Cowboy Hunters on EPeepee and festival season

There’s nothing that a rowdy gen-z punk band likes more than a good bit. Scottish duo Cowboy Hunters encapsulate this in their ragging stage banter and humour of all kinds, not leaving a single gig without punters having a good boogie and a giggle. Think prop comedy: as last year's Kelburn Garden Party set found Desmond Johnston throwing grapes from their drum kit at hungry festival attendees in the midst of them dancing to Megan Pollock’s fiery basslines. “ Did you see me throw the grape into the guy's mouth?” Johnston perks up and asks me on an early morning Zoom call. I’d seen that epic moment in their set, been standing right next to the guy who caught it and completely forgot that it happened. Neither of them had. How could they when Pollock classifies it as an “all-time Cowboy Hunters moment.”

I’m catching up with Cowboy Hunters in what seems to be a two-week break from the band’s go-go-go touring lifestyle. In the run-up to releasing their new EP, EPeepee, the band played dates with Bob Vylan and joined Sleaford Mods for a trio of shows across Ireland and Northern Ireland. Somewhere along those run of shows an older punk approached after their set and offered some unsolicited advice. “ We had someone in Ireland very concerned that we were gonna die,” Johnston recounts. “He was just like, ‘Be careful, I want to see what you're doing in 12 years time. Do not die.’”

Johnston and Pollock’s unrivaled love of Tennent's, as characterised in EPeepee's opening number Have a Pint, must have caught this fella's attention. The tune opens with a synth backing track, Johnston follows a few beats later with a heavy kick drum and Pollock begins to fiercely, yet somehow drily sing, ‘Look outside, what a sight / Everything's fucked, mate, everybody sucks but that's alright / Have a pint, have five / Make a little dance, mate, shake a little ass and have a fight.’ This track acutely summarises Cowboy Hunters and their generation's mood: this shit is on fire, we might as well have a dance and party as it all goes up in flames. 

Heavily influenced by Kesha, who rocked the 2010s with a wave of recession pop anthems, Cowboy Hunters have taken this inspiration and written their own recession punk bangers about being cunty in the midst of another cost of living crisis. Pollock fashions the band as “if Kesha played drums.” While Johnston takes a beat to come up with a punk band that is the antithesis to themselves. Simply put: "We’re more into Kesha than the Sex Pistols. It's a different branch of punk.”

Pollock and Johnston see no other way to get through another politician crashing the economy or starting endless imperial wars besides playing music, dancing and partying in sweaty gig venues. “Literally every day there's some sort of fucking new thing that's happening and it's like what can we do if not get fucked up. What is it, Dubai that's getting bombed now?” Johnston, speaking directly about the war started with Iran by the United States and Israel just two days before our chat can’t do much, if anything, to stop world leaders from carpet bombing civilians across the Middle East. Since they’re well aware of this, unlike the Sex Pistols were, Cowboy Hunters are much “ more into pop than changing the world, ['cause the] world's fucked.” 

Last year we were lucky enough to book this rambunctious duo’s first proper camping festival on The Skinny’s Pyramid Stage at Kelburn Garden Party. “There's a song on the EP [Cuntry Girl] that we tried to play at Kelburn, but we fucked it up like three times in a row and then we just fucked that off and played the next song. We've never played it live since.” Almost in unison with Johnston, Pollock jumps in: “It's cursed.” Johnston continues: “ We tried to play it. I just couldn't remember how it starts and we just fucked it off and [went] right on with the set; carried on chucking grapes at folks.” Finally able to listen to Cuntry Girl in its entirety on EPeepee, the track has a way of encapsulating the duo’s witty and hilarious "less doom-and-gloom" ethos.

Image courtesy of Cowboy Hunters.

Pollock launches into Cuntry Girl, fretting a booming bassline that repeats until a synth breakdown later in the song's sharp 90-second runtime. A mere second after the tune opens, Johnston absolutely smashes their kit and together the duo create an intense and unmistakably furious punk sound. One that could only be created by use of sparse instrumentation. Johnston, in their striking Shetland accent, sings, 'Serve cunt not countries / Don’t don’t don’t get sad, get mad, get cunty / Turn up and turn up / Fill your lungs, scream serve cunt not countries'.

Cuntry Girl, along with the other tracks on EPeepee were produced and recorded by local artist Ed Meltzer at Pocket Sounds Studio in Granton. “He knows how we sound, knows the vibe and gets it,” Pollock states, praising the process of working with Meltzer, and Johnston agrees: “He's very up for fucking about and we're very up for any ideas that he has as well. So it works on that level.” 

Getting excited for Cowboy Hunters' absolutely stacked festival season, Pollock is keen to change up the setlist as summer comes around.  ”We're doing five that aren't recorded, which are the funnest ones right now.” Sitting on loads of unreleased material and ready to unleash their raw energy on stages across the UK and Europe, Cowboy Hunters are kicking off festival season at the tail end of the month playing Bristol’s Easton Punk Festival (30 Apr), followed by appearances at The Great Escape (13-16 May) and Supersonic's Block Party in Paris (14 - 16 May). In peak summer cowboys will be hunted at 2000trees in Cheltenham (8-11 Jul) and by the end of the season, most of the UK should be cowboy free when the band plays End of the Road (Larmer Tree Gardens, 3-6 Sep) and Attitude Festival (Exchange, Bristol, 3 Oct) – with more slots still to be announced. 

Getting ready for festival season with Cowboy Hunters

Before we end our chat, ahead of their stacked festival season, and in the true spirit of April’s festival extravaganza issue, I asked Cowboy Hunters to share a few tips and tricks to get yourself and your pals through these big party-filled summer weekends like a champ. 

What's your go-to move after you've woken up in the tent?
Pollock: Water [in a groggy and hungover voice]. ‘Oh no. Uh, do I have my phone? Did I take my shoes off?’ Then chai latte.
Johnston: Oh, chai latte, yes.
Pollock: Yeah, for the throat.

That will recover anything. You guys played Kelburn for The Skinny last year, what advice would you give to anyone going to Kelburn, or any other camping festival this summer?
Pollock: Make sure you've got some crisps and some roll for the whole weekend. Leave at least one crate of beer in the car so you don't drink them all on the first night.
Johnston: Bring more alcohol than you think you need. It'll get drank at some point. 
Pollock: But do leave it in the car or it'll all be [gone after] night one. 
Johnston: If someone offers you mushrooms saying they're not very strong, they're lying. 

You'll get through, you'll be fighting so just hunker down in the forest for a little while. Get over the hump.
Johnston: Go to the dub tent. Everything's safe in the dub tent, if you're going to Kelburn.

What other food are you bringing to stay fed throughout the festival?
Johnston: Play Kelburn 'cause then they give you free food. Start a band, that's the advice for the best festival experience.

Are you guys out there shaking ass all night until the sun comes up every night of the festival? Or are you playing the long game, taking it easy and then going crazy maybe the second day?
Johnston: Full send every night. 
Pollock: Full send, don't waste a second. Double down.

Tennent's from the campsite cooler, a few in the boot or Tennent's from the bar?
Pollock: Tennent's sort of warm, just chucked in the tent. Already too much stuff to carry, so just drink your  Tennent's warm and deal with it. 

What's a standard cowboy hunting weapon that you'd carry at the festival? Just in case those little shits try something?
Pollock: I'm a flail guy [yes, ball and chain weapon]. Um, sometimes I get some questions at security, but normally it's fine.
Johnston: I usually go nunchucks, 'cause you can sort of hide them on your person.
Pollock: Quite portable. 

Where did you learn to use nunchucks?
Johnston: Just watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

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EPeepee is out now

Cowboy Hunters play Easton Punk Festival, Bristol, 30 Apr; The Road to The Great Escape, King Tut's, Glasgow, 9 May; The Great Escape, Brighton, 13 May; Supersonic's Block Party Festival, Paris, 16 May; 2000 Trees Festival, Cheltenham, 9 Jul; End of the Road, Larmer Tree Gardens, 3 Sep; Attitude Festival, Bristol, 3 Oct