It’s common for an artist to explore a wide range of creative outlets and energies in the search for something to match the myriad swirling ideas in their head, but it can be surprisingly rare for one to find a vision that merges those avenues all together or a voice to speak up and make it happen.
But vision and voice are two things that Lindsey Cox seems to have mastered.
As the singer, songwriter, and driving creative force behind indie power-pop breakouts stepmom, Cox has established herself as one of the busiest and most outspoken artists in the Oklahoma scene, a mindset that she’s carried into her simultaneous roles as booker, organizer, radio host, social activist, and immersive art team member with Oklahoma City’s Factory Obscura.
But pulling all of those separate creative threads into a singular identity has been no easy feat, and it began by just finding her voice and finding the confidence to develop as a songwriter and a performer.
Lindsey Cox: I was not always confident, and I would say my stage persona as stepmom is like my higher self. It's like my most confident self, and I feel also when I'm writing music, I like try to tap into that higher self of like “what's the lesson I'm trying to learn?”
It's really me just, like, working through my emotions and really trying to grow and deconstruct the world around me.
Brett Fieldcamp: That urge to deconstruct the world through art is what led her to Factory Obscura, the collective developers of engulfing, immersive art installations like their Mix-Tape location in OKC, where Cox has not only become an artistic collaborator, but also booker and organizer, bringing a wildly diverse range of acts to their stage and helping to foster that same creative confidence in new artists.
It’s a path that she sought for herself since her first experience with large-scale immersive art at Santa Fe’s Meow Wolf.
Lindsey Cox: That was like a spiritual experience for me, and I knew in my bones that this is something I was supposed to be doing.
It just shook me that human beings are capable of creating this type of art for nothing but awe and, like, amusement and joy and creating a feeling in other people.
Brett Fieldcamp: Wanting to spearhead something of her own at that same immersive level, Cox began developing what would become Profitopia, a stepmom EP that would be tied into a hands-on immersive art experience running through November and December of last year with its own narrative and world based around the songs’ themes.
But that meant calling on all of her confidence and self-assurance to approach Factory Obscura with an idea that would cross and combine all of her creative wires for the first time.
Lindsey Cox: As I'm working on these songs, it just kind of hit me like, “What if I created an immersive art experience based on the EP?” Each room would be a visual representation of each song.
And I presented it to them just kind of off the cuff, and I think they trust in my vision artistically, and so they were like, “Yeah, let's give it a shot.”
And it eventually turned into Profitopia, a commentary on corporate culture and corporate greed.
Brett Fieldcamp: The full Profitopia project stood as the kind of sharp satire and outspoken commentary for which Cox and stepmom have become known, with her regularly writing slogans and political messages on her guitar before performances, and even with the often bold and radical artists that she showcases through her booking and her weekly radio show Lindsey’s Lounge, where she focuses heavily on woman and minority-led acts.
Lindsey Cox: My view is that if you are given any kind of platform, you need to use it responsibly.
I think we're just having a renaissance. Oklahoma City has such a diverse and wide music scene - and Tulsa - and it has been really cool to see organizations like Rock & Roll Camp for Girls in Oklahoma City that is just creating a whole other generation of women and non-binary musicians that are going to dominate the scene.
Brett Fieldcamp: But while stepmom’s own scene domination continues, Cox will keep finding whatever connections and threads she can throughout all of her endeavors, and will keep relying on the confidence that she’s developed in just creating, presenting, and believing in her voice and her vision.
Lindsey Cox: I really think that stepmom and the radio show and Factory Obscura, it's just like a circle feedback loop. They all just kind of feed into each other.
I realize no one is going to make my dreams happen for me. I have to do it myself. And so that's kind of been the drive of stepmom, just trying to make my dreams happen.
I just want to be traveling the world and playing music. That's all I want to do.
Brett Fieldcamp: You can keep up with Lindsey Cox by following @lindseys__lounge and you can check out more from stepmom ahead of their upcoming west coast tour by visiting stepmomband.com.
Now here’s stepmom with “Survival Mode.”
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