In 2023, Molly Kober went on the adventure of a lifetime.

The Dearborn, Michigan, singer-songwriter and her friend Trianna traveled to Australia on a whim the summer after their freshman year of college.

“We were not loving life; it was really difficult, and we needed something to look forward to,” Kober said. “We said, ‘Hey, we’ve got nothing to lose. Why don’t we do something we’ve always wanted to do and go to Australia?’ We were trying to think of the furthest possible place from home aside from going to the moon.”

The two friends ventured up and down Australia’s East Coast, visiting places like Sydney, Byron Bay, and Brisbane.

“We were there for a month,” Kober said. “It was the best decision I ever made. I had never left home before, so it was like being immersed in adulthood for the first time.”

A year later, that same trip fueled the inspiration for Kober’s debut single, “Booking That Flight.” The pop song explores reliving a memorable vacation and longing for that same sense of adventure.

Backed by cinematic instrumentation, Kober sings, “What a magical few hours that it was / My guiding hand around the city / Watch your step here, it’s not pretty / A prince among men bought a perfect stranger lunch / Swapping stories of our crushed dreams / Laughing hard until the tears streamed.”

“It truly was the best thing I ever did, and Australia is so beautiful,” said Kober, who graduated from the University of Michigan-Dearborn in 2025.

“We were staying in hostels, so we got to meet people from all over the world who really impacted us. Being able to be around that many people from that many different places and to find common ground with them really shook me.”

I recently spoke with Kober about getting started in music and writing her debut single.

Q: How has your summer been so far?

A: It’s been really great. We’ve gotten really far on the album; we’re almost done with it. I’ve gotten to play a lot of fun shows this summer, especially in Ann Arbor. I’ve gotten a lot of family and friends to come out to shows, so it’s been really busy, but it’s been fun.

Q: What’s been capturing your attention as a songwriter?

A: I think spending a lot of time outside always inspires me. I find it to be really grounding just being in nature, and I’ve gotten to do a lot of that. I’ve also been going to a lot of open mics lately, and seeing other songwriters from the area is really inspiring. I’ve also been reading and watching a lot of TV, and that’s where I get most of my ideas from.

Q: How did you get started in music?

A: I had horrible stage fright growing up, so it was something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve always loved music and musical theater, but I would never dare to sing in front of anyone or audition for plays. I’ve always been writing, but it wasn’t until COVID that I picked up a guitar.

I started teaching myself guitar and piano, and then songwriting came after that. I was about 16 when I started writing seriously. I’d done it for fun, but I took it more seriously in high school. And then I started taking voice lessons my freshman year of college when I was 19, and that’s when I started going to open mics and performing original music.

Q: When did you start performing live?

A: I started when I was in college. It started off at open mics, and then my aunt, who is a hospice nurse, recommended a way I could get some more experience: singing at hospice facilities in the area.

That was a really great experience, and now I recommend it to everyone, doing those one-on-one sessions. I found it to be really meaningful, and it gave me a lot of purpose. I could see the impact that music had on somebody and how it has the power to make somebody’s day when they’re going through a hard time.

Q: What artists have inspired you?

A: Olivia Rodrigo came about when I was in high school. She’s a year older than me, so I remember seeing her and thinking, “Oh my god! If she can do it, then I can do it, too.”

And the same thing is true for my co-producer, Lauren Blackford. We know each other through friends of friends, and someone had sent me her music. I remember [hearing] it, and thinking, “Oh, crap! I’ll never be that good.” It was this whole crisis of confidence, and then I was just inspired by what she was doing. I feel really lucky to be able to work with her now because I’m such a huge fan.

Q: How did it feel to revisit your trip while writing “Booking That Flight?”

A: I was anticipating getting the photos back in my memories, and I was really dreading it. I thought, “I don’t want to see that right now. That was the best time of my whole life, and that’s gonna make me sad.” I was just thinking about everyone that I had met and how badly I loved being there.

[The song] is all about the road not taken, and that it’s OK to mourn that. What I love about the song is that it can be interpreted in a couple of different ways. You can either be really sad, wistful, and pining, or be filled with gratitude for those experiences. That’s probably my favorite part about it. There’s a story element to it where you could have been on vacation, or you could have been on a really great date, and it just didn’t work out with that [person]. It can be about anything.

When I perform it now, it means a totally different thing to me than it did when I wrote it. My friend Trianna came to an open mic where I performed [the song], and she knew what it was about right away.

Q: How long did you spend writing the song?

A: I write most of my songs on guitar, and it started off on guitar. Pretty much what is on the record is what I wrote. I think I ended up changing two or three lines, and we slowed it down, but for the most part, it’s the same.

[As a songwriter], I find that if I don’t finish a song in the first draft, I don’t finish it at all. I really sit there and crank it out, and if it’s not happening, it usually doesn’t happen. I’m not someone who can put something down and come back to it.

Q: What was it like to record “Booking That Flight” with co-producer Lauren Blackford?

A: I sent her a Hail Mary DM on Instagram, and I’d been following her for a long time. I said, “Hey, I’d love to have a female producer on my first project, if you’re available, and if you’re down to do it.” And she was so excited about it, and we met a week later. She’s always super prepared, and she had all these questions. The fact that she was excited to work on it made me excited, so we clicked immediately. We’ve been working together since January.

I think it was her idea to add the strings. During our first conversation, I said, “I really want the song to feel big and cinematic.” We wanted it to be something people could use in a TikTok edit, and that was my dream. The bridge is all her, and I love what she did on the bridge with the voiceover announcement. The two of us co-produced it, and The Bee Room Studio did the mixing and mastering.

Q: What do you enjoy most about performing at local farmers markets?

A: It’s so much fun, and it’s my favorite thing—I look forward to it all week. It’s one of my favorite parts about what I get to do. I love dancing with the little kids or singing a song from the ‘70s and ‘80s and having [someone] walk by and say, “Hey, you got it—you know it.” It’s also fun to sing a Hannah Montana song to the girls my age.

Q: What’s the status of your debut album?

A: I’m hoping to release it at the end of the summer, or maybe fall time. I’m really excited about the way it’s turning out, and I’m really excited for everything that’s coming. There’s going to be at least one more single, too. We have a lot of surprises in store.

Molly Kober performs July 29 at the Kerrytown Farmers Market, 315 Detroit Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan, from 10:30 am to 1 pm. For details, visit Molly Kober’s website.