Ithaca College Artist: The Cod'A Project

Colleen is a Sophomore with a Bachelor of Music major and minor in creative writing at Ithaca College. Colleen knew she had a huge passion for poetry and music, both separately and together, and this is the perfect major to express that in.

“I've been making music since I could talk. I was always been coming up with little songs in the backseat, or dancing along to music in the living room, or playing with the keys on the piano.”

The Cod'A project is the name for her music, and although she is the artist, she wants her music to be able to stand up by itself.

“I like my name - Colleen, but there are a lot of Colleens in the world and I needed something that was unique to me. I knew that I wanted to still respond to my given name, anything else felt less-than-genuine, so that's why I decided to name my music/career endeavors rather than myself. Cod'A comes from the first two letters of my first name, and the first two letters of my last name (Co-lleen d'A-lelio).”

The name also has a double meaning. In addition to being a mixture of her last name, coda is also a term used in classical music, deriving from the latin word for tail, so she liked that this name paid homage to her love for classical music as well.

Her biggest musical role model is Bon Iver. According to Colleen, the way he approaches music is so innovative and unique, there is not another artist that sounds exactly like him and she loves that. He is always pushing boundaries and experimenting with equipment that hasn't been used before, all while staying true to himself. He is also an impressionistic writer which she finds incredibly interesting and wish she could emulate.

After contacting Shanel, CollegeTown Records CEO, through Facebook responding to an ad that looking for songwriters. Colleen assumed this might be a student film opportunity or a one-time thing, but before long I was signed onto the project as a songwriter for other artists. Eventually, Shanel signed Colleen as an artist and I was able to write for myself as well.

“I am so thankful to Shanel for providing an insane amount of people with some insane opportunities, and my mind is blown every day about the magnitude of this project. I just filmed a music video, and on set everyone knew the lyrics to my song. We shot for 9 hours and it was so incredibly humbling to see people enjoy my music and to feel the collective excitement towards what we were working on.”