Coco Columbia at Pickathon with GLASYS (far left) on August 3, 2017Last Thursday, I caught Coco Columbia mesmerizing an early Pickathon crowd with her brand of jubilant hypno-jazz on the Treeline stage. Joined by Gil Assayas (aka GLASYS), Columbia gushed about his wizardry on the keys, inviting him to play her festival sets because of his shredability. She also took a minute to brag about how he'd be collaborating with T-Pain in less than a week's time—which you can follow on Instagram.
The live performance reminded me of Columbia's wonderfully quirky, cosmic proclivities, and now we have proof that apparently it runs in the family.
"My brother, Jake (Dale Jacob Munson), is a Renaissance man and has recently taken up video editing," Columbia tells. "He's kind of a genius and learns really fast. He started making short GIF videos and posting them on his Instagram (@bluepilll). I loved them and asked if he would make one for this song. I didn't give him much direction; I wanted him to interpret the mood of the song and make something he was proud of. This is his first full-length music video he's made and I think it's amazing. I feel he made a video that perfectly matches the mood of the song. I'm so proud of him and feel blessed to be able to make art with my sibling."
Coco Columbia at Mississippi Studios in April—click to see more photos by Miss Ellanea"Radiant in My Abyss" is a song that "was inspired by a pretty dark moment I experienced a few years back," Columbia explains. "I was living downtown, horribly depressed, blowing off college classes, and only getting out of bed to pop prescription meds. I honestly felt like throwing myself out of the third story of my apartment.
"One night, I was laying in bed and heard a man screaming outside—the most horrific scream I had ever heard. It hit me really hard. I wondered where his life had led him and where things had gone wrong. My mind started comparing and contrasting what his life could have been versus what my life had been. I guessed that we weren't that different from each other, both born happy and free, later feeling cast out or misunderstood by the world around us. I imagined he felt the same fear I did, regardless of the different lives we had led. I imagine many people feel this way and suffer in silence.
"I wanted to walk downstairs, find him and talk to him. But I was too afraid and too low to drag myself out of bed. I regret that I didn't and wrote this song for him."
From Columbia's sophomore effort When the Birds Begin to Walk, which was released just over a year ago, "Radiant in My Abyss" also features Damian Erskine on bass, Alex Meltzer (of Korgy & Bass) on microKORG synthesizer and Micah Hummel on drums.
