“As a musician, and as somebody who is very musical, I listen to music a lot throughout my day,” Bethany Cosentino tells Billboard. “Whether I’m working on stuff around the house, or I’m cleaning or cooking, I like to have music on.”
The tone of that music has drastically shifted over the past six months, after Cosentino and her husband welcomed a daughter, Luna, in December. Around-the-house playlists naturally evolved for the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter — who broke through as one-half of the indie rock duo Best Coast in the early 2010s, notching four LPs on the Billboard 200 albums chart, including the top 40-charting sets Crazy for You (No. 36, 2010) and The Only Place (No. 24, 2012). She also released a captivating solo debut, Natural Disaster, in 2023.
Since becoming parents, Cosentino and her husband are coming up with more silly songs of their own, leaning into Sesame Street and Raffi — but also playing Luna, who turned six months old earlier in June, some of their decades-old favorites. A lot of those songs have been on repeat, to say the least: “With kids, you just end up listening to the same song 9,000 times,” she says with a laugh. And as they’ve been played over and over, Cosentino has gained a new appreciation for the songs, including some of the Sesame classics that she grew up with herself.
Below, Cosentino takes Billboard through a tour of the music that’s been dominating her household since her daughter was born, in her own words, and explains how motherhood had already affected her creative instincts. (Ed. note: this interview has been edited for clarity.)
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Folk-Rock Classics
The early days of that newborn, postpartum bubble, we were just in bed all the time. Once she started to react a little bit more, when she was a couple weeks old, we started putting music on. We started listening to the Byrds a lot, like Sweetheart of the Rodeo, because it’s just easy music, and she seemed to respond to it. I love the Byrds, and I listened to them a lot when I was pregnant with her, so I was like, “Maybe she’s familiar with this.”
We transitioned into other kinds of folk-rock stuff. We had to evacuate when she was three weeks old, for the fires — luckily, it wasn’t near our house, but the smoke was so bad. So we drove down to San Diego, fleeing these horrific fires, and we were trying as best as we could to remain calm and give the trip a good vibe. We were listening to a lot of Bob Dylan — I think the movie had just come out — and she really seemed to respond well to ‘Like a Rolling Stone,’ so we would just play it over and over.
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Sesame Street Staples
As her personality started to reveal itself a little bit more, I would put on Sesame Street, and her eyes would get wide and she liked it a lot. Then I would start playing her some of the Sesame Street songs, and then it was Chipmunks and other stuff from my childhood. Then I went into the Raffi world, finding all these other random kids songs from the ‘80s and ‘90s, and some from the ‘60s and ‘70s.
There’s a cover of ‘Drive My Car’ that Elmo does that we love to play for her. One day we were driving somewhere and we were trying to keep her awake to stick to her sleep routine, so we put on the ‘Drive My Car’ cover by Elmo, and she was just so stoked, playing with all her toys in the backseat.
“Of course, ‘Elmo’s Song,’ too. My mom just got her this weird Elmo doll that’s like, Rock ’n Roll Elmo, and that is the most annoying thing I’ve ever heard in my life. He does ‘It Takes Two,’ and he says, ‘Elmo has left the building,’ and he has a guitar and drums. It’s pretty hilarious.
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No New Baby Songs (Sorry, Kidz Bop)
We try to steer clear of any of the modern kids stuff, because it’s just too MIDI and tinny-sounding. We try to play her random things that I find online, but like, Kidz Bop and stuff like that? There’s no way. We’re gonna try to not let her ever find out about that.
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The Good, The Bad & The Random
I will just make up random songs for her. I think one of the benefits of being a songwriter and a mom is that, on the fly, you can be like, “I’m just gonna write a weird, random song for you.” When she was first born, my husband and I would just sing random songs to her, because we were so brand new at it. We were like, ‘I think she likes when we sing to her in the bassinet,’ so we would literally pull up lyrics to Grateful Dead songs, or Bob Dylan. Now it’s like, Mom is freestyling!, trying to keep the window between getting fed and going down a little sane.
Hilariously, there was one day where she was really fussy, and I just started whistling at her, and she was enamored by the whistling. So I was like, “Okay, what are songs that have a lot of whistling in them?” And the only one I could think of was The Good, The Bad & The Ugly song. So I put it on, and she was giggling and smiling and so excited. Now we play her that song so many times a day, and at the end of the day, when we’re in that last wake window and just desperate to keep her entertained, I’ll just put it on repeat and do weird interpretive dances for her, and she just cracks up. That’s probably the most-played song in our house right now.
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Raffi Jams
Honestly, I love Raffi. I grew up listening to Raffi, and I think he’s incredible and an amazing songwriter and just an awesome person. When I put it on for her, I’m like, “Damn, this song is so good!” I think “Writing in an Airplane” is my favorite, and then “Banana Phone” is a classic — that’s another one that we’re doing interpretative dances to.
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Another Kids’ Album, Someday?
In 2018, Best Coast issued Best Kids, a children’s album released as an Amazon Exclusive that featured a mix of classics like “Twinkle, Twinkle” and “Rock-a-Bye Baby” and originals like the inclusion anthem “Cats & Dogs.” Cosentino says that, since becoming a mom late last year, the thought of making a Best Kids follow-up has certainly crossed her mind.
It was so fun when we made that, and at that time, I had no plans of having a child. But now that I actually have a kid, it would be so fun to do something now as a mom — to make music that I would want to listen to with her, and my friends would want to listen to with their kids. So I would love to do more kids’ music at some point.
“I actually really want to make a folk-rock covers album of Raffi songs. That’s my goal and dream, eventually. But I do think that another Best Kids album would make a ton of sense, so I would say that the likelihood of it happening at some point is pretty high. I just have to find time to do it first.”
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Until Then, Family Time (With Some Songwriting Mixed In)
I’ve been able to do a couple of writing sessions, which has been nice. I think right now I’m still trying to find my footing. I’ve definitely had moments where I’ve been like, “I need to get back to it,” and then I’ll leave and go write. And then I’m like, “Wait, I miss her! I just want to go home and be with her!”
I have a fellow musician friend with a baby, and she said to me, “There’s no rush. Your kid’s only gonna be this young once. If you have the ability to take time off, you might want to do that.” I’ve been trying to lean on that advice when I start to get really agitated and feel like I need to create. My ego would love to just go make another record and be out in the world, but I think the mom in me — and also the woman that’s transforming into this whole new person — is like, “No, I actually just want to spend time with my kid.”
So my goal is to spend as much time with her in the first year that I can, and then hopefully get back to making music. I definitely want her to see me as a performer, to see me do what I do. I was raised around music — my dad’s a musician — and it was really cool for me to get to go see my dad play gigs. I think it’ll probably be a while until we get there, but I would love for her to get to experience that side of me.
