Avery Cochrane

Each and every one of Avery Cochrane’s songs could score a movie — whether it’s a scene about a woman crashing out after seeing an ex, or two people finding their way back to each other, falling in love again and again. “I like to describe my music as cinematic,” Cochrane says. “That’s what inspires me.” And it’s inspiring others, too — Teen Vogue dubbed her “your next favorite pop star.”

The up-and-coming star grew up in Seattle, inspired by the city’s rich musical history, natural beauty, and her own experiences falling and out of love. Music was, at first, a secret passion, as she wrote her own lyrics to Taylor Swift songs and discovered bands artists like Rufus Wainwright, Joan Jett, and Eels by way of the now-iconic Shrek soundtrack.

Cochrane began taking songwriting seriously, though, when the pandemic hit. She was just starting college in San Diego and didn’t particularly feel like attending classes via Zoom, so she moved back with her parents and enrolled in a songwriting class at a local college taught by one of the songwriters for Heart. She had always been brimming with inspiration, but now she had the correct tools to turn those private journal entries into art. “I was going through a lot in my personal life, so I channeled it all into a song called ‘Chelsea Boots,’ about a boy who hurt my feelings,” she says of the woozy 2021 track. “I found all these lyrics coming to me. I still operate like that as a songwriter: lyrics come randomly and haphazardly and form a final mosaic.”

From there, Cochrane got addicted to the grind of making and playing music; she played over 100 shows in Seattle alone before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue a music career fulltime. “Everyone there is chasing a dream,” she says. “It felt right.” Still, she concedes, it was a lot of work — taking on odd jobs (waitressing, singing at a seafood joint) to afford studio time, photoshoots, and all the trappings of a budding pop star. And that’s not to mention the emotional labor of writing deeply personal songs — that you can dance to. “I did a lot of shadow work, a lot of figuring out what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it,” she says. “I always put the songwriting and the craft first.”

Cochrane was also skilled at social media, uploading snippets of songs and full tracks to her candy-colored grids. She flirted with virality a few times, before hitting it big with “Shapeshifting on a Saturday Night.” Cochrane wrote that track after returning to college in 2024, lost in a rash of journaling while reading The Artist’s Way. “I was feeling pretty isolated,” she says of the bubbly yet biting track. After all, she was trying to be an artist in a sea of people following more traditional paths, and was out as bisexual in a heteronormative town. “So it’s an ode to my inner self — how I can actually be myself and feel alive,” she adds. After posting a simple acoustic video of the track in 2025, it exploded — and, finally, someone other than her friends and family were listening. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, people want to consume the art I’m making.’” Cochrane says. “Whether it’s a solo drive or Pride Night at the gay club, it’s a universal feeling and experience. It feels really good to have captured that.”

As it turns out, the labels were listening as well — including S-Curve Records. Cochrane released her debut EP via S-Curve Records in March 2026 devilishly titled Male Validation and Other Drugs — although there’s also songs on there about a woman, of course. Standout singles included the poppy, jagged little pill that is “Griever,” a deep-dive into past resentment; “Losing Streak,” a deceptively honeyed track about a bad breakup (with more than 3 million views on TikTok); and the cheeky “Sex, Etc.” inspired by a souvenir shop she spied in Spain. That song was accompanied by a deliciously campy video. “I wanted to create a world for every video,” Cochrane says, adding that her color scheme for this record cycle is pink and baby blue.

“‘Shapeshifting’ is about crashing out, while also being super glamorous, so the visuals reflect that. ‘Griever’ is glamorous, too, but also has this dark edge. They all feature great hair, great outfits, great looks, but also there’s a lot of emotional complexity.”

And that complexity has not gone unnoticed. “Shapeshifting,” for one, has become a new gay anthem (and racked up more than 7 million streams). In fact, her viral ht scored a pivotal scene in Amazon’s smash-hit hockey romance, Off-Campus, and Cochrane is primed to perform the song during Pride Month’s official kickoff at the historic Stonewall Inn in New York — after selling out all of her EP release shows this spring. She’s also ready to take her first trip to London, where she will inevitably sell out Oslo Hackney in July. That’s not to mention her upcoming Tumblr artist partnership (“I was a big Tumblr kid!”) and a whole summer full of festival dates.

Through it, all of course, Cochrane is staying true to the craft. “I’ve been writing every day, so when I get the greenlight to show the world, I’m going to go full steam ahead,” Cochrane says. One of those songs, then, is sure to score the soundtrack of your life.