On the Road with Cece Coakley—Her First Tour and Second Single, “Listerine.”

Cece Coakley just dropped her second single ever and set off on her first headline tour. Amidst all the busyness, Twenty Minutes Later got the chance to chat with Cece about her new song “Listerine,” tour life, and more. Read our interview below. 

Photos by Sara Laufer.

“Listerine” IS OUT! HOW ARE YOU FEELING? 

I feel good! It was one of those songs that was burning a hole in my pocket. I wrote it in December of 2020, so it’s been ready to go for a while. I got it produced this summer and we shot the music video for it in September. Once that was finished, I was like, “Alright, let’s rock.” I’m super excited that it’s done and out in the world. 

GOING BACK TO WHEN YOU FIRST WROTE THE SONG, WHAT PART CAME FIRST? 

I was still living at home in Knoxville when I wrote “Listerine.” I was in my car when I came up with the first lyrics, “I miss you in the worst way / Tryna get your taste out of my mouth with Listerine.” I was driving on the interstate, and I was like, “that could be a cool intro line.” After I got home, I tried to write other lines that I thought would work. The rest of the song came within one or two days, which was amazing because I don’t know what I would have done otherwise. 

DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU WANTED THE SONG TO SOUND LIKE PRODUCTION WISE? 

I knew that I wanted a full band sound. I am so excited with how it turned out. I just write to guitar and it was really nice to see the song come to life. I feel like the production really shows the emotion behind it. I’m stoked with how it turned out and I’m really glad that it’s out. 

YOU’RE CURRENTLY ON TOUR! WHAT’S IT LIKE TO PLAY “Listerine” LIVE? 

It's been so fun. These are my first shows with a full band. It’s nice to hear my songs how they’re supposed to sound and as an acoustic makeshift version. Last night, people were singing along and I was about to cry the whole time. 

WHAT’S IT LIKE BEING ON THE ROAD? 

It’s great, but I’m very stressed out because I’ve had living situations fall through, so I’ve been last minute booking Air B&B's and hotels. It’s nice because one of the shows is where I live and another one of the shows is where I grew up, so at the very least I have locked in places to stay in both of those towns. Otherwise, it’s been really cool playing in new places. I don't know a lot of people in Georgia, so I feel super excited to get to play to a totally different audience.

WHO IS ON THE ROAD WITH YOU? 

I have my friend Holly playing drums, my friend Oscar is playing bass, and then my boyfriend Daniel is playing guitar. My friend Oscar and I met in one of our first classes in college and then my drummer Holly is one of my childhood best friends. It’s very sweet to get to do this with all of them. My two roommates also came. One of them is a concert photographer and the other sells merch for me. They are all my favorite people, so it’s so fun. 

HAVE YOU BEEN DRIVING BETWEEN PLACES? 

We’ve been driving, which has actually not been too bad. Tomorrow I drive home, which is only five hours away and that’s the farthest we’re driving the whole tour. 

WHAT HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN DOING TO KEEP BUSY ON THE ROAD? 

I have this card game called Who's Most Likely To that we’ve been playing, and it’s gotten really heated for no reason. We’re also playing the alphabet game—the one where you try to find all the letters of the alphabet—and that also gets randomly heated. It’s been surprisingly easy to fill up time. It’s going fast.

DO YOU HAVE MORE SHOWS COMING UP SOON?

For this tour we're doing Atlanta, Athens, and Nashville. And then on Sunday, I’m playing in Knoxville, which is separate from the tour. I’m opening for Saint Paul & The Broken Bones for a Halloween show which is going to be crazy because I love them. I’m psyched about it. 

AFTER THE SHOWS IS IT BACK TO SCHOOL?

I'm actually still online which is iconic. It’s nice to have online school as an option if I want to continue my degree. I can still take some classes and inch towards that. Now that I've gotten a taste of not having to go to school and being able to travel and make music full time, it’s like “Why would I ever go back?” 

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE A FULL TIME MUSICIAN? 

It’s weird when the thing you like to do starts to feel like a job. I don’t mean that in a bad way—it’s nice to feel like you have things you need to be doing. But sometimes you don’t feel like being creative and it sucks. It's a lot of remembering that I’m thankful that I get to do music as my job in the first place.

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR TIK TOK USERNAME, @cecespizzabuffet? 

Cici's Pizza is a restaurant chain. It’s such terrible pizza— really gross. I thought it would be a fun play on words, but now I’m super self-conscious that no one has any idea what I'm talking about. It’s literally just a gross pizza place that I thought would be funny to use as a name, but I’m really leaning into it. We just got tote bags made that have pizza on them. 

IF YOU COULD SELL ANY OTHER MERCH ITEM, WHAT WOULD YOU SELL? 

My band and I have been talking about it this whole trip. I really want to get metal straws that are attached to a little keychain holder. We've been to all these places that give you a paper straw which is the worst thing in the whole world. It’s a dream of mine that I will hopefully someday achieve.

IF YOU COULD GO ON TOUR WITH ANYONE, WHO WOULD YOU WANT TO TOUR WITH? 

I love Brandi Carlile. I would love to open for her. I would literally throw up and cry. I would also love to open for Maggie Rogers. I’m manifesting it.

SPEAKING OF MANIFESTING, IF YOU COULD PLAY ANY VENUE ON YOUR NEXT TOUR, WHERE WOULD YOU WANT TO PLAY?

I want to play the Ryman in Nashville more than I want to live. And oh my gosh, the Greek theatre in LA  too! That would be crazy.

CATCH CECE LIVE AND STREAM HER LATEST SONG, “Listerine,” ON STREAMING SERVICES LIKE SPOTIFY AND APPLE MUSIC. GO LISTEN AND MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW @twentyminuteslater TO STAY UPDATED ON FUTURE POSTS.