Foto-© Clementine Schneidermann

Mit ihrem Debütalbum It Goes On haben sich Westside Cowboy endgültig von einem heiß gehandelten Geheimtipp zur vielleicht spannendsten jungen Indieband Großbritanniens entwickelt. Das Quartett aus Manchester verbindet hymnischen Indie-Rock, Folk, Country und Americana-Einflüsse zu einem Sound, den die Band selbst augenzwinkernd als „Britainicana“ bezeichnet: rau, ungeschliffen, voller Melodien und zugleich von einer fast greifbaren Dringlichkeit geprägt. Auf It Goes On gelingt ihnen das Kunststück, zeitlose Gitarrenmusik zu schreiben, die sich gleichermaßen nach The Velvet Underground, Teenage Fanclub oder Big Thief anfühlt und dabei trotzdem unverkennbar nach Westside Cowboy klingt. Produziert von Loren Humphrey (Geese, Wunderhorse, Cameron Winter), präsentiert sich das Album bewusst roh und lebendig, als Aufnahme von vier Musiker:innen in einem Raum, bei der Emotion wichtiger ist als Perfektion.

Der außergewöhnliche Ruf der Band kommt jedoch nicht allein von ihren Songs. Westside Cowboy gelten längst als eine der stärksten Live-Bands ihrer Generation, deren Auftritte gleichermaßen intensiv, emotional und unberechenbar wirken. Nach den gefeierten EPs This Better Be Something Great und So Much Country ’Til We Get There führte ihr Weg über das Glastonbury Emerging Talent Programme, ausverkaufte Headline-Shows und prominente Support-Touren mit Geese sowie Black Country, New Road. Entstanden ist die Band aus vier jungen Musiker:innen mit Wurzeln in Manchesters kreativer Szene, die nicht nur musikalisch, sondern auch gesellschaftlich Akzente setzen und mit der Initiative No Band Is An Island lokale Künstler:innen, Wohltätigkeitsorganisationen und politische Initiativen zusammenbringen. Kaum eine andere junge Gitarrenband vereint derzeit so selbstverständlich musikalische Klasse, Gemeinschaftsgeist und das Gefühl, dass hier gerade etwas wirklich Bedeutendes beginnt. Wir sprachen vor dem Album-Release via Zoom mit Reuben Haycocks und Paddy Murphy von der Band – unser Interview!

Thanks for meeting me this way. I have some questions for you. Most of them, first off, to introduce you, I would say. So, maybe to start off, I think most of you have met at college, right?
Paddy: Yeah. Me and Ruben we met on the first day and then we met Aoife a few days later. I knew Jimmy from a few years before, but then he basically worked down the road from where our main uni building was, so we would just see him all the time. Yeah, it was weird, we were friends, me and Reuben were in a band before, from uni, but, like, Cowboys, we were kind of friends for a much longer time before we really kind of entered our head of playing together as a four.

When did you then decide to form a band or was there like a an event or happening where it was like, we should be a band?
Paddy: Well, me and Ruben had a band before, and it wasn’t really going very well at the time. It was just wasn’t very fun. We’d kind of ruined it for ourselves by taking it too seriously. And it was at that time that me and Jimmy also had an old band, that also wasn’t going very well, so there was two bands that were kind of, like, floundering. And then Jimmy, just because he was bored, kind of was like, oh, should we start a new band together and have it be called Westside Cowboy? And that was kind of all it was. We were like, yeah, sure, because it was just something fun to do in the evenings. And then Aoife, who’d never played bass in a band before, was just hanging around because we all kind of lived in each other’s houses. And she started playing bass and it was a very natural thing. It really wasn’t a lot of thought to it at all. I think that was one of the good things about it. Like, there was no preconceived ideas at all of what we wanted it to be.

There was the band name already there from the start, like you said, like let’s form the band which is called Westside Cowboy?
Reuben: Yeah, that’s literally what it was. Do you want to be in a band called Westside Cowboy? Yes. Now here we are.

Where did the name come from? Was it just, like, by accident?
Paddy: I think Jimmy was bored at work, and was, like, reading a thing on his phone, and it was about these cowboys that used to be in the Old West, and then when all the work dried up, they went over to New York, because people were getting hit by trains and these cowboys ride in front of the trains and sort of warn people…but realistically it was just a name. Like, that’s the hardest thing done, really, like starting a band.

And so, at first, it was just about fun. So, when did it change that you really had the feeling, okay, now we have something here we, that we want to really follow up or or was it just like by accident one step after the after?
Reuben: We have a few moments, where something clicked and we were like, oh, well, this better than we were expecting. I think the first time that we ever got that idea was, when we wrote I’ve never met anyone I thought I could really love until I met you. We all sort of separately listened to the voice memo of that quite frequently. And I think for all of us, that was the first time where it’s like, oh shit, we can actually write songs if we want to. We didn’t really planned on writing songs when we started the band, we just wanted to cover Lonnie Dunnigan. So, yeah, that was the first time that we were ever felt like, oh shit, we could actually be a band. And then the first time that we felt like a band was when we played 4 shows at a festival in the UK called The Great Escape. In as many days, and it was quite an intense time, but it was really great. First time we played to a significant amount of people, so that was the first time that we felt like a band, you know?

Sounds really exciting when you just try something out by chance, and then it makes such a difference in the end. What I find also interesting, you were all friends before then, or together in former bands. So when you grouped up and we’re starting to write stuff, how did the different musical backgrounds complement each other? Like, was it easy to find, like, this is our sound?
Reuben: I think that we had a very strict set of rules when we started. We had what we would consider a manifesto. We all had very different music tastes. They all overlapped, you know, in the Venn diagram, there was a bit in the middle, there was this thing in the center. When we started the band, we gave ourselves very strict rules, like, it can’t be over 3 minutes, and it can’t be over 3 chords, and, you know, like, all of those sorts of things…and you have to be able to hum the tune and whatever. So we never really had to think about, oh, what is our sound, or whatever. It’s like, we couldn’t do anything particularly different or experimental at the start, without breaching those rules. We didn’t have to worry about what our sound would be and how our influences would clash or work well together, it just felt, this is exactly what we had to do. Maybe, looking back, you can see some influences poking through. But only influences that would only used 3 chords, and 3 minute songs, you know, like Pixies and Pavement and those.
Paddy: Reuben put it well, like, we weren’t really thinking, because we all do have things that we all like together, but we’ve got four quite different music tastes and backgrounds and things. I think, another massive influence, to be honest, more than any of that was just playing gigs live. You find out a lot about your band just from playing your songs in front of people, and I think that was a bigger influencer than any band or whatever. It kind of influences itself just from the environment and bing in , I don’t know, the Manchester music scene in 2024 or whatever it was. But we’re still there now.

And I think you already mentioned, this manifesto and, as you talked about a lot in other interviews, just keeping things or the music simple in the end. Like, how important was this mission statement and the start for your bands identity?
Paddy: Yeah, we’d come from a band before, mine and Ruben’s old band was called DieKaiDie and it had its moments, but we’d got ourselves to a point where everything was just too complicated. We just really were like: We just shouldn’t let it get like that, because it just takes the fun and it makes you feel paralyzed in the creative…but if you keep things really simple, and give yourself really narrow, easy parameters to work in, like you’ve got a guitar and some drums, you got 4 chords, we just found it so much more freeing and more fun. So, the minute we realized that, it was like, well, why would we do it any other way, and since then, that been something that’s always stuck with us. If in doubt, just keep it simple, you know, don’t try and overcook anything. It’s a good friend having that sort of piece of advice with us, I think it’s been a very nice companion. And we now carry it through, it’s weird, it has influenced just our lives more generally. Like, I don’t think in our lives we try and overdo too much these days anymore. Not as much as we did, I think we try and live kind of slightly more simple existences because we realized, that’s what kind of makes us happy.

Yeah, I can relate to that. You released two EPs last year, and we’re kind of touring all through the year, it feels like. Which is a bit surprising, like, if you say this don’t-plan-things-out-too-much mindset, but then have so many releases – and how did you manage to record a debut album anyway in this timeframe where it’s, like, so dense, with touring and releasing?
Reuben: We have a fantastic group of people around us who help with all of those things. If we were still planning and booking tours ourselves, we probably wouldn’t have gotten around to making the album or even the second EP. What we really love is writing songs. Personally, I get quite frustrated if we spend too much time rehearsing songs we’ve already released. There’s always been this burning feeling to keep moving forward and create more and more.
Paddy: I think people underestimate how amazing it is for your mind to have an obsession. For us, it’s all we think about and all we talk about. Writing songs gives us a reason to get out of bed every morning. We never really had a grand plan. Someone who is much better at the logistical side of things asked us whether we thought we’d have enough songs to record an album in January, and we simply said yes.
Reuben: We also like the idea of staying a few steps ahead. When we first signed with Island, we jokingly, but also slightly seriously, told them we already had three albums written. Technically, we probably did have enough material for three albums, although I’m not sure how much of it was actually good. In reality, we maybe had half an album’s worth of great songs. Deadlines are incredibly useful for us. When someone tells you, “This is the time you have, now go and make the album,” it forces you to focus. You don’t have time to overthink or endlessly tweak things. It creates a sense of urgency. We finished recording the album and went straight back on tour the next day. Then we didn’t really get to think about the record again until a couple of months later when it was time to mix it. Even that had to happen quickly because another tour was coming up and everything needed to be prepared for mastering. Things move incredibly fast, but honestly, I think that pace is good for us.

I can imagine that it must also be difficult because once you start playing the songs live, you may realize they work differently on stage or that audiences react to them in unexpected ways. At that point, the album was already finished apart from the mixing, right?
Reuben: Yeah, exactly. It was the first time we’d ever recorded songs before really playing them live. It’s been a very interesting experience, and I’m actually glad we did it that way. We recently played a show in Manchester where we performed the album in full. We were all quite nervous beforehand, but it ended up feeling really fresh and exciting. When you record a song first, you get to understand it in its purest form. When you play a song live for years before recording it, you understand it primarily at its most impactful level. We often found that songs we’d been performing for a long time had become almost exaggerated over the years. If songs were people, they’d be completely built up, louder, bigger and more intense than they originally were. Eventually you realize that isn’t necessarily the essence of the song. Recording these songs first allowed us to understand what they really were. Now we know which parts should be expanded for the live show and which parts should remain untouched because they’re essential to the song itself.

What would you say the album is about?
Paddy: Time, I think. It’s not a concept album, but whenever we came back to the question of what the album actually feels like, the answer was always time. It feels like a snapshot of who we are right now. A lot of the lyrics deal with how we feel today and with the passage of time itself. More broadly, we’re drawn to music that feels as though it’s moving. We like songs that feel like they’re travelling towards you, carrying momentum and constantly progressing. That idea was reinforced during the recording process because we recorded the entire album on tape. When you spend all day looking at tape machines, you’re constantly watching gears and mechanisms turning. Everything keeps moving relentlessly, and every small piece plays its role. That image really stayed with us. We wanted the album to feel like a mechanism moving forward through time. Not a robotic mechanism, but a very human one. Even though it isn’t a concept record, that’s the idea that stays with us when we think about it now.

Debut albums often carry a particular sense of urgency because bands feel they need to introduce themselves or prove something. Did you feel that pressure?
Paddy: A little bit, but we really tried to ignore it. I think a lot of young bands feel that their first album has to be this huge, defining statement. It has to contain the highest highs, the lowest lows and somehow represent everything all at once. What we kept coming back to was much simpler. We just wanted to write eleven songs that we genuinely loved and felt passionate about. We didn’t want to attach any more significance to it than necessary. If people find deeper meanings in it, that’s amazing. But our goal was simply to make an album we were proud of. For us, that was already more than enough.

A lot of the lyrics feel intentionally open-ended. You don’t always know exactly what they’re about, but you connect with the emotion behind them. Was that a conscious decision?
Paddy: Yeah, definitely.
Reuben: I love songs that don’t hold your hand too much. It’s nice when lyrics leave enough space for listeners to project their own experiences and personalities onto them. A lot of modern music is very direct and descriptive. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and there’s plenty of it that I love, but we wanted something different. We’re relatively private people. If I show my mum or my friends a song, I don’t necessarily want them to be able to work out every single thought or feeling behind it. The meaning is always there, but keeping things a little ambiguous creates a healthy distance for us. It also gives listeners the freedom to find their own meaning in the songs rather than being told exactly what they should think.

You worked with Lauren Humphrey on the album after previously working together on the EPs. What did he bring to the sessions that helped capture your energy without smoothing out the rough edges?
Paddy: He was brilliant. If anything, he probably encouraged even more rough edges rather than smoothing them away. The second EP was really about us getting to know each other. By the time we made the album, we understood each other much better. A lot of what Lauren cares about is capturing an emotionally compelling performance. The album was recorded largely live, with very few overdubs. His attitude is that imperfections don’t matter if the feeling is right. You can get away with wrong notes or slight tempo changes because those things are human. What matters is whether the performance feels alive.
Reuben: He also helped us find the sonic identity of the record. We’re a rock band, but we didn’t want everything to sound huge, polished and overloaded with effects. Our idea was closer to something that sounds like it’s being played through a tiny speaker that’s on the verge of catching fire. That felt much more exciting to us than adding endless layers and production tricks. I was talking about it with Jimmy recently. A lot of rock records feel like incredibly powerful machines built for maximum performance. What interests us more is the feeling of driving an old VW Polo at 100 miles an hour. You feel every vibration, every movement, every flaw. It feels like the whole thing could fall apart at any moment, and that’s exciting. That sense of instability is very close to how we play as a band. We often feel like we’re right on the edge of everything collapsing, and Lauren was great at helping us capture that feeling.

I love the way the record ends, especially with the line, “I’m everything but perfect, but I’m trying, so please keep me around.” Why did that feel like the right closing statement?
Reuben: Interestingly, that song almost didn’t make the album at all. Originally it sounded completely different. Arrangement-wise, it was much more emotional and almost sounded like a Christmas song. We really struggled with it for a long time because it simply wasn’t working. While we were in the States, we visited Lauren’s house and recorded rough demos of the entire album in his living room. We tried that song in all sorts of different ways. Eventually we played it completely differently, recorded one take, and immediately dismissed it. Months later, after we’d recorded most of the album, we decided to listen back to that old demo. Suddenly it didn’t seem bad at all. We tried to recreate it in the studio but could never capture the same attitude and energy. In the end, we used that original demo take because it was the only time we’d ever managed to play it exactly that way. The song itself changed a lot during that process. It originally felt quite sad and was partly about being a bad friend. Over time, however, it developed this hopeful quality. That final lyric became a central turning point. By the end, the whole song felt uplifting, and “I’m everything but perfect, but I’m trying, so please keep me around” felt like the perfect sentiment to leave listeners with. A lot of albums end with a huge statement piece, some grand finale. I liked the fact that our final song feels much more modest. It’s almost like saying, “Thanks for listening.” There’s something very nice about ending the record that way.