Nashville-based artist Cody Gray shares his music under the moniker Floral Couches and he just released his soulful and dreamy album, Xtra Mild. It’s a record that looks through his influences of psychedelia, bedroom pop, jazz, Motown, and more through a kaleidoscope while anchored by heavy use of his vintage Fender Rhodes piano.
Psychedelic Baby Magazine shared the album, who wrote, “With a blend of shimmering guitars, lush horns and flutes, entrancing synths, Rhodes keys, and emotive vocals, Floral Couches’ new sonic landscape promises both auditory and emotional resonance.”
Cody told the blog, “I had just recently moved my grandmother’s old piano into our Chicago apartment and decided to write songs entirely outside of my computer either sitting at the piano or on a guitar. Every song needed to be engaging with just a vocal and a single multi-voiced instrument. After years of being discouraged from attempting to DIY the album, I began reaching out to other Chicago artists to help mix and produce the album.”
Cody enlisted several friends and collaborators including several members from Late Nite Laundry for drums, production, and design, Zac Bron of Smooth Rogers, and then Post Animal’s Dalton Allison for mastering the album. The songs are personal but universal, with Cody singing about the low hum of anxiety while on vacation, how keeping up with the Joneses robs us of joy, and even a touching eulogy to his late dog.
