Daily Inspiration: Meet Cooper Gillespie

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cooper Gillespie.

Hi Cooper, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Greg and I met bartending in Hollywood and started playing music together. Our musical project has had many incarnations over the years, but about 10 years ago, we moved to Landers, California, a tiny town near Joshua Tree. We wanted a change of pace from Hollywood, and boy did we get it.

I’d been searching for a good band name for years. Turns out, it’s really hard to find a band name that doesn’t suck. We were hanging out at Pappy & Harriet’s one day when the then-owner, Linda, said, “Oh, you live in Landers? You’re landroids.” And I thought, “That’s it! That’s the band name.” We’ve been LANDROID ever since.

There’s a mystical, otherworldly energy out here in the desert, and I think you can hear it in our music. We blend dream pop, shoegaze, and synth-driven indie rock into what I like to think of as a vast, cinematic sound. The vibe of the desert has a way of getting into everything you create.

Guitarist and songwriter Nigel Roman joined the band a couple years ago, and he’s brought a whole new dimension to our sound and live performances. He also helped write our latest album, Constellation, which we released in June.

Since then, we’ve been touring pretty much nonstop. We’re all road dogs at heart, so the plan is to keep making music and keep touring.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Ha! Is it ever a smooth road when you’re an independent musician?

I think the biggest challenge has been figuring out how to make music sustainable. We love writing songs, recording, and performing. That’s the easy part. But these days, being an independent band also means being your own booking agent, publicist, social media manager, ads manager, marketing department, merch designer, and accountant. And I’m probably forgetting a few jobs. It can get pretty overwhelming.

There have definitely been moments when we’ve wondered whether all the time, money, and energy we pour into this is worth it. But then we play a show in a city we’ve never visited, and people show up knowing the words to our songs. Or someone tells us our music helped them through a difficult time. Those are the moments that remind us why we work so hard and keep doing this.

I think the biggest lesson has been that the definition of success keeps changing. At some point, you realize that getting to spend your life making music with people you love is already a pretty extraordinary thing. That’s what “making it” really is.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We make dreamy, cinematic music. Our sound lives somewhere between dream pop, shoegaze, and synth-driven indie rock, with a healthy dose of desert weirdness thrown in. Imagine the soundtrack to a David Lynch film about a midnight road trip through the Mojave Desert.

We want our music to feel like stepping into a dream where everything is strangely familiar, but something isn’t quite right.

I think what sets us apart is how much the desert has shaped our creative identity. There’s a strange juxtaposition out here between beauty and desolation, isolation and freedom, the familiar and the surreal. That tension finds its way into our music and our visuals.

What I’m most proud of is the community we’ve been building around LANDROID. We’ve connected with people all over the world who resonate with our music, and knowing that something we created out here in the middle of nowhere has reached someone on the other side of the planet is an incredible feeling.

We released our latest album, Constellation, in June 2026, and it feels like our most fully realized work yet. We’re really proud of what we created together, and even more excited about where we’re headed next.

What’s next?
More music, more touring, more adventures! We’ve got a lot planned for 2027, including working on new material and spending as much time on the road as possible. Touring has become one of our favorite parts of being in a band. We love exploring new cities, meeting new people, and connecting with audiences along the way. We’re hoping to play more festivals next year and take LANDROID to places we haven’t been yet.

We have some pretty big dreams for where LANDROID can go, and it feels like we’re just getting started.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://landroidmusic.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/landroidmusic
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/landroidmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@landroidmusic
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7DIJjtbZhJdqXSVSFfBWyP?si=7RMY1dp3StOYulqyqIiEyA

Image Credits
The image credits are in the image file names.

Photographers are:
Zac Gatherum
Alexis Dwyer
Jessica Lane

Main studio photo shot of band:
Errol Colandro