Pura Coco is easy to root for with her self-assured lyrics, her smooth delivery full of good vibes and self-love. Perhaps that’s why she never fails to get the crowd singing along, whether they know her or not.

We finally got the R&B songstress into the podcast studio for an interview with The Free Weekly. You can check out the interview and listen to her new song, “We Ain’t Got To Be So Sad,” online, but here’s a little bit of that interview [edited for clarity]:

Q. You had an incredible 2022, including opening for Japanese Breakfast at the Momentary and your Spotify Wrapped came to over 10,000 streams, over 1,000 listeners in 53 countries [for 2022], which is just mind blowing. Can you tell us tell us a little bit about your last year and what you’ve learned?

A. I can see that you’ve done your research. So the last year? I will say it was incredible, especially being with Love More [Records]. What I’ve learned is what I like doing on stage, the type of performances that I love doing.

The Japanese Breakfast performance was absolutely incredible, something that I’ve never experienced before, but I think on top of that, I had several interviews that week, and I had several other shows in that same week. … I noticed that I absolutely love that. I love having multiple things in one week and being able to interact with multiple [and] different crowds. Being able to establish that, and know exactly what I want to do in the future, is what I’ve been learning.

Q. Your EP “leaves” came out in 2019. Tell me a little bit about how that EP came together and did you record it locally?

A. I did record it locally. I actually recorded it at the Teen Action Support Center. That’s where I used to work and where I used to volunteer before that …. I was an event coordinator for the teen action Support Center. And we had an open mic and I said, I’ll just do one song, or maybe a couple songs. Somebody saw me perform. It was Jasper Logan, and he said, “You need to release music.” And that’s how it all started.

Q. Did you write your songs with him? Or after that open mic, did you say: I’m gonna sit down and write songs? How did that work out?

A. I used to not like writing songs, if I’m being honest. So whenever I got into the habit again, it was primarily because I was in the Latinx Theatre Project, and I finally found my voice and what I wanted to write.

Q. I really love the way you perform your song, “Sunday Morning.” How you get the crowd [singing along] with you? How did you come to that sort of call and response type of performance with the crowd?

A. I just love interacting with the crowd. It’s one of my favorite things to do on stage. And I think that it makes it feel more intimate, so I try to find that in all my songs — a way to incorporate the crowd. I’ve seen other artists do it; I primarily have listened to like live recordings of of different shows. There was this one show, I think it was by Ed Sheeran, where he splits the crowd, and he’s like, ‘You guys are Manchester. You guys are a different soccer team. And now you guys gotta fight for who’s the loudest!’ I love that, so I always try to find a way to incorporate the crowd.

Q. Tell me about the new music you’re working on? Is there anyone you’re collaborating with these days? New tracks?

A. A lot of them are by myself … I do have a lot of songs that I’ve collaborated on in Tulsa. That’s just a whole hub in itself. A lot of the artists love collaborating with each other over there. It’s a completely different environment, people just get together and they just simply make music because they love it. I feel like here it’s a little bit different. That collaboration has inspired different music, like the song that you’re that you’re gonna hear, “We Ain’t Got To Be So Sad,” was simply because somebody told me after I got performing — sometimes I don’t use my full diaphragm whenever I sing, especially if I’m nervous — and somebody came up to me, he said, ‘Hey, Coco, breathe.’ And I went, ‘You’re right. You’re absolutely right!’

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Listen Here!

Listen to the podcast for this interview and hear Pura Coco’s new song, “We Ain’t Got To Be So Sad” at nwaonline.com/64coco/

Keep up with Coco on streaming services, social media and at lovemorerecords.com/pura-coco.