix everything in Chicago before I had to leave. I feel like it
could have been better had I written them beforehand and thought about them more. So now, at least this process can be longer
and I can sit on things and think about whether we really need these extra things in here.”

Cochrane is more than halfway through the recording process and is aiming for a November release, which means the biggest cost is yet to come. “The big cost for the EP is the manufacturing. I’m home recording everything, and I did the artwork myself but the manufacturing is always super expensive.”

The EP is already available for pre-order through her website, to be delivered by mail once they are finished with a personalized painting done, of course, by Cochrane.

“I had parents and savings and a grant from the province of Nova Scotia to do [Darling, Darling],” Cochrane said. “Now, I’ve got no savings. My parents have offered to help, but I don’t want to take them up on it. It’s mostly just fundraising, and it’s actually going really well.”

The resources Cochrane is utilizing most for this recording are the ones she has gained through being so active. More than halfway to her goal with a fundraising show on the horizon, she is using her quickly acquired connections and friendships
to cut back on costs, including an offer from someone to master the album for free.

“Well, not free,” she admits. “I’ll probably bake him a whole lot of cupcakes.”

Crissi Cochrane plays Phog Lounge on Tuesday, Sept. 20 with guests Kevin Echlin and Keats Conlon. Cover is $5, which will fund the production of her new EP, Pretty Alright. The show starts at 9:30 p.m. There will be cupcakes.