After four years of living out of state and abroad, Maggie Cocco is back in Metro Detroit making some new musical memories.

The pop singer-songwriter is visiting her home state during the holidays and playing two live shows: Dec. 18 at The Ark in Ann Arbor with Joanna Sterling and Dec. 22 at Tin Roof Detroit for the Music Mavens of Michigan, a fundraising concert to benefit Girls Rock Detroit featuring a lineup of local femme artists.

“The Ark will be a very special show for me. It’s my only show on the Michigan leg of the Analog tour where I’ll play through the entire song cycle as it is on [my new] album, [Like a Moth],” said Cocco, who now resides in Whangārei, New Zealand and performs under the moniker Science for Sociopaths.

“I’m [also] ridiculously stoked about this [Music Mavens of Michigan] lineup. Tin Roof Detroit has a capacity of 400 people, and we’re hoping to reach it! With a lineup like this, I think we can. We’ll be holding what’s called round robins with each artist offering two self-accompanied songs and sharing the stage with three to four artists at a time.”

For the Music Mavens of Michigan show, Cocco will be performing alongside Audra Kubat, Carolyn Striho, Julianne Ankley, Coko Buttafli, Fay Burns, Gwenyth Hayes, Julia Rose Pagac, Jacki Daniels and others.

“Even if you’ve seen any or all of these artists live, this will be a truly unique and collaborative experience,” said Cocco, who grew up in Sterling Heights. “We’ll also have a couple of youth performers to open the show and a finale featuring all participating artists, plus an open jam to end.”

I recently spoke to Cocco about living in New Zealand, visiting the U.S., working with Girls Rock Detroit, preparing for The Ark and Music Mavens of Michigan shows, writing and recording her Like a Moth album and looking ahead to 2024.

Q: How has life been for you in Whangārei, New Zealand? What’s it like to come back to visit the U.S. after four years?

A: Whangārei is a great place to come back to after being on the road. I’ve really come into my own and made a home there. I have lots of close friends and ongoing community projects that make me feel integrated into the community, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world.

I was scared of what I might feel coming back to the U.S. Scared that everything would have changed and also that nothing would have changed. The reality is a little bit of both. There have been pleasant surprises: catching up with musicians I haven’t seen in ages and experiencing nostalgia in rediscovering how much we enjoy each other’s musicianship and company. Also sad ones: San Francisco is as empty as I’ve ever seen it.

Then there are all the feelings that come with being in places where you have a lot of history. Once forgotten memories resurface for better and worse. Thankfully, it all feels like growth. 2023 has been a good year for that.

Q: What has been inspiring you lately? Is there an artistic work that speaks to you these days?

A: Lately, I’ve been inspired by artists I see out here doing what I’m doing and what I want to do, especially if they’re doing it with ease and authenticity. Artists that aren’t famous but travel the world doing their thing and making the world a better place are my heroes. There’s a lot of work that speaks to me, and because I spend a lot of time collaborating with, hosting and supporting artists of various media, I have no shortage of inspo.

Brazilian playwright and actor, Tatiana Hotere, has a show called Skin Hunger that explores the intersection of grief, faith and sexuality in a comedic and sensitive way that I admire. I love it when art digs deep enough to find the hurt and then lifts us up. That is what I strive to do in my own work.

Q: What do you have planned for your Dec. 18 show at The Ark? Who will be joining you on stage? How will Joanna Sterling help set the tone for the show?

A: I’m joined by Anthony Marchese on cello and the fabulous Joanna Sterling will be opening and sharing a set with me to close. The only thing I knew about Joanna when I asked her to open was that I loved the sound of her music and that she came highly recommended to me by Michigan-based artist Chris DuPont.

The more I’ve spoken with, listened to and read about Joanna, the more parallels I see between our music. While we contrast sonically between the piano and guitar vibes, we both tackle personal and systemic issues in a mellow, singer-songwriter way. Joanna will certainly expose heartstrings with her opening set so that I can come in and play them.

Q: How and when did you get involved in Girls Rock Detroit (GRD)? What do you enjoy most about working with the organization?

A: I first volunteered as an instrument instructor and band coach for Girls Rock Detroit in 2017 and was involved in various capacities until moving to San Francisco. By 2021, I was living in New Zealand and GRD was trying to get up and running again post-COVID. GRD’s then-leadership was open to remote participation from prospective board members and collaborators, so I reached out and picked back up with GRD.

I started as a board member and digital programming advisor and moved eventually into various roles, including social media management and board chair. I’m coming up on my term limit as board chair and am looking forward to continuing my work with GRD outside of leadership.

What I enjoy most about GRD and Girls Rock organizations internationally is the sense of community bound by a shared ethos and persistence that is the antithesis of apathy. We are a local and global community that cares and works to be the change we want to see in the world.

Q: How did the idea for the Music Mavens of Michigan fundraising show for Girls Rock Detroit (GRD) come about? How did you get involved in organizing this show? How will the donated funds from the show be used to help support the organization?

A: The moment in which the Music Mavens of Michigan show was conceived was the moment I received funding for the Analog tour. I wanted to optimize my time here, and there were so many musicians I wanted to support and connect with in person. I devised the show as a way to do that and support GRD at the same time.

Jacki Daniels and Julia Rose Pagac are dependable movers and shakers in the Detroit music scene, and I got them on board with co-organizing. Then, I reached out to a handful of the femme artists I see making waves in Michigan and beyond about performing. I couldn’t be more excited to play with these incredible musicians on Dec. 22. There are so many more musicians who I see out there doing things as well. I hope this is the first of many Music Mavens of Michigan shows.

GRD is an entirely volunteer-run and community-led organization. As such, funds raised at events like Music Mavens of Michigan enable GRD to employ local artist mentors and run free and subsidized empowering music-based programs for girls, transgender and gender-fluid youth in Metro Detroit. We do this because we know that every dollar translates into services and experiences that are priceless for the youth who receive them.

Q: What do you hope the audience will take away from the Music Mavens of Michigan show? What can people expect from the jam session that will take place after the show?

A: In the same way that we hope to inspire generations of musicians through education, we aim to inspire by performance. Femmes are so often pitted against each other in this industry. I hope the people will be able to see and feel the camaraderie between us and the depth, breadth and quality of musicianship that we command.

The jam session at the end is an opportunity for us to break the performative fourth wall and invite the broader music community to come have a laugh and play with us. I am excited to jam with musicians I used to jam with when I was coming up in Metro Detroit and am keen to catch up with everyone!

Q: You’ve been working on your new Like a Moth album. What’s it been like to see the album evolve, especially since it’s been three years in development and 18 months in the making? How has the team at Anzac Road-Analog Recording helped you shape its overall sound?

A: I don’t know if I ever would have recorded this album if not for Anzac Road-Analog Recording. I’d had some pretty rough experiences with exploitative people in the recording industry by that point and was steering clear by focusing entirely on the live show.

Like a Moth was originally conceived as an interactive media show. Artwork and photography are as integral to this project as the music, and all the visuals associated with the album come from real-time collaborations with guest artists, audience members and Micky Nogher Photography.

We’d accrued a few performance and multimedia awards before Andy Hodgins from Anzac approached me about recording it as an album. Andy’s earnest desire to have “truly good music” recorded in his space encouraged me to get back in the booth, as it were. He required no money upfront, and I could take as long as I needed to make the album exactly right. Andy made it so I could afford to learn the analog process while working through some trauma I’d accumulated around recording in general.

Personally and technically, it was a long and difficult process, but also incredibly fun, fulfilling and cathartic. The team at Anzac—especially sound engineer Alex Selman—was sensitive and supportive throughout the process. They took the time to get to know the project and its nuances and helped me get the exact result I was looking for.

The analog process itself also shaped the overall sound of the album. Recording to tape meant that we couldn’t overcorrect. The takes we went with were not the flawless ones, but those that most captured the sentiment. I love this about the album, and it’s incredibly similar in this way to the live show. You can perform something perfectly and not grab an audience if the sentiment isn’t there and you can mess something up pretty badly and still hold them if the sentiment is right. The analog process itself kept Like a Moth true to form.

Q: How does Like a Moth sonically compare to your Life and Love EPs that you released in 2018? What was it like to revisit four of the tracks from those two EPs for Like a Moth? What are some of the themes that you cover across the album’s 10 tracks?

A: Like a Moth is my first self-produced album, and it’s quite different from my earlier releases. It’s piano-based instead of guitar-based, and I perform all parts on the album [except] the incredible cello work by Bonnie Schwarz and the piano on “Hearts at Ease” recorded by Alex Selman. The only instruments on the album are piano, voice and cello.

Revisiting four of the tracks from the Life and Love EPs felt like recording them the way they always should have been recorded given context and unadulterated time constraints or competing agendas. As a song cycle, the album is meant to be listened to in sequence like a story. It follows our main character through the course of one or more tumultuous relationships, depending on how you listen.

Like a Moth references the saying, “like a moth to a flame,” which I feel is an apt description of what it’s like to be drawn to unhealthy people and situations. There is intention behind nearly everything in the music; the key relationships, motif and recapitulation, text painting and lyric choices were all deeply considered. It’s an album of easter eggs by design because that’s what my nerdy little music heart loves.

Q: What’s up next for you in 2024? What live shows do you have planned back in New Zealand? Any plans to work on additional new material?

A: Presales for the Like a Moth vinyl are underway and available through Diggers Factory. 2024 is fixing to be full on with the official digital release scheduled for the first quarter, music videos going into production in February and a European tour in the cards for October.

I have one or two New Zealand performances of Like a Moth scheduled for that time frame as well, and I’ve started touring a prequel to Like a Moth called Elodie in which I take the same character from birth through young adulthood to explore how someone prone to tumultuous relationships becomes that way. As I did with Like a Moth, I’m touring Elodie as an interactive multimedia show until the music starts to settle and we have a body of work to accompany the eventual album.

Show details:

Maggie Cocco’s Science for Sociopaths with Joanna Sterling

Monday, Dec. 18 | 8 p.m.

The Ark, 316 S. Main St. in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Tickets: $20

Music Mavens of Michigan: Concert Fundraiser for Girls Rock Detroit

Friday, Dec. 22 | 6 p.m.

Tin Roof Detroit, 47 Adams Ave. E. in Detroit

Tickets: $20 (recommended donation)