Los Angeles songwriter and musician Coco Reilly cut her atmospheric self-titled debut album three times before settling on which version to release in December through her own label. The singer says the self-titled album has been in the works for eight or nine years and has only now reached the point where it feels right. “I recorded it multiple times because I didn’t trust myself yet,” Reilly explains. “I was over-dependent on the opinions of people I viewed as more skilled than me instead of listening to my intuition. Once I started listening to myself and brought on the right musicians to fill the gaps, things started moving a lot faster.” The musician, who grew up listening to The Beatles, Rush, Queen and Roy Orbison with her dad, cites her confidence as one of the biggest challenges in making the album, but also recognizes how much she genuinely loves creating music. The long process of making Coco Reilly, which was ultimately recorded at Nashville’s Battle Tapes studio with engineer Jeremy Ferguson and guitarist Jerry Bernhardt, helped her to realize why she continues to pursue this dream. “I’m perpetually shocked that I’m capable of doing things, which is sort of funny because I’ve been doing it for so long, but I think it keeps me an eternal student and I hope I always feel that way,” she notes. “I’m never jaded by the process of making music—it still feels like such an amazing thing to be able to do. That mentality slows me down when it comes to starting or finishing ideas, but I think I’m getting better at not overthinking it so much and just letting other people take the lead who are better than me in technical ways.” While Reilly can’t currently tour—which she is slightly relieved about, since it means a more organic album rollout—she is taking things day by day. “To be totally honest, this album release was such a last-minute decision that I’m just making the plans as I go along,” she says. “So, luckily, nothing has been derailed.”