Blending RnB and Soul sensibilities with personal reflections ranging from faith to anxiety to self-awareness, Lilac Cooper gets vulnerable and enchanting, throughout her brand new EP MUTE.
We caught an interview with the singer and songwriter, to find out more about the journey to this point, the stories behind the songs, her background, and her aspirations for the year ahead. Here’s the conversation in full.
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Hi Lilac – what a pleasure, thanks for the interview. The new EP Mute is stunning. To introduce things – who or what first inspired your passion for songwriting and performance?
My love for performing started really early, before I even understood what this path could look like. I was completely captivated by MTV and I would sit and watch for hours, mesmerized by how music could change my mood in seconds and make me feel things I did not have words for yet. I was drawn to the world building, the image, the energy, the way a single chorus could feel like an entire personality and an entire story. At first it was pure sensation, I just knew I felt seen and moved and transported.
Then I started paying attention in a deeper way. I began reading lyrics, not just hearing them, and I remember realizing that the words were doing something powerful. They were naming emotions I thought were too messy to explain, and somehow turning them into something beautiful and specific. That discovery shifted everything for me, because I understood that songwriting was not just entertainment, it was a language, and it could be my language too.
When I began writing, it felt like I finally had a place to put what I was carrying inside, the intensity, the tenderness, the questions, the faith, the fear, the longing. Performing became the extension of that, the moment where what is private becomes shared, and where honesty becomes connection.
Tell me about the new project – why this title, and what does the opening song Whisper set the foundation for conceptually?
“Mute is the name because the whole project is about the moment you stop letting the outside world dictate your inner life. It is about turning down the noise so you can hear what is true, not what you are afraid of, not what you are overthinking, not what you are trying to prove.”
I wrote it from a place of realizing how loud the world can be, even when you are alone, and how easy it is to confuse anxiety with intuition. The EP is my way of choosing something quieter but stronger, the voice underneath the chaos.
Whisper sets the foundation because it introduces the first battle, that subtle internal voice that questions everything and tries to shrink you. The concept is not just silence as an aesthetic, it is silence as a decision, as discipline, as self respect.
Whisper is the beginning of the turning point, where I start catching my thoughts before they become my identity. It is the song that opens the door to the whole journey, because it shows the moment I choose to listen inward, even if my voice is shaking, even if I do not have the answers yet. It is a soft entrance into a story that becomes more and more fearless as it goes on.
The four songs portray a deeply introspective journey from anxiety to self-worth and inner trust. How did you confine these experiences to the four songs creatively, and which song from the project is the most impactful for you to perform or listen back to?
I treated the EP like a short film where every scene has to earn its place. I did not want it to be a collection of songs that circle the same emotion from different angles. I wanted each track to represent a specific inner chapter that I know intimately, the doubt, the spiral, the confrontation, and then the choice to come back to myself. Creatively, I confined it by asking one question again and again, what is the emotional job of this song, and what does it move forward. If it did not push the story into a new space, I let it go, even if I liked it.
There was also a discipline in the writing itself. I kept returning to clear images, clear phrases, and a specific emotional point of view, because anxiety can make everything feel endless, but a song needs shape. So I gave each track its own identity, its own tempo, its own kind of pressure and release, almost like each one is a different room in the same house. That way the listener can feel the progression without needing an explanation.
The most impactful song for me changes depending on where I am in life, but Dreams consistently hits the deepest. It feels like the resolution of the whole journey because it carries faith in a very real way, not as a slogan, but as something I practice when I do not feel certain.
“When I listen back, it reminds me that trusting yourself is not a one time decision, it is something you return to. Performing it also feels powerful because you can feel the room soften and open, like people recognize themselves inside it.”
Style-wise the production is minimal but empowering – dramatic drum lines, soulful vocal peaks, keys and crescendos. How did you build each song as a solo artist, and what will a live tour or show set-up entail?
Even when the production feels minimal, it is actually very intentional. I build songs from the emotional center first, usually vocals, melody, and the one honest sentence I cannot ignore. I have to feel the story in my body before I start deciding what the track should sound like. From there, I make choices that protect the emotion rather than decorate it.
“If something feels like it is distracting from the message, I remove it, because for this project, space is part of the power. Silence and restraint are not absence, they are tension, they are confidence, they are trust.”
Most of the EP was shaped closely with Ron Bakal, and the process was very detailed. We focused on dynamics, on when to hold back and when to let the song expand, on drums that feel dramatic without feeling crowded, on keys that support the vocal without competing with it. I also had additional production support from TJ Fuller, and I loved how that helped widen the palette while still keeping the core identity consistent. The goal across the project was always clarity, to make the songs feel direct and emotionally unavoidable.
For live shows, I want the set up to keep that same emotional clarity while adding physical energy. Depending on the venue, it can live as a stripped arrangement where the vocals and lyrics hit with maximum intimacy, or a tight band arrangement that brings out the drama in the drums and crescendos. I picture a show that feels cinematic but still personal, where the audience is close enough to feel the breath in the quiet moments and then feel the lift when the song opens up. The point is not to make it louder, it is to make it more alive, and to translate the emotional journey of the EP into something you can feel in real time.
What prompted you to write the song Stupid Mind and style it in such a diverse way from the opener?
Stupid Mind came from the part of me that is self aware and still spiralling. Whisper is the first confrontation with doubt, it is quieter and more internal, like you are catching the voice before it takes over. Stupid Mind is what happens when the voice wins for a moment, when anxiety becomes physical and your thoughts start looping faster than your logic. I wanted the sound to reflect that restlessness, because the experience of overthinking is not linear. It is chaotic, it jumps, it accelerates, it convinces you that you are reacting to reality when you are actually reacting to fear.
The diversity in the style was important to me because it mirrors how the mind can change the channel on you constantly. One second you are calm, the next you are convinced you ruined everything, and the emotional swing is intense. So I let the production move with that, and I let the vocal performance carry the friction, the push and pull between control and vulnerability. Writing it was also my way of naming the storm without romanticizing it. I did not want to make anxiety sound pretty, I wanted to make it sound honest, and then create space for the listener to feel relief in being understood.
How important is it for you to be completely vulnerable and genuine as a songwriter, is there a therapeutic aspect to your creative process, and do you ever worry about sharing too much?
Vulnerability is not an aesthetic choice for me, it is the only way I know how to write. If I am not telling the truth, I can feel it immediately, and I think listeners can feel it too. I have always believed that a song can be polished but it cannot be fake, because people do not connect to perfection, they connect to honesty.
For me, the whole point of making music is turning something internal into something that can hold another person, even if they have never met you. That kind of connection only happens when you stop hiding.
“There is definitely a therapeutic side to my process because songwriting lets me organize the chaos. It takes thoughts that feel intrusive or overwhelming and turns them into a story with a beginning and an ending, which already creates relief.”
But I do not write to confess, I write to transform. I want the listener to feel that there is movement, that even if a song starts in anxiety, it does not have to live there forever. That is why this EP is structured like a journey, because I wanted to reflect the truth that healing is not instant, but it is possible.
Do I worry about sharing too much sometimes. Of course. There is a moment after writing where you realize people will hear this, and that can feel exposing. But I also think that the parts we hide are usually the parts that connect the most, and I remind myself that the goal is not exposure, the goal is impact. My line is whether it serves the song and whether it serves the listener, because if it does, then it is worth being brave.
What’s your biggest ambition this year with this music, and what’s your next move as an artist?
My biggest ambition this year is to make Mute travel, to turn it from a personal body of work into a public statement that opens doors internationally. I want this project to be recognized not just as a release, but as a clear artistic identity, something that positions me as a distinctive voice in pop, soul, and R&B. I am aiming for meaningful live opportunities and collaborations that place me in rooms where serious listeners and decision makers are paying attention. I am building momentum that is based on quality and emotional authority, not on noise.
My next move is to keep expanding the world around the EP through visuals, performances, and strategic storytelling while I continue writing and recording new material that deepens the same message of self trust and inner clarity.
I want to bring the project to the stage in a way that feels intimate but undeniable, and I am directing everything toward an international career across the world, not limited to one market. The plan is to keep growing a catalog that proves range and consistency, and to keep stepping into bigger platforms that match the level of ambition and the level of craft behind this music.
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Find Lilac Cooper on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok.
