Scotland is producing a fine crop of emerging artists right now. Near the top of a quality pile is the punk duo Cowboy Hunters. Much loved around the Scottish central belt, The Decibel Decoder grabbed a chat with Megan and Desmond before their show supporting Isabella Strange, sharing duties with Bikini Body. It turned out to be perfect timing as they have now announced their debut UK headline tour, named The Cowboy Decimation Tour.
My first question is, what have you got against cowboys?
Desmond: Fuck em!
Did you have any other band names, or was it just you were going after the cowboys?
Desmond: Genuinely the name came first.
How did you get together to form Cowboy Hunters?
Megan: We met at uni, we were studying music at Napier (in Edinburgh). We were in another band called Choka and then the guitarist left and then we did this. That’s it, not very glamorous!
Switching guitars and drums midset is pretty cool. Obviously, you’ve both played both since the beginning.
Desmond: No, we’re both drummers by trade. It was sort of born out of necessity, because neither of us could play the guitar, so it was like, we gotta do something.
And how did it morph to being switching around?
Megan: I think we both like playing drums. We thought it’d be a fun thing to do as well. And people always remember it.
You must see it in the crowd, when people see you for the first time.
Desmond: People remember that and then they’ll look up the songs afterwards.
Megan: People come up to us afterwards and say “Oh you’re the band that switch.“
That’s great! Can’t remember your name, but you’re the band that switch!
Desmond: Genuinely, you’d be so surprised “You guys are Cowboy Killers!”
The latest single, ‘Gemma‘, who did you record and mix that with?
Megan: Ed Meltzer, at Pocket Sound Studios in Granton (Edinburgh). He done all of our stuff, apart from our first two songs. He’s so good.
Desmond: Big up Ed Meltzer.
And have you got more recorded material in the bag?
Megan: Yeah we have a new single coming out soon called ‘Mating Calls’. And we’re announcing a tour as well. Our first tour, it’s very exciting!
Desmond: It’s called “The Cowboy Decimation Tour“. They’re all fucked. They’ve got away with it for too long!
You’ve got a gig booked at the Half Moon Putney in London on 28 February. It’s a night celebrating the best in emerging talent. Is that the first time you’ve played in England?
Desmond: No, we’ve played in Preston before. That was two years ago now. It’s the first London gig.
Megan: They really push those nights, and the last two sold out, so I think the scene in that venue is pretty good. We’re excited.
I have to ask you about the Scottish scene at the moment, because it’s really vibrant. It’s always had a good scene of course but since lockdown, it’s just exploded. And the Scottish Music Collective promoters are just phenomenal. You’re playing the second Houseguest fest in Glasgow 12 April, and the line-up is insane.
Megan: Yeah it’s crazy how many good bands there are in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Why do you think that is?
Desmond: Everyone’s pissed off. We cracked during lockdown.
Megan: Yeah because no-one could play, and we wanted to play and there was two years of that. We were kind of born out of lockdown. Desmond: We spent two years in the fucking lab just being like…… Do you know in Star Wars in Episode One and Darth Maul is fighting Qui-Gon Jinn and they’re walking back and forth and the laser shields are up? That’s what we were like over lockdown. All the bands were like that.
Megan: It’s nice that Edinburgh is on the up as well. I feel like Glasgow gets a better rep, and it does more venues, more bands and stuff, but Edinburgh is coming back as well. There’s loads of bands here, and they play Glasgow all the time.
One final question, how do you create your songs?
Megan: Sort of Desmond cooks.
Desmond: A lot of them start on an acoustic guitar. Each string is broken up, the low strings turn into the bass part, and then the rest turn into the synth parts and the vocal parts. And you sort of go through it like that. I come with sketches, and then Megan colours it in essentially.
And is it very natural to decide which one you’re singing and playing drums or guitar on?
Desmond: We try and keep it even.
Megan: We have a similar range, so it can be quite tricky sometimes. But sometimes it makes more sense, like if the drum parts a bit harder…
Desmond: ..it depends on who you can play what! I come out with word vomit, I like rhymes, so I’ll write a bunch of rhymes. I come from a hip-hop lyric writing background so it’s very much multi-syllabic. Very grime influenced.
I have learnt so much in the last ten minutes!
Megan: But the main takeaway is fuck cowboys!
You didn’t answer my question, by the way. What is wrong with cowboys?
Megan: What isn’t wrong with them!
For more information on Cowboy Hunters please check their facebook and instagram.
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