"so young" sees cookii reveal their identity in an glitchy explosion of pop-punk

Oscillating frenetically between hooks that could sound nostalgic if they weren’t so deliciously distorted, and stomping punk riffs, cookii are absolutely in control of their sound and having fun with it too. The boldness of the genre-mashing and spiky production in “so young” is an apt soundtrack for their face reveal – they’ve remained hidden till now, concealed behind their wall of sound and grabbing attention for the surprises packed in their music. But now, they’ve chosen to step out.

Revealed to be the duo of Lucian Blomkamp and Rosebud Leach, they shared an Instagram statement detailing their lifelong friendship which blossomed into a romance and project.

“Sometime around 2015, we figured we’d try to finally give it a good crack. Despite neither of us properly making it up until that point, something about pop music came really instinctively when we wrote together,” they elaborate. “Similarly, we found it really fun to write from a perspective outside of our own experiences. Someone younger than us who was still kind of naive, but in a hopefully endearing way. Because of this, we decided our project would be based on a character called cookii and our identities would stay anonymous."

“Although, as time’s gone on, the character of cookii has sort of dissolved out of our music. Even though the music hasn’t become drastically different or anything, we’ve just found ourselves making things that don’t feel too distant from who we really are anyway, making it seem a bit unnecessary to maintain our anonymity.”

“so young “brings these multitudes together, as both an atmosphere suitably intimate for cookii’s character revelation, as well as a riotous descent into hyperpop heaven as the track progresses. cookii’s sound is characterised by their mind-bending blend of electronic magic and 2000s pop melodies, and “so young” continues to build the Melbourne duo’s trademark.

“[it’s] the first song that we kind of took seriously in a way,” the duo share. “Most songs we write come from a very clear intention to have fun and only be fun. ‘so young’ was us kind of letting go of the expectations we put on ourselves in that way and allowing ourselves to change up the sound and get a bit more serious. With that being said, there was definitely a choice to be as angsty as possible and kind of OTT cause that keeps things fun for us – trying to squeeze a lil of that scene music influence in there lol.”