The Cowcatchers – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.
RRX: It’s a lot of fun living in the present, but we all collect memories and give birth to dreams. We’re talking dreams here. Where do you see yourself next year? In the next five years?
TC: In the next year, we hope to have at least an EP released, but a full album release would be nice too. In five years time we’d love to tour a full-length album! In the meantime, it’d be great to start playing more regular gigs in the local bar scene.
RRX: Like songs, every artist has a unique feeling about their first show. What was your first show like? Was it your best show? If not, what was your best show like?
TC: Our first show that we played was a “local bands cover local bands” festival at No Fun where fourteen bands were tasked with covering music from other local acts. We covered songs by Prince Daddy & the Hyena in an acoustic, folky style. It was super fun to play these heavy punk songs in a completely different way. It was also awesome to play on the same bill as big local acts like CPS, Golem, and Everybody That Loves You.
RRX: What instrument would you add to the band if you could? Is there anything you are trying to do musically that would be helped with one or more additional players?
TC: One instrument we would love to add to the band would be a keys player, it would open up so many musical options. As of right now, our line-up is one guitarist, one bassist, and one drummer. Adding a keys player would be a great way to introduce more differentiated rhythm/lead parts, in a way that’s more unique sounding than the usual two guitars.
RRX: What historical era would you like to visit if the sole purpose was to put together a Battle of the Bands? How would you set it up?
TC: If we were to set up a Battle of the Bands, we’d travel back to caveman times. We’d set it up by going to a local cave and gathering as many cavemen as possible. It’d be interesting to see what music sounded like way before modern music and recording, any music that existed would be purely passed down from person-to-person, and just be a real representation of those peoples’ lives and traditions. Plus, we’d knock their freaking socks off if they were banging rocks and stuff and we had awesome electric guitars and drums and stuff. I think we’d win… or maybe Grug the caveman would win… not sure yet… we’ll see…
RRX: Part of learning to be a musician is to fall in love with a song, an album, andhammer away at your instrument until you can play that whole thing. What was that song for you? Was there a hardest part?
TC: For us, that album was probably The Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse. It’s such an energetic and charged album, and it sounds so full even though there’s only three main band members. Since we’ve only got one guitarist right now, I’ve been trying to take some tips from Modest Mouse on how to fill in the sound with only one guitar. The hardest part of learning that album is playing as aggressively and energetically as that the band is able to do. There’s lots of very talented and emotional performances on that album!!
RRX: Let’s talk about your next project, your next few. Just not the ones you’re working on now. The ones you have your eyes on for the future. What’s coming to us?
TC: As of right now, we’re working towards recording an EP with a couple originals and a cover song as well. Beyond that we hope to just keep writing songs and playing shows. And there’s always a big backlog of half-written songs that we want to work through.
Photo by Scott Peterson.