For a composer who has been active as a recording artist for less than a decade, Cuco is incredibly prolific. On his own and with other artists, the multi-instrumentalist has carved out an impressive and unique niche on the musical landscape. Cuco comes to San Jose’s Music in the Park on Sept. 20.
Born Omar Banos in 1998, Cuco grew up in Hawthorne, California. A musical prodigy, he became proficient on a number of instruments before age 15; shortly after graduating high school he became a minor YouTube sensation thanks to his reading of the Santo & Johnny instrumental classic “Sleep Walk.” By 2016 the teenage autodidact had mastered the intricacies of Ableton Live software; with those skills under his belt, he made his first mixtape, Wannabewithu. By the following year he was playing live gigs.
Signed to Interscope, Cuco released his debut long-player Para Mi in 2019; Fantasy Gateway followed in 2022. In between album projects, he has released five EPs to date; 2023’s Hitchhiker is his most accomplished work so far. At age 26, Cuco has plenty of creative momentum. And he’s been in the game long enough to be able to look back and see how his approach has changed since his start.
“I started off doing a bunch of cute chords and loops in my bedroom,” he says. “But I knew I wanted to keep advancing.” He says that he likes to push himself, to “get really uncomfortable” and explore things he hasn’t done before. “It comes naturally to me to do all this genre-bending and experimentation,” he says. “It’s really about locking down and finishing songs.”
Cuco always starts with the instrumental side of the equation. “I’ll record a demo by myself,” he says. “And if I feel that there can be a better version of the instrumental, I’ll recut it.” He says that it’s not uncommon for him to record an instrumental bed multiple times, “and I’ll probably re-cut the vocal track five or six more times until it sounds right to me.” Though he comes from the bedsit-musician tradition, Cuco says that he makes music for discerning listeners who are “big consumers of music.”
While Cuco’s earliest efforts often found him doing all of the singing and playing himself, today he makes effective use of the skills and talents of other players as well. Looking back at his earlier works, he stands behind even his earliest recordings. Given another crack at those tracks, he says he wouldn’t change a thing. “I would critique,” he says with a chuckle, “but I wouldn’t change.”
When he’s building songs in the studio, Cuco considers how they’ll work onstage. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘This is perfect for live [performance],’” he says. “Other songs, I’ll think, ‘I don’t know how this is going to work live… but we’ll figure it out.’ And we always figure it out.”
In addition to his albums, EPs, singles and live dates, Cuco channels a great deal of energy into collaborations. In the first half of 2024, he’s applied his talents to no less than three singles: “Silence STArEs me Down” with Asian hip hop collective 1999 Write The Future, “Better” with British-Jamaican musical polymath Lava La Rue, and “How’s That Working Out” with Panamanian singer-songwriter Sofia Valdés.
“I always feel very lucky when my friends tell me, ‘I want you on this track,’” Cuco says. And he’s careful to respect boundaries. “I try to get into their world, bring them into mine a little bit, and cater to what they need,” he says. “I don’t ever want to take over their song.”
With his own music, Cuco regularly displays his love of bossa nova, electronica and romantic pop. And on tracks like “Junkies and Rarities” a highlight of the Hitchhiker EP, he delves into shimmering, jangle-pop with a hazy psychedelic vibe that recalls Tame Impala, one of his favorite artists.
And while one might not readily detect their influence upon Cuco’s music, he names progressive metal quartet System of a Down as a primary inspiration. “I got really good at guitar when I started learning their songs,” he explains. But the Armenian-American band’s influence on his music extends well beyond guitar work. “I finally got to see them live for the first time this year,” Cuco says. Seeing them onstage, Cuco was moved by the band’s ability to bring forth emotion from the audience. “And I thought, ‘I want to do that when people hear me play live,’” he says.
On the whole, though, Cuco’s music is likely to elicit its own set of feelings and emotions. “When people hear my music, I want it to cheer them up,” he says. “I want people to feel that they’re not alone. Because I’ve always loved music that makes me feel that way.”
Cuco is on the bill with Strawberry Guy and Thee Heart Tones at Music in the Park, taking place 5–10pm on Sep 20 at Plaza de Cesar Chavez, San Jose. wklys.co/cuco
