Meet Cory Kosel | Musician, Actor, Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cory Kosel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cory, why did you pursue a creative career?
I would say the career chose me. I play in a Dallas rock band called Caftan, I write my own country-folk songs, and I audition for acting roles when the right ones come along. I would be lying if I told you any of these endeavors pay the bills, so I teach in order to supplement my income. I’m happy to say that this, too, is fulfilling work. I’m a better communicator because of my teaching, and that’s all we’re ever really trying to do through art, right? Communicate?

The pull to create and be inspired is sometimes burdensome. It knows no end. It has no “off” switch, and because it doesn’t generate much money, it can feel a bit more take than give. I had a reckoning with this recently: I could try and make some commercially-viable version of my music, I could book myself two or three gigs playing covers on an outdoor patio each week, or I could be a little more uncompromising with what I do.

I love this quote by the Texas singer-songwriter Guy Clark, who’s a hero of mine: “There ain’t no money in poetry, and that’s what keeps the poet free.”

I’ve reserved myself lately to writing what moves me and removing any baggage of financial success. The work is always self-sustaining; for example, my band has a Patreon, and that’s been integral to our livelihood. This year, I’ll be putting out a cassette tape accompanied by a book of my poems to raise funds for a solo album. You make it work. I can’t stop making things even if I wanted to; it’s what helps me process my place in the world, and I do appreciate that as a kind of solace. Too much business might ruin it.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve spent my life navigating rural, suburban, and metropolitan spaces, and I think that informs what I create. I grew up in a small-ish Texas town. At that time, the population was 40,000, and it was surrounded by 60 miles of nothing. It felt like I was living in this very insular world, and it was hard to imagine anything beyond it. This was before the advent of the internet; when that developed, it became a kind of telegraph from the outside world. I remember reading these very rudimentary wiki pages and discovering David Bowie and David Byrne that way. Those were not household names in Temple, Texas. George Strait and Alan Jackson were more the cultural touchstones.

My grandparents lived on the outskirts of our town, and they would still wash clothes in a bucket and hang dry them on a line. They had a butter churn in their kitchen! It was kind of surreal to go back and forth from living in the suburbs to witnessing their slower pace of life. Then, I moved away to college and, later, to New York City. By the time I came back to Texas, my hometown had doubled in size and the whole world had smartphones. I eventually landed in the Dallas area, and I’ve been here for ten years.

What I create — my music, the types of stories I hope to tell through acting — is an attempt to explore my relationship to these disparate spaces.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We would have to go the Wild Detectives and see a movie at the Texas Theatre, that’s a no brainer.

We would maybe do a fancy night at Sister in Lower Greenville, and I could sneak in some stories about the old spots there, like The Crown & Harp. A stop at Good Records and Good Friends on the East Side, maybe. Here Lounge for a happy hour.

We would have to see a local rock show, maybe at Double Wide or Three Links. Then we’d do something really off-the-wall like go to Medieval Times.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would have to shoutout Danielle Georgiou and Justin Locklear; they are a power-couple in town. Danielle runs her own dance company and Justin Locklear is a theatre practitioner. Not long after I moved to the area, I felt a little aimless and unrooted. I had yet to establish a real community, and these two took me under their wing and created a space for me. They are artists in the true sense in that they live to collaborate. I’m always excited to see what they’re cooking up.

Website: www.corykosel.com

Instagram: @corykosel

Other: Band Instagram handle: @caftanband