New Day by Liz Cooper

The thing about finding yourself is there's always another corner to turn. The Vermont-based singer/songwriter Liz Cooper wrote her third album during a period of intense self-discovery. She moved to New York for the first time, weathered a pandemic, came out to herself after falling in love with a friend, and experienced her first queer relationship and breakup, all in the course of a few years, all while tracing out the songs that would come to make up New Day. These ten tracks scintillate with the kind of self-confidence that only beams through after you've aimed a sharp gaze inward -- and realized that whatever you see in there will always keep changing, no matter how much you feel like you've got a grasp on it.

Despite its boisterousness and verve, New Day was born in a quiet place. After nearly a decade of living in Nashville, where she'd moved at age 19 to establish her musical career, Cooper relocated to Brooklyn in February of 2020. She had expected to stay on the road as a touring musician as she'd done for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic soon upended the industry and shuttered venues indefinitely. Confined to her neighborhood and her apartment, Cooper sought out new ways to keep making music.

"A friend of a friend had an upright piano that they were trying to get rid of, and they let me have it for free if I paid for the movers," Cooper says. "Getting the piano into my apartment was totally something out of a movie. It was just these Italian guys yelling at each other while carrying it in. People on the street were watching like, We always knew pianos get into apartments, but we’ve never seen it before! It’s finally happening!"

A longtime guitarist, Cooper found that teaching herself to play the piano opened up brand new creative channels. She didn't have to worry about disturbing her neighbors with an amplified electric guitar, and the process of learning an instrument while simultaneously writing on it unearthed an almost childlike sense of discovery. The piano proved to be a loyal friend during a profoundly alienating time. "It felt like someone I could lean on -- like the piano was my voice when I couldn't talk or sing," says Cooper. "My living situation throughout my entire New York experience was very unsafe emotionally and psychologically. Writing was very difficult. I would try to leave the house as much as possible, and that’s when I would write, by singing into my phone on walks."

As songs started to trickle out, Cooper flew back and forth to Los Angeles to record with producer Dan Molad (Lucius, JD McPherson), who engineered her 2021 album Hot Sass. The first song they recorded together was the riotous new wave number "Boy Toy," where Cooper fully ignites her confidence as an openly queer performer. "I wrote 'Boy Toy' the night before we went into the studio. It was totally random, not at all planned," says Cooper. "I met up with my friend Caroline Kingsbury, who is a cool queer pop singer in L.A., and we were like, Let’s make a fun song that’s just super direct and sexy and big. It felt so powerful and free to start there. There’s so much heaviness for me around this record -- it was nice to start with something fresh and fun."

Over time, Cooper built out the songs she had written and demoed in New York, stepping into the producer's chair alongside Molad. Slow and sparse sketches became big, buoyant anthems. She looked to early Beck records for inspiration as she crafted New Day's crisp, high-contrast sound. On the album's lead single and title track, fuzz bass churns underneath twinkling synths and binaural backing vocals. Piano and strings take center stage on the swelling "IDFK," one of many songs inflected by Lou Reed's classic album Coney Island Baby, which Cooper played on repeat while living in Brooklyn. The bittersweet "Sorry (That I Love You)" conjures the extremes of a troubled relationship over warm, vintage-sounding electric guitar and bass, while closer "Baby Steps" wraps the album on a hopeful note: "I've made mistakes / I'm only human / These baby steps / Lead me to you," she sings at the love song's sweetly irresistible hook.

"I struggled so much while writing this record," Cooper says. "I felt like I wasn’t allowed to come out – I was dealing with a lot of internalized homophobia. Celebrating my queerness and understanding who I am has been a long process. And it’s always developing. Every day is a new day of coming out to myself and to everyone around me. It was cool to embrace that. I’m very proud to be making music that feels honest to me and my experience."

No matter how many times you change, no matter how many hours you commit to improving yourself, each new phase in a life is still only a prelude to the next one. With New Day, Cooper captures the unfurling transformations that revealed her to herself -- and leaves the door wide open for all the people she's still yet to become.

Written by Sasha Geffen

My forthcoming album, 𝓝𝓮𝔀 𝓓𝓪𝔂 drops Feb. 20th, 2026.

lizcoopermusic.com