Mondo Cozmo

Mondo Cozmo delivers a sweeping, ambitious sonic blend that merges the sweeping grandeur of Arcade Fire with hip-hop textures and rustic, Dylanesque folk roots. The moniker belongs to Joshua Ostrander, a singer and songwriter now based in Los Angeles. Following early attention for his 2017 debut album Plastic Soul, he kept pushing forward, issuing the high-energy New Medicine in 2020 and the exploratory This Is for the Barbarians two years later. His fourth full-length, the charged and heartfelt It's PRINCIPLE!, marked a sharper peak in emotional force and reached listeners in August 2024.

Born in Philadelphia, Ostrander first surfaced in the alt-rock outfit Laguardia, whose solitary album appeared on Universal Republic in 2004. He and longtime collaborator Greg Lyons soon departed to launch Eastern Conference Champions, a robust indie-rock threesome that cut material for Geffen during the latter half of the decade. Ostrander launched his solo path in April 2016 via the single “Hold on to Me,” the initial release credited to Mondo Cozmo. The follow-up track “Shine,” unveiled that September, climbed to the summit of the Billboard Adult Alternative Songs Airplay chart and cleared the path for Plastic Soul, which surfaced in August 2017.

Maintaining a steady output, he dropped the four-song Your Motherfucker EP during summer 2018 while supporting Vance Joy on a major tour. After inking a deal with Toronto’s Last Gang Records, Ostrander resurfaced in June 2020 with New Medicine, an album leaning harder into rock textures. This Is for the Barbarians, his third long-player, arrived two years afterward and took a starker direction while probing the full spectrum of lived experience. For the next project he enlisted producer Mark Rankin—known for work with Queens of the Stone Age and Adele—to shape the gritty, melody-rich It’s PRINCIPLE!, released in August 2024.