RED MOON COWBOY
- ballpointpressbne
- Feb 6
- 8 min read
Writer: Joseph Maranta
Returning to the southern coast of Western Australia for a reprieve during their annual migration, the pod of Humpback whales meander with an inherent paranoia around these warm coastal waters. The imposing noise of large boats signals an existential danger to these beasts. Though not sure of the vessels’ intentions, the older whales of the pod instinctively dive deeper into the Indian Ocean once the menacing vibrations draw closer. For the calves however, their reactions are unfortunately much slower.
Confused after seeing its parents abandoning their usual migratory route, the young humpback attempts to follow as the visceral vibrations of the boats continue to home in.
As it veers towards the ocean floor, a harpoon pierces its thick blubber. The singing pain is immediate, and the primed explosive tip of the harpoon shatters the creature's internal organs. The cruelty is unimaginable, but the execution was not successful. There is no immediate death, but instead prolonged agony for the young calf. As it’s drawn back to land, its shattered organs and seeping blood permeate the coastal waters attracting scavenging great white sharks eager to feast on a free meal, courtesy of the poachers.
Once the whaling ship makes landfall, the calf is hung upside down to dry. The young whale can rest peacefully knowing it did not die in vain. Its remains would go on to be used for essential items like perfumes for the bourgeoisie, corsets for the vain and meat for those with a more refined palette.
The circle of life continues, just as intended by mother nature.
The arcane practice of whaling built the coastal Western Australian town of Albany. Fortunately, a practice of the past in our current day, the echoes of the industry still ring out across the regional city.
For Red Moon Cowboy, Albany is woven deep within their psyches. The poignant irony between the town’s awe-inspiring natural beauty and the natural destruction which laid the foundations of its current existence, is something not lost on the post-punk trio.
Now residing in Melbourne, the band fall back on the history of their old home as a source of inspiration for their songwriting. Led by Owen Gust (Vox + Guitar), the trio also comprises Lachie Simpson (Bass) and Bailey O’Neill (Lead). Evoking not just the sound but also the spirit of post-punk - Red Moon Cowboy weaves a sonic tapestry of chaos which delves deep into social commentary addressing the root cause of many issues plaguing our society.
JOE: Cheers for coming for a chat Owen. So you and the band have just recently moved to Melbourne from Perth, what’s that been like?
OWEN: Yeah it’s pretty good man! It’s nice being here finally, it’s something I’ve been thinking of doing for a long time now.
JOE: What spurred the move away from Perth in the first place?
OWEN: I suppose there is a bit of a mass migration of musicians from WA to Melbourne at the moment, though I think that’s always happened. But when you’re in Perth you have certain gripes with the city and I feel like Melbourne is the most dissimilar to Perth in a way, it feels like the answer. It has a grittiness about it, which I think makes it more interesting than other Australian cities. It also has a bigger history of music than a place like Sydney. I don’t know if I’m just making that up but I feel as if I can think of more bands from Melbourne than Sydney.
JOE: So take me back to the start, how did Red Moon Cowboy come to be?
OWEN: Well I was originally in a band called The Manic. Not a fan of that name. I was in the band for a while and it was a collaboration effort. I played guitar and wrote the songs but I didn’t sing any of them and I suppose as I gained more confidence I realised that what I actually wanted to do was in a different direction to the pop music we were making at the time. I wanted to go towards a more alternative sound.
I initially had zero confidence with singing, so when I started I was essentially speaking words on the demos, hoping that someone else would eventually be singing them. Oscar from Alison Parade is a good friend of mine, he was the one who convinced me that I should sing. I was trying to talk him into singing for the band and he said something along the lines of,
“No, you’ve written everything, you’ve done everything you needed. Just suck it up and do the singing yourself.”
I was very unsure to start off, but I’m glad now that I did it. Then with finding the current members, Bailey, who plays guitar for us, is someone I’ve known my whole life. I’ve been playing music with him for ages. Our bass player Lachie is also someone who I’ve known for a long time now, he was a couple years above us in our high school back in Albany. It’s been a natural progression from this little project I had, to slowly adding more members until all of us found ourselves in Melbourne together.
JOE: Why do you think your hometown of Albany produces so many creatives?
OWEN: It’s a combination of factors. Living in a regional area you have to find something to occupy your time, there’s a limited amount of things you can do and with Albany, I feel as if it has just the right amount of people in it where you can find a group to create music with. It's not large enough to have lots to do; you have to make your own fun, to create your own world for yourself.
I also think the landscape of Albany has an impact on people creatively. It definitely has for me at least, a lot of my songwriting reflects the town. It has a moody, almost eerie feel to it. The town itself has a strange history, it’s the oldest Whaling town in the state and it was the last whaling station to close down in Australia. But I think the arts programs within the school’s here also deserve credit for producing so many creatives, they do a great job encouraging students to pursue music.
JOE: One of the singles released in the lead up to the EP ‘A Town by The Sea’, definitely seems influenced by Albany. Do you mind going into more detail about the origins of that song?
OWEN: Albany isn’t a difficult place to grow up in necessarily, but I think the isolation felt there results in a shared experience of turbulence in your early teenage years. In my time there I saw many interesting and strange dynamics between parents and their children, and I wanted to expand on that by creating a folkloric tale, using the whales as a vehicle for that.
JOE: While we’re on the topic of Regional WA, do you mind explaining a bit about the Red Gum Pass festival? As well as the band’s past involvement with it.
OWEN: So my Friend Jeremy runs the festival, I’m actually wearing his band t-shirt right now (40th Parallel). We played it last year in Denmark, WA and it was so much fun, it sold out as well. It’s a great feeling seeing all your friends coming together to support regional musicians. Everyone was in such a great mood, there was no bullshit that you get with major festivals, everyone was there to have fun and discover new music. Jeremy has also moved to Melbourne now, but I think his plans are to keep the festival in Denmark, or regional WA. I reckon the next one will have to expand because it keeps selling out every year, there’s an ever increasing interest - most people from Perth are aware of it now.
JOE: Red Moon Cowboy’s debut EP ‘Astra Castra’ came out today, what was the recording process like?
OWEN: It was all done in Perth, we’ve actually had it finished for sometime now. It’s changed a little bit though, the first two songs were with a different producer, we worked with Ezekiel Padmanabham for the rest of the tracks on the project as well the tracks on our second EP which we’ve been working on. We’ve tried to backlog our music, trying to get as much done as we could in Perth because we knew that we might not have a drummer for a while once we moved over. We wanted to bank up a lot of music so that we can have a consistent release schedule after Astra Castra. Once we released ‘Rome’ back in March of last year, we had a massive break from new music. We didn’t have the money, nor did we know who to record new music with at the time. It was a contemplative phase for us, and afterwards we decided to record around 10 songs or something, to prevent another hiatus from releasing music. That safety net of having music ready is really important to keep up a good release schedule.
JOE: Did you encounter any hurdles or challenges while creating the EP?
OWEN: During the recording sessions we sort of played the tracks how we would live. We didn’t put too much thought into how to slim it down at all, which I think is cool upon reflection because it has a very raw aesthetic. I’m glad that we recorded our debut EP like that. For the next EP I think we’ll try focusing on trimming the fat and spending a lot of time editing those tracks. But to us Astra Castra is a really true representation of what we wanted to do.
JOE: There’s a cool combination of influences on this record. It’s definitely got that post-punk sound but it also has a folk sheen to it. So who were you all inspired by on this EP?
OWEN: I haven’t had many people recognise that folk influence before but, for me at least, it's 100% present in our music. I’m a big fan of Leonard Cohen and I think he has a big influence on the songwriting of the EP. All of our music stems from emotions though, so the ideas and feelings push it towards that folk-style songwriting, as opposed to trying to mimic folk-songwriting from the outset.
But in terms of influences directly, that “post-punk revival” sound has inspired us for sure. Just knowing that the genre has a tangible audience inspires us. Combining the older elements of post-punk / alternative and trying to mesh it with newer pop elements, I feel puts us in an equilibrium between looking to the past as well as the future. Finding inspiration to make something new and exciting is definitely important to us.
JOE: You completed a tour across WA recently, what songs off the new EP had the best response from fans?
OWEN: Astra Castra (the song) always has the best response. It’s always our closing track and we turn the ending into a big, chaotic, exploding mess. It’s so fun to play and it's also one of our oldest songs as well. I’m interested to see how the streaming metrics go, because it is such a long song, but I’m happy we didn’t compromise by trying to condense it.
JOE: So now that the EP is out in the world, what’s next for Red Moon Cowboy this year?
OWEN: Well our drummer will be leaving the band shortly, so finding a new drummer will be a priority. We have something new dropping in a couple months time, and then after that we’ll look towards playing a show in Sydney. We also want to try to break into the scene a bit more in Melbourne, but we’re just going to keep trying to release more music to facilitate that.
JOE: And finally, what is success for Red Moon Cowboy?
OWEN: Doing a Bonds ad, posing in my undies with Rome playing in the background while I’m parachuting off a skyscraper.
RED MOON COWBOY EP LAUNCH AND LINKS
| EP LAUNCH IN COLLINGWOOD | INSTAGRAM | SPOTIFY |
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