A Chat with cowman (31.08.22)
The brainchild of musician and academic Ben J. Heal, cowman is a London and Taiwan-based project working through the depths of lo-fi punk aesthetics since 2005. We speak with cowman about his upcoming album slaughter, solo career, future plans and what message he would share if he had the world’s attention for a minute.
OSR: As a solo musician, what are the benefits and disadvantages of working alone?
cowman: Dave Pajo (of Slint) told me how much he hated playing solo as the pressure on you is so intense, that tiny mistakes are acutely apparent. He then proceeded to play one of the most beautiful solo sets I’ve ever seen. I know from my experience that it can be good not having to rely on anyone else; but as my performances rely on lots of tech (drum machine, fx pedals, loopers), problems persist. Bands can help though as you can share your nervousness. In terms of the creative process, I love the absolute freedom of solo work, but lacking boundaries and not getting feedback from others carries its own problems.
OSR: You have performed other various names (birdbath, Mori Mori, Hitobashira-ni, and Coaxial), how do you think cowman differs from the others as a project?
cowman: Birdbath is a full band, but as we moved around the world and became less able to keep it going cowman became my outlet for ideas – then it eventually became its own more raucous entity. Mori Mori was the result of being based in China for four months without anything but a laptop – I formed a band with a friend, borrowed a beat-up acoustic guitar and synth, and produced this weird acid-folk drone album.
Hitobashira-ni came about from discussions I had with a friend about the ultimate invented band, so we came up with ideas about it being haunted, all the members being from a weird cult in Japan who all killed themselves. Then tragically my friend died which prompted me to pursue the project more seriously as a tribute to his inspiration, so I formed a band of his friends (guitar, drums, synth and gong) and we produced this one crazy Krautrock album. Coaxial is mainly an outlet for my electronic ideas – though there is also a more conceptual side of it related to plagiarism and sampling.
To go back to your question, the good thing about cowman is I don’t need to think much about it – it’s mostly a cathartic release.
OSR: What can you tell us about your upcoming album slaughter?
cowman: The new one is another of those lockdown efforts – so much artistic production happened as a result of Covid and slaughter is no exception. I was based in Taiwan when it all started and found myself effectively stranded here due to the ever-changing restrictions. So, with the free time and pent-up rage at various things I was seeing in the news at the time I went full-tilt into doing something new. I’d had a bunch of recordings made between the last one (2013’s Artificial Dissemination) which never really worked as a full album, or which I was not completely happy with – so it was a real catharsis to go for something totally new.
The first track ‘Hydrant’ actually started as a homage to the Undertones’ ‘Teenage Kicks’, which was John Peel’s favourite song. Peel’s Radio 1 show was a big influence when he was alive but following his death and the Jimmy Saville revelations that whole period has been sullied and almost forgotten (Peel has also faced accusations of improper conduct). So the lyrics of the song are in part about this disconnect between heroes and their actions – the good and evil often done by the same people and how that can (or cannot) be reconciled and more importantly, remembered. All the tracks on the album have a deeper context like this – ‘Rinka’ is about the plot to oust UK PM Boris Johnson, ‘Cape Coast Castle’ is about the UK’s Imperial slave-trader past and how it helped to build cities like Bristol, and ‘Blackstock’ is about the murder of Sarah Everard and how that has destroyed trust in the police.
OSR: What do you hope people take from Slaughter?
cowman: I really wanted the album to have an overtly political message and act as a cathartic cleanser. We can remember all these terrible things and people, but can we start to deal with them, come to terms with them, burn them down and start anew with joy and energy and enthusiasm simply for new things?
OSR: What inspires you to make music?
cowman: Inspiration comes from many places. My girlfriend helps a lot; we discuss all kinds of things from avant-garde art to politics. I wrote a thesis on William S. Burroughs so literature of all forms informs my music, as do a whole range of music, bands, labels and genres – Krautrock, Japanoise, early Touch & Go and Alternative Tentacles, Skin Graft Records, ambient, Slint, Hanatarash, Steve Albini, etc. Politics has its place too. I am fascinated by the mechanisms of power and how pathetic and formulaic such systems seem to have become – why are there not more revolutions?
OSR: Do you think slaughter is an evolution in your sound?
cowman: Yes and no. If you listen to my earlier stuff, like 2005’s The Joy of Not Being Sold Anything, the foundations of slaughter are there. It is just now my playing and equipment are better, my vocals are more rounded, and I’ve been able to afford professional mastering (thanks Carl Saff!).
OSR: We always like to ask some “random questions”, so here we go: if you had the attention of the world for one minute, what would you say?
cowman: Hipster slaves of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your anal beads!
OSR: Would you rather be a shark or a whale?
cowman: Female whales are called cows, so it’s gotta be whale.
OSR: What, do you think, is the best way to discover new music?
cowman: Rhizomatically – follow pathways like the branches of a tree, song, album, band, label, other bands, gigs, other bands, etc…
OSR: Do you have future plans as cowman?
cowman: We’ll see. I have some tracks I’d like to put out as singles but that depends on how well slaughter sells. I’d like to play these songs live if I can. I’m trying to book some shows here in Taiwan and I will be playing in Spain next month. So, we’ll see. I have some plans for an analogue-electronic project so who knows what will happen next.
Many thanks to cowman for speaking with us. For more from cowman check out his Bandcamp, YouTube and Spotify.
