WXYC: This is WXYC Chapel Hill here at Hopscotch, and we are here with Ora Cogan. We'll be having some questions with her. First off, how are you liking Raleigh?

Ora Cogan: It's been great. I mean, we got to see a little bit of music yesterday, and we met with some friends. We went to Hippo Wine Bar, and it was really sweet. And, yeah, it's been really sweet. Everybody's really fun. And I think everybody's got, like, swagger.

**WXYC: **We wanted to talk about your creative process, especially your album, Formless and your new EP. We heard that there was a sense of isolation, I would say, from your album. And I was wondering how you go about communicating, like, dark emotions in such a sonically light manner, because I feel like it's not, you know, as you would normally categorize something that has such emotions.

Ora Cogan: I mean, I think I was taking notes from a lot of music that I really love — people that are playing music that are facing all sorts of adversity and looking to, you know, towards the light. I feel like a lot of music that I listen to, if you listen to the lyrics, it’s super heavy, but then there's something transcendent, or that you get to move through pain and dance and still celebrate life and find connection and community. And I guess I felt like in a personal way, I needed that.

I was feeling really low and really isolated, and just going through my own stuff. And collectively, just like feeling for a lot of people who were going through a lot of struggles, and just wanted to share that feeling, and find it for myself. To try to create something that's actually gonna be of use to people and make them feel good, or help to regulate their nervous systems, and do something that's fun, and not like pretending everything's okay.

WXYC: Yeah, I think that's a really nice sense of it, specifically with the current environment of everything that there is. Are you planning on continuing this pattern, moving forward?

Ora Cogan: Yeah, I want to celebrate life. I also want to be of service to my community and respond to the crisis that we're in and the pain that people are feeling. So, you know, it's not escapist, but I don't intend for it to be escapist, even if it feels good, you know, it's like working through stuff and wrestling with the rise of fascism, let's say as an example, hypothetically speaking, systematically, emotionally, spiritually, you know how to hopefully be a part of a collective movement towards liberation and justice and peace and feel something and, maybe that's not something, you know. I guess I feel like I'm part of that as a little seed of sand, you know, as a little imp and a little speck in the whole bed. To be part of that somehow, I guess in a funny way. Well, now I'm gonna pick up a fiddle. I don't know, might as well. I hope it does something meaningful to people.

WXYC: I totally agree with that. I mean, music plays a large part in therapy, but as you said, you picked up a fiddle. How was that process? How old were you when you, like, learned fiddle?

Ora Cogan: It was really sweet, actually. My first serious partner noticed that I would just kind of lose it at any time I heard fiddle music. So he just bought me this affordable violin from our version of Guitar Center, I guess, with the help of a friend of ours who is an Irish Trad fiddle player. They picked out this fiddle, and he gave it to me, and he's like, "Okay, you need to learn how to do this”. And then my roommates just kind of put up with me. And then I kind of gave up a little bit, like I played a little bit here and there, and then after years and years, I think, like three years ago, I picked it up again. It was like, I really wanted to do this, so I kind of technically played for a long time, but I'm just self-taught. I'll just kind of wrestle any friends of mine who are real, like fiddle players or violinists, for little lessons here and there. I'm gonna go for, like, an Arabic, like, a lesson in Arabic, an Arab music with violin and voice when I'm back in New York, and like, just like trying to, you know, pick up when I can from friends along the road and try to learn from different people. That's gonna be the process.

WXYC: No, that's wonderful. I think it just ties everything about, at least who I know, what I know of you, together. Because in your lyrics, you have a lot of mentions about nature, and then, like all these talks about, I guess, more of a fluid state and understanding the world, it just ties the bow together.

Ora Cogan: Feeling around, just feeling around.

WXYC: Is there anything you want to talk about with the new EP or something coming up in the future? By chance?

Ora Cogan: Yeah. I mean, we haven't announced anything yet, but I do have something new. In the works next year. I've got a lot of, you know, collaborative projects that I'm working on too. I'm about to do a little tour opening for One Leg One Eye, north of the border. And then, yeah, just working, I've been working a little bit with Lori Goldston and my friend Esther Donander, who's a Scandinavian fellow there, and just, just tripping around, making friends. Playing tunes, but yeah, we're cool.

WXYC: All right, that wraps it up for us. Would you mind saying a little snippet, “Hi, this is Ora Cogan. You're listening to WXYC Chapel Hill.”

Ora Cogan: Hi, this is Ora Cogan, and you’re listening to WXYC Chapel Hi