Live In-Studio: CocoRosie

Sisters Sierra and Bianca Casady were born and raised in the United States — raised all over the United States, as a matter of fact. Sierra was born in Iowa, Bianca in Hawaii, and their artist mother moved them multiple times a year. But it wasn’t until Bianca showed up at Sierra’s door in Paris a dozen years ago that they decided to start making music together under the name CocoRosie.

Their music mixes Sierra’s classically trained voice with Bianca’s spoken-word lyrics, plus a host of sounds made from toys and children’s instruments. They’ve made six equally strange and wonderful records and collaborated with artists like Devendra Banhart, Antony and the Johnsons, and theater director Robert Wilson. Their new record, Heartache City, is out now.

Hear a live version ofHeartache City‘s title track below.

Kurt Andersen: You grew up in the United States but you live in France, and you’ve lived in France for most of your adult life. What’s so good about France for you?

Bianca Casady: I’m in love with West Texas and, for me, the South of France is really similar to West Texas — there’s tumbleweeds and it’s funky and trashy.

Sierra Casady: Cowboys, lots of cowboys.

This is a different version of the South of France than one is used to.

BC: Yeah, we’re not doing the aperitivo or the cheese thing exactly. We’re hijacking old tractors and burning dead cats.

Childhood appears in your music again and again — do your childhoods loom large as a thing to inspire you?

BC: They sure do. We dig in there a lot — we’re really interested in kind of working out all of the shadow stuff in our psyche. So that takes us constantly back to the childhood world, and there’s a lot of transcending darkness within our music.

Bianca, you said to an interviewer, “Music is just our ticket onto the roller coaster.” By roller coaster, do you mean fun? Or do you mean roller coaster in the sense that there’s ups and downs?

BC: Both — the roller coaster also being, you don’t know what’s ahead. You can’t anticipate that big drop where your stomach flips.

Bonus Track: “Heartache City”

FeaturingTez (beatboxing), and Takuya Nakamura (keyboards and trumpet)