Mondo Cozmo, courtesy.

Josh Ostrander, better known as Mondo Cozmo, has been working on a dream, to borrow a phrase from Bruce Springsteen. When it comes to the music industry, Ostrander has experienced it all, from signing a label deal to being dropped, breaking up a band and going solo. Name it and he’s done it.

For his new album, It’s PRINCIPLE!, he was inspired by Spoon. Having opened for the band on its tour for 2017’s Hot Thoughts, Ostrander said he was blown away by how it reinvented and reinvigorated itself on Grammy-nominated 2022 album Lucifer on the Sofa.

“I looked up everybody that worked on that record because I just loved it so much. I followed everybody from the producer to the janitor [on social media],” he said. “Everything about that record, from the songs to the artwork, was just brilliant.”

Ostrander thought he couldn’t afford producer Mark Rankin, but he took a shot and sent him a demo. Instead of three or four songs, the demo was a single 25-minute audio file not only of the music but with commentary about it. The approach won Rankin over.

“I felt like I had done everything I could do on my own, and I wanted to sonically go somewhere I couldn’t get to alone,” said Ostrander, who had a Billboard Adult Alternative chart no. 1 single with “Shine” in 2017. “I wanted to know, how far can we push this thing?”

Maybe he’s been cured of his fear of working with producers now. He also enjoyed working with producer Jim Eno (Spoon’s drummer) when he recorded a cover of The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” for Spotify. It’s become one of his most popular songs, with more than 4 million streams. Ostrander said he picked it because his band had been playing it live and getting a good response. Younger crowds were probably impressed because they thought it was his song, he said with a laugh.

The artist said that one of his biggest thrills came when Springsteen himself told the New York Times that he’d been listening to Mondo Cozmo.

“It was a validation for me, in my life and as a writer, where I was at; I really needed something like that,” he said. “It was almost spiritual to me… Just the fact that he mentioned it, and that they printed it – I couldn’t believe it.”

At the time, it gave Josh Ostrander the faith he needed to stay the course with his songwriting. Nowadays, he’s friendly enough with Springsteen that he can send him songs and get his feedback. He’s also inspired by how hungry he said the Boss still is. Not that he needed any inspiration to work hard; Ostrander is already obsessive with his own music. He loves the creativity involved in songwriting, and that feeling than when he’s hit his mark and really feels like he’s nailed it.

“I’ll tell anybody, you gotta be obsessed to do this,” he said. “It’s a 24/7 job. It’s a muscle with writing, if you’re doing it every day, really flexing, then you can move faster working on a song.”

He also loved playing the main stage at BottleRock Napa Valley recently. Mondo Cozmo was joined onstage by an Oakland choir.

“And then I got to see Pearl Jam play and Eddie Vedder threw me a tambourine,” he said. “It was one of the best days I’ve ever had, to be honest.

I love the festivals, because it’s so cool to be able to go check out other bands that I otherwise probably wouldn’t be able to see. Or reconnect with a band that I used to tour with or that I always wanted to meet.”

Playing daytime festival slots used to be daunting for him, but now he loves the challenge of winning over an audience that’s not necessarily there to see Mondo Cozmo. He’s been getting better about stepping outside his comfort zone in general, he added. He’s been taking risks like the wildly abstract cover art of It’s PRINCIPLE! or the video for “Wild Horses.”

“I told the director, ‘Dude, I will do anything you ask me to do. Let’s just make it look cool. You want me to put blood on my face and run through the forest? Let’s do it!’ And that has been kind of exhilarating,” he said.

Follow Rachel Alm on Twitter at @thouzenfold, on Instagram at @thousandfold, and on Bluesky at @thousandfold.bsky.social.