Dead Cowboy's Sluts Interview

DEAD COWBOY'S SLUTS

Label : M & O MUSIC

1. Can you tell us a little bit about the band for those that have never heard of you before?

Dead Cowboy's Sluts is a side-project which was born few years ago. We are all longtime friends and we all evolved from a decade in various punk / hardcore bands. We have always been big fans of metal. That’s how the idea of playing some metal songs has come, just for fun.

2. How would you describe your musical sound?

Metal. We’re doing it the classic way, sometimes very fast, sometimes less...

We’re often assimilated to a trash metal band, which can actually be true. We let people think what they want about us and our musical genre, it does not bother us. We love all different kind of Metal so everything’s okay for us! One day, a gig booker wrote on a flyer “thrash / stoner” to qualify our music. I don’t know if you can imagine the gap between the two! (Laughs). The only thing I wouldn’t agree would be Christian Metal, because then I would say that the guy didn’t understand anything at all to our music (laughs). On this first album, we’ve clearly chosen to leave it dirty, very close to what you can find live. We wanted something that really smashes, with few arrangements, so people can easily recognize a song when they see us on stage. We insist on the power and the strong energy that comes from it.

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

Our lyrics are mainly based on horror and gore films, particularly about serial killers and their vices. We also speak about religion and, by religion, I mean all of them. We focused on how it can be exploited by some people and take advantage of it for their own. We would like to say that we’re not defending something particularly. The stories we tell remain “stories”. We are not inciting violence or anything else. It’s just pieces of music...

4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the bands name?

The band name is a little tribute to PanterA. If you want to go further, we can say that the term "Cowboy" comes from their song "Cowboy's From Hell", the term "Dead" is related to the death of Dimebag Darrel (and the end of the band’s shows too). Finally, "Sluts" qualifies us as the descendants of this kind of metal. On the old school way !

5. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?

We’ve got a lot of great memories from our shows. If I had to choose one, it would be the “Bataclan” in Paris. This place is legendary! Being on stage and performing a show, in that place where we’ve seen so much bands we like, it was really great. The crowd was there and was going wild. We also really appreciated the show with Cancer Bats. Crazy atmosphere! On stage, we’re trying to flabbergast people, to catch their attention and not let them breathe a second. We give everything we have and really try to recreate visually what people can hear on the album. For this reason, we set up several screens on stage, broadcasting freaky and weird videos. If you want people to be reactive in the pit, you have to unleash your own rage on stage! To sum up, we’re energic, powerfull, full of positive rage! We drink a lot, talk a lot, and do everything to put people in the mood we want.

6. Do you have any touring plans for the future? 

We are going to book a lot of gigs to promote the album release in September 2012, so we should be able to export our shows quickly in other European countries and, we hope, worldwide.

7. Currently you are singed to M & O Records, how did you get in contact with this label and how would you describe the support that they have given you so far?

We’ve been looking for some partnerships after having our album recorded. The M & O MUSIC label was the best proposal regarding to our situation. There are not so much serious labels in France for metal bands. M & O MUSIC is really doing a great job with the bands it oversees, as far as the promotional point of view, as distribution and other live shows proposal. We felt that they have a real desire to make things right by their side and, for the moment, we don’t regret our choice.

8. On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of thrash and death metal?

For now, we can say that we had good feedbacks for the music we play and shows we perform. We were so lucky to open for famous bands and the public has always responded positively to our live shows. I could not tell you much more on this, because we’re not interested that much on this point. What we love is making music, playing together, growing, and performing good shows. When we play live, it really matters to us that the rooms is filled with a great atmosphere. The rest belongs to the forums and things like that on the internet. It doesn’t participate to the music at all; it doesn’t interest us more than that. We experience music as something personal. Even if people don’t hang to it, we would continue to enjoy playing together first. We are completely honest in our approach, we play what we like, we dress as we want to, and we say what we want to say even if it can displease. This is the way we think as a united band, and it’s not about to change. If people like that, this is really great, but if they don’t, we don’t give a shit. We’re fully aware that we’ll never be superstars. We play music to do what we love first, and live our life this way, day after day. We do things when we decide to do it, and there’s no way for us to worry about the current trends. We don’t have to rely it, or care about someone’s point of view about it. People have to like, we don’t have to adapt ourselves. That’s the way it is.

9. Are there any current side projects besides this band or is this a full time line up?

As I said at the beginning, Dead Cowboy's Sluts is already a side project of every members of the group. Now it is our main activity because we had chance to do more gigs and go further with it. Now, all that we were doing before is on a stand-by mode. It doesn’t’ mean that we can’t work on different projects by our own, but nothing really serious by the way. We are in Dead Cowboy's Sluts, and for the moment we’re all completely devoted to it.

10. What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?

We are still composing new songs and for now, it is in the same mainstream as the first album. Of course, the more we play, the more we move forward, so it opens new doors. We don’t think about it. We are carrying away to see what it will become, but at least, for the moment, we’re not looking in another direction. The efficiency is more important for us than pure technical demonstration, or constantly seeking tons of arrangements and harmonies that can finally overload your music. Moreover, if you're not able to give back on stage what you’ve created because you’ve completely separated your work in the studio over the reality of your shows, it doesn’t really sound right.

11. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

I will not be very original in my answer. The main influence of the group, is clearly positioned on the metal like PanterA, Slayer, At The Gates, the Haunted, Lamb of God. It is a description of our influences broadly as metal music is wide today and it would still be too limited to speak only of those big bands. Individually, we listen to every kind of music : Metal, punk and hardcore are the basis of what we’re listening to, because we’re playing this kind of sound for a long time, but we have, in the band, big fans of Hip Hop, blues, jazz, rock, electro, dancehall, reggae, etc..

We think it is important, when you’re a musician, to be aware of others musical genre. Inspiration doesn’t come every time from Metal, to compose Metal songs. We love music for what it represents and the feelings it gives. This is how the inspiration can come from, even if the musical genre is totally different. You take the things you’ve appreciated, to put it back in a fucking violent song as we love (laughs). Music is a universal thing and sometimes you can find much more violence in an acoustic song than in a trash metal one.

12. Outside of music what are some of your interests?

Catechism, synchronized swimming and fishing. (laugh)

No; Sex, Alcool, Drugs, Alcool, Rock’N’Roll & Alcool.

13. Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?

Yes. First, we would like to thank you to take an interest in our group.  We want to thank people who support us and who are coming in our gigs. All the people who trust us and give us the opportunity to go further, our label M&O Music, all the friends we have who are there for us when we need. Thank you.