Mark talks to Per and Luca from Cowboy Prostitutes about their new way of releasing music. Quite simply they are a band that you should be listening to. If you like your rock and roll with lashings of punk and sleaze then read on…
Mark: Someone had to come up with a new concept of releasing their music, tell us about how you have chosen to produce new music and why you think that your slant will work?
LUCA: Well, the thing is that we got fed up with the way things are going in the music world nowadays. We want to prove a point: record labels are feeding us shit, Mtv is feeding us shit, promoters are feeding us shit… we are all buying this old concept of the “album making” even though we are not actually buying albums no more! To be a “professional, touring band” you need to have an album out; booking agencies don’t book you if you don’t have a new album out… you don’t get interviews if you don’t have a new album out. And for what?
So we can go and spend a lot of time and money in the rehearsal/recording studio? Money we will never get back cause we are making a product not many people buy anymore… it’s kinda insane, don’t you agree? So we thought: let’s do something that will make our music better, will keep us always coming out with new things every month and specially will make making music fun again!
Mark: Is promising to release a certain number of songs a month going to be a challenge for you? And do you think that putting yourselves under that pressure will be a positive thing?
LUCA: Life has to have its challenges to be interesting and pressure doesn’t scare us (plus we have sooOOOooo many new songs in our archive we could record 3 albums if we wanted!). But the truth is that by concentrating on a few songs a month we will make them better; I think it’s a bigger challenge for a band to record an album with 12/13 songs and keep them all fresh… you can do that if you’re Aerosmith and don’t have to go to work to buy food cause your job actually IS spending a few months in the studio creating an album… but there’s not many bands in that position today when the record industry is dying and that’s what I find ridiculous!
Even though all bands write on their myspace that they basically are the next big thing and they have signed with this and that label and have opened up for this and that band, we all know that in their real life they all need to go and work 9 to 5 to make a living and with that kind of fatigue on them there’s no way they can have the energy left to produce and record an album in just 2/3 months… cause that’s what it takes… any longer time will make the first songs you wrote just BORING! But with doing it the way we are, the song’s will always be fresh and a pleasure to play and record… and that will always show through the recordings!!
Mark: A friend sent me your first CD back in 2005 which is what started me off with Cowboy Prostitutes. You got a lot of good feedback at the time but the big labels seemed to ignore you?
LUCA: Sure they do: once upon the time you’d have the talent scout going out and discover bands like us for the big labels… nowadays, the only way you get to them, is through contacts which is also a synonym for licking ass and we don’t do it very well. As you can see, we are pretty straight forward guys and we tell it as it is… but the big sharks up there don’t really like that. It’s cool, soon we won’t need any of them…
Mark: Your sound is very underground, very sleazy and very in your face. How would you describe it?
LUCA: Exactly like you said. Sleazy is a word that as kinda lost its meaning in the Rock world though… We are more Punk then Sleazy I guess, but the new stuff we are working on is full of surprises… and, you see, that’s another good thing with not doing albums: we don’t have to stick to one sound, one image… of course we will always be Cowboy Prostitutes, but we can now have more fun with what we do, without boundaries.
Mark: How would you sum up the years between that first album and today for Cowboy Prostitutes? How hard has it been?
LUCA: Not very hard. We are having fun man, we are playing Rock n Roll… how hard can it be?
Mark: What inspires you to still make music despite those setbacks?
PER: Well despite a bumpy road, broken promises and major fuck ups by all and us included, the struggle is what fuels our music and our continued crusade for world domination. Simply put “The Love”.
Mark: How hard is it for new bands these days to get heard when it seems like kids’ attention spans will soon be at goldfish-like levels?
LUCA: Exaclty: how hard? It’s VERY hard! But don’t be fooled by the MTV generation! There is an underground movement out there that is following every move bands like us do. Problem is that they are spread a bit here and a bit there, all over the world and it’s kinda difficult to reach them all, unless you use the internet and the download sites like we will.
Mark: You are back in Italy touring again this month, you seem to go down well there according to my Italian friends what is the scene like in Europe at the moment?
LUCA: Italy is always cool, and so is Germany, the other country we tour a lot these days… Sweden would be cool but the venues pay shit and therefore make it pretty difficult for bands our size to play around.
Mark: What can people expect from the Cowboy Prostitutes in the live setting?
LUCA: We are very honest… on a good night we will kick you in the mouth so hard you’ll need new teeth before you go home; on a bad night I might insult you cause you’re not sweating enough and kick you in the mouth for that… either way you’ll need to see a dentist, hehe…
Mark: What has been your most memorable moment out on the road?
PER: One of the most memorable moments was a outdoor festival we played in Hamburg. As we where preparing to go on stage the manger of the festival assembled all the roadies on the light rig above the stage, unknown to us. And as we hit the first chord in the first song of the set they showered us and the stage with an insane amount of toilet rolls. We played that whole set knee deep in shithouse paper. All in good spirits though. One of the greatest gig ever. Not to speak about the party afterwards… Reeperbahn anyone?
Mark: Do you play any unusual covers?
PER: Two covers that allways finds a way on to our setlist is ‘Punk and Beligerant’ – Warrior Soul and ‘Sucksex’ – Filthy Lucre. But with the release of our latest studio session we’re also gonna inclued ‘Brown Suger’ by the mighty Stones.
Mark: ‘Let Me Have Your Heart’ your latest album I think is your best yet. What was the response like to the album?
LUCA: Mixed, but mostly bad… Like said, the more energy you put on your album, the less will people understand… try reviewing song by song now, fuckers! Then they really will have to listen to them all!!
Mark: What are you listening to at the moment?
PER: Royal Republic – underwear, Sister Sin all albums I go Swedish for the moment.
LAO: Stone Rider – Three Legs of Trouble.
TOBBE: John Mayer all the albums.
LUCA: Warrior Soul.
Mark: What are you biggest musical influences and have they changed over the years?
PER: Well pretty much all of us started out listening to the “big ones” in rock, Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe, Pantera to name a few legends. But as you probably can tell by the previous answer everyone has branched out a bit over the years. Still firmly rooted in right down dirty n’ gritty rock though.
Mark: You always had that cool 80’s LA scene vibe about you, albeit with a punchier edge. Who did you particularly admire from that time?
LUCA: I was and still am a Guns N Roses fan… loads of other bands from that period has fascinated me but that’s always gonna be the band that shakes me up even on the most boring night…
Mark: The artwork on your CDs has always been great, you seem to have a really cool image are you keeping the artwork going now that you are going digital?
LUCA: We are indeed!! For the first two songs we will now release on the 14/01 we are actually using a band picture a friend of ours took a few months ago… but then we are back with our favourite artist David Cederlöf (http://www.myspace.com/blaeck) who is a genius and always helps us out with great drawings!
Mark: What does ROCK mean to you?
LUCA: You’re in the middle of the night, somewhere in Europe, you’re lost in the countryside and your van just broke down; you have no money and no food, plus you haven’t slept for over 48 hours… and although someone else would break down and cry, you look up at the beautiful starry sky and think: boy I love this!
Mark: What does 2011 hold for the band?
LUCA : Lots of new songs!!! Hehe… and lots of touring, I hope!
Mark: If you could have been involved with the creation and recording of any album or piece of music what would it have been and why?
LUCA: I would like to find something clever to say, but I’m gonna go for Tobbe’s idea instead cause it’s pretty funny: Metallica’s Black album’s, so that I can sit and watch how badly Lars Ulrich is at playing drums, hehehe…
Mark: And finally the really easy question we ask everyone: ‘What is the meaning of life’?
LUCA: Mmm… coming to play in Australia? Was that the right answer? 😉
Mark: It’s definitely part of the right answer! Many thanks for your time guys! Keep in touch my friend and have a great 2011!