Culture

Back in April, Corook was having a rough day. The singer-songwriter had been hard at work promoting their single “CGI” on TikTok. While it was working — the song was steadily picking up steam heading into its release — the singer noticed that they were getting a lot of hateful comments.
“I already felt like I was in such a vulnerable place in my life,” they tell Billboard over Zoom, sporting their signature frog-shaped bucket hat that smiles into the camera even when they don’t. “I was trying my absolute best to allow my true self to shine through — for that to be timed with all of these hate comments really just like made me feel like, ‘Damn, I don’t have a place in this industry.’”

Yet in the two and a half months since that bad day, Corook’s life couldn’t be more different. Their EP Serious Person (Part 1) was met with acclaim, they’ve plotted out a headlining tour set to take place this fall, and their voice has become practically inescapable in the queerest corners of the internet.

Much of that attention is thanks to “If I Were a Fish” — the acoustic feel-good anthem about loving the parts of yourself that the world doesn’t seem to understand. It’s a song that wasn’t necessarily supposed to exist, until Corook’s girlfriend Olivia Barton asked her to channel her feelings on that fateful bad day into something productive.

“She said, ‘I’m gonna do what you do for me most of the time, and help you make something cool out of this. Let’s go upstairs, play whatever instruments and just make a really weird song,’” Corook recalls. “The weirdest idea that I had at the time was this thought of, ‘Well, if I were a fish, all of the weird things about me would just be super cool.’ And she said, ‘That’s really weird. We should definitely do that.’”

Making “a really weird song” might sound like an odd solution to a problem, but it’s central to what makes Corook stand out. Born Corinne Savage, the singer-songwriter took an early interest in working in the music industry, thanks in part to Linkin Park. “I feel like the very first musical memory I have is seeing this documentary on the band,” they explain with a laugh. “I sat crisscross applesauce in front of the TV and had a notepad and pen in hand, writing down things they were doing. I was coming up with ideas of which of my friends could be in my band.”

Learning how to play bass and guitar when they were still in middle school, Corook quickly showed an aptitude for music — after graduating from high school, Savage attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, eventually graduating with two degrees in songwriting and contemporary writing and production. In the time since their graduation six years ago, Corook has put their diplomas to good use (including a single titled “Degree,” which mostly bemoans what they didn’t learn in school and the “fifty grand in debt” they accrued as a result).

Wanting to kickstart their artist project, Corook hired a manager and started writing, recording and producing original songs about practically anything — their fear of snakes, their love of tequila, the unexplained questions of the universe and so on. In talking about anything, Corook found that they could talk about everything through their unique blend of self-deprecating humor mixed with top-tier songwriting.

“It felt like I understood the puzzle pieces and the mathematics behind making a good song, but I didn’t know how to tell my truth,” they say of their early work. “My truth is very sarcastic. My truth is trying to make the room feel good about talking about some awful thing. It’s been such a healing way for me to process my life.”

Creating a private SoundCloud filled with songs that they felt good about releasing, Corook and their manager began sending the work out to “a couple of people” within the industry. Suddenly, the singer-songwriter gained “700 followers out of nowhere” on Instagram, and received DMs from A&R reps at major labels interested in meeting up with them. “I guess my SoundCloud kind of went viral behind the scenes of the music industry,” they explain.

By 2021, Corook had signed a deal with Atlantic Records and rolled out their debut EP Achoo! the following year, finally “getting to be an artist for the first time in my life,” as they put it. Gaining a steady following on TikTok, they also came into their own as a person, changing their pronouns publicly to “they/them” as they began to figure out their gender identity in real time.

With a greater understanding of themselves came a wave of negative comments, which led them to writing their “really weird song” with Barton. “If I Were a Fish” thrives in its simplicity — all of the things that make Corook feel different in a world that craves uniformity only serve to make them that much more special.

It also made them deeply relatable to a legion of listeners online. The song has already been used in nearly 40,000 TikToks and streamed 10 million times on Spotify, with the vast majority of listeners relating deeply to the overtly queer themes of the song, repeating Corook’s refrain asking “Why is everybody on the internet so mean?” The song even earned Corook and Barton their first set of Billboard chart appearances.

The immediate viral success was a mostly welcome surprise for the rising star, though it came with its own set of caveats. “It’s really layered — as much as I love being a musician and a performer, attention still makes me like super uncomfortable,” they say. “It was a little bit weird for me to feel like there were so many eyes on me. I feel like everybody that has a moment on TikTok feels the pressure of ‘What now?’”

But seeing the track earn “wholesome” virality with its impact specifically on queer people quickly helped alleviate that stress. “I couldn’t ignore the insanely beautiful, sensitive, misfit community that this song just naturally created within the algorithm,” they say. “My comments section was full of people telling their stories and supporting each other. The whole reason I like doing this is because it connects people in a really cool way.”

The success of “If I Were a Fish” allowed Corook to look more ambitiously at their career — they released the first part of their project Serious Person early in order to capitalize on the sudden success of the single, while finishing up part two, preparing for a headlining tour, and dreaming up bigger goals for their future.

But “If I Were a Fish” also gave Corook space to step back and figure out what they really want out of a music career. “This song happening showed me it’s so much less about numbers — this community is what feels really important,” they say, their face now matching the chipper frog perched atop their head. “I want to grow that community as much as I possibly can — sensitive, queer people that are healing. I personally need that in my life, and I feel like everybody that is kind of joining in is realizing they need it too.”