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 foul 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 associate turned to what they do finest: music.

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

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

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

Initially a 49-second TikTok, corook (also referred to 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 by way of quite a bit, personally, of accepting the truth that I am non-binary. … I feel it is arduous to not match right into a field each time everyone sort of needs 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 like making music. I 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 complete size model options guitar, percussion, and corook’s favourite instrument, the kazoo.

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

“I feel that utilizing an upbeat tone to speak about one thing severe is sort of my specialty. … And each time I discovered that I may try this in music, it simply felt like a very 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 track has turn out to be a self-acceptance anthem.

“I feel it is an fascinating factor that I wrote the track from a spot of like, ‘I do not slot in, I haven’t got a group. I do not really feel like individuals get me’ after which to have a response of tens of millions of individuals say, ‘I get you and I would like extra of this, and I really feel this manner, too,’ ” corook says.

“I feel 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 may hear “if i had been a fish” on corook’s forthcoming EP severe particular person (half 1) out June 2.