Mondo Cozmo on his latest album, ‘It’s PRINCIPLE!’

Last time World Cafe spoke with Josh Ostrander, who performs as Mondo Cozmo, he was recounting how he accidentally put his hand through a plate glass window. This time, things are definitely sunnier for the indie rock musician who had a breakout hit on his band’s debut, 2017’s “Shine.”

His new album, It’s PRINCIPLE!, arrives filled with anthemic rock songs, part of his mission to make the most cohesive album possible. As Ostrander points out in today’s chat, a lot of that was thanks to the motivation of producer Mark Rankin, who has the nicest way of saying something isn’t good.

Find out what that expression is, and why the record also serves as a loving farewell to Josh’s best friend. Plus, Mondo Cozmo performs live.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.