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“Who here is queer?” corook asked with a grin, stepping up to the mic. At least three quarters of the room cheered. Earlier this month, OnesToWatch brought together a small group of artists and friends for a Pride celebration that felt like one big love letter to queer creativity. 

“Who here has a phone?” corook continued. Predictably, a roar took over. corook adjusted their Pepto Bismol hat. “Well, if you’re queer and you have a phone, then you’ve probably heard this song before.”

And just like that, the room bubbled with joy. The opening notes of “If I Were a Fish” washed over the room as people sang along to the song that hugged the internet. 

Before corook hit the stage, the tone was already set by OnesToWatch favorite Abby Kenna. With husky vocals and clear storytelling, Abby created a moment for early aughts nostalgia and modern angst all at once. If Blink-182 met their new-age, femme-presenting counterpart, it would be Abby Kenna. She studied music, and you can tell, but she’s so professionally unbothered that her polish collages perfectly with a raw, honest creativity. In her own words, Abby brings us “alt pop made for the people who grew up on pop punk and now are gay.” Sign me up.

corook set up their blue acoustic and ran their guitar through a tape machine effect. They proceeded to play songs from their debut album, “committed to a bit,” closing any distance you felt between you and your inner child. With a voice that flowed between candid and powerful at exactly the right moments, corook seemed both totally in their own world and fearlessly present, like they were letting us witness their thought process. 

“It can be the barista in the morning,” corook told me when I asked how a song starts. “It can also be a feeling I’ve had since I was four years old finally coming out.” 

A trained multi-instrumentalist who studied at Berklee before moving to Nashville, corook’s music blends cleverness with heart, often disarming you with a laugh then gut-punching you with truth. Before the queer internet claimed them as its collective emotional support artist, corook had already logged years in the industry. “I don’t think I even found out who I was until I realized I could just be funny in a song and not take it so seriously,” they shared. corook’s balance between humor and heaviness became especially important for queer and nonbinary folks who don’t always see themselves reflected in the mainstream. 

Then, in the spring of 2023, corook went viral.

“If I Were a Fish” was written in a moment of healing with their fiance Olivia Barton, after corook was hit with an intense wave of online hate. “I just think it's cool that I'm different,” they told Olivia that day — that sentiment became the backbone of a song that would go on to hit a million views in under ten minutes. “It was the first time I had faith in the internet being a good thing,” they told me. 

To collaborate with Olivia, “it takes a very special occasion,” they said. “Like, the vibes have to be immaculate. We’re both artists, we have different stories, we write songs in different ways, so it can be kind of hard. But at the same time, it makes all of the weird parts of being an artist way easier...I love when we get to do it. We recently wrote a song together about doing laundry, cause she shrinks my laundry.” corook hinted that a whole project with just Olivia could happen in their next cycle (pun intended). 

Unfortunately, sweetness is never without the sour: corook’s fanbase bloomed, but with it came more dirt, more pressure, and the weirdly isolating experience of being seen by millions. 

“Being on the internet is still a really hard thing for me to deal with, especially being a nonbinary person,” they shared. Even though it’s inevitable for artists nowadays, humans aren’t wired to engage with an entire population at the same time. corook thinks there may be a way around it, and has already started exploring.  

“I'm really kind of trying to push back,” they said, “and try to do it differently. I want to invest my time in the next thing…like, right now I have a discord. I spend my time connecting with people and sharing stuff with them before I share it with the whole world, because they're the ones that care.” 

Whether through Discord chats, songs about shrinking laundry with Olivia, or fan-first releases, corook is interested in building a world that isn’t necessarily louder, but safer. 

After our chat, they treated us with acoustic versions of new tunes like “jokes on me,” “crumbs,” and “pepto bismol,” and continued to peel back the curtain. corook’s album is the sharpest version yet of their vulnerability and creative scope, studying what’s left of identity when the laughter fades. Blurring the lines between their stage persona and the human behind it all, corook’s writing breaks the fourth wall in a way that feels timely and necessary for a generation trying to hang onto joy through an administration that threatens erasure. “Joy is resistance within the face of everything that wants us not to be joyful,” corook says. Their album ‘committed to a bit’ offers us that space. 

They closed the night with “ok getting older,” a piano ballad that felt like the first deep breath after a good cry, and their voice effortlessly carried the weight of that clarity. The whole room went still and Olivia was front row, quietly singing every word. Personally, “ok getting older” feels like our generation’s “Changes”—that immortal Bowie-meets-Billy Joel moment where we all make peace with the passing of time. 

“If I Were a Fish” may have introduced corook to the masses, but their presence on that stage reminded us that it’s not about going viral. It’s about what you do when everyone’s looking, how you hold their stare. With corook, the vulnerable looks easy and the silly is something truly sacred.