Here's a nice interview they did in 2006 which gives a good bit of insight into what they are about:
Earning their spurs
Sunday, July 30, 2006 - By Nadine O'Regan
What a weird old wonderland the MySpace website is. Eight months ago, only their friends and family had heard of Cowboy X. But, in January, when the Irish band created themselves a MySpace page, things began to change fast.
After drafting a brief gnomic biog - ‘‘Cowboy X was a Cowboy from Sesame Street and had a strange obsession with branding everything X and eventually O’’ - and posting up intriguing film noir-influenced photos of themselves, the group offered their gloriously hooky electro-pop single Gabbi to the world.
More than 35,000 listens later, the world e-mailed back their response: they loved the band. ‘‘The numbers [of MySpace fans] just kept going up,” says Karen McCartney, their Carlow-born, 22-year-old lead singer.
And they continue to, leaving their guitarist - and resident MySpace page caretaker - David Grealy with something of a problem. ‘‘David is going stir crazy,” drummer John Hanley laughs. ‘‘He replies to every single comment.
“There’s 14,000 friends there now.”
Today McCartney and Hanley are sitting in the Library Bar, Dublin, next to a chair full of publications all carrying reviews of their impressive and aptly-titled debut album, Who Are These People?
Some of the notices are glowing, others tepid, but all the journalists are paying attention - a crucial feat for a band that lacks the backing of a major label or even a distribution deal.
‘‘I used to think, coming into this, that I would be distraught if I read something negative, but I don’t mind because I’m like: ‘Well, I think the album is good.’ And lots of people like it,” says McCartney.
In many respects, it’s a miracle the record exists at all.
While McCartney is a friendly and revealing interviewee, Hanley exudes the caginess of one who, in the not-so-distant past, was dragged backwards through a hedge (one probably belonging to the NME), had his fingernails pulled out by gleeful music industry honchos, before finally finding himself skewered with the half-moon of his own broken CD.
For all I know, that’s exactly what did happen to him. Before the interview, I read newspaper clippings which revealed that Hanley used to be in a band, Mike TV, but gave it up in 2000, planning never to return to music.
It’s a brilliantly intriguing scenario, and I’m looking forward to finding out what disasters befell the man.
There’s only one problem - Hanley ain’t talking. We have a conversation so staccato on the subject that it borders on the enjoyably ludicrous. Here’s a snippet: Tell me about your previous band.
‘‘I don’t want to talk about that at all.”
What did they sound like?
‘‘I don’t really know. Not very commercial.”
What label were you signed to?
‘‘I don’t want to say.”
What on earth happened to you?
‘‘You don’t want to know.”
But I do! I persist. I do!
No I don’t, I’m told.
So why get back into the music industry again?
‘‘I don’t know,” he says, and it’s like a cry wrenched from the very pit of his soul.
But of course Hanley knows very well. As does McCartney.
‘‘Because he liked the songs too much to let them lie,” she replies brightly, smiling at him. There was also the fact that, brought up in Rooskey, Co Roscommon, 33-year-old Hanley had always wanted to play music.
He moved to Dublin in 1990 - ‘‘the weekend the Pixies played’’ - and, without stopping for college, began his apprenticeship, working as a van driver for bands and ‘‘whoever would hire me’’, making tea at studios and slowly penetrating deeper into the musical labyrinth.
Then in the mid-1990s came Mike TV. Presumably Hanley thought this was his shot at the big time? ‘‘I suppose I did,” he says, his mouth suddenly resembling a clam. And so followed The Years That Dare Not Speak Their Name.
In 2000, when Hanley quit the band, he moved to Lagos, Portugal, where he began dreaming up soundtrack music with his childhood friend David Grealy. The last thing they had intended to do was to start a band together. But they gradually realised that many of their soundscapes needed an extra dimension. They needed vocals.
Back in Dublin, they auditioned several people, but for two years couldn’t find anyone that was just right. ‘‘I’m lucky I’m not 40 now,” Hanley says, sighing.
Finally the duo stumbled across McCartney, a graduate of the sound engineering course at the Temple Bar Music Centre, as well as a singer, guitarist and fan of the likes of PJ Harvey and Tori Amos. ‘‘The minute I heard Karen sing, I was like, ‘Thank Christ’,” says Hanley.
McCartney has a wonderful voice, sounding deeply warm and sultry and - most importantly - very human - against the electronica-infused musical backdrop. Happily for the band, the 22-year-old - no relation to Paul, she points out sorrowfully - also has the fine-boned features of Avril Lavigne and the red tresses of Shirley Manson.
Speaking of Manson, parallels between Cowboy X and Garbage are easy to trace. The males in the band seem to be following the Butch Vig template - Hanley is a qualified sound engineer and manager of Temple Lane Recording Studios, and bassist Adrian Garry is a sound engineer.
McCartney, meanwhile, like Manson, provides the band with a vital injection of youth, not only singing the songs, but also penning the biting lyrics and supplying the band with a striking sartorial appeal.
Today McCartney wears a fabulous, envy-inducing white Alexander McQueen shirt, a gift from the manager of the Jenny Vanders shop in Dublin.
‘‘I think Marion and I must have known each other in a past life,” she beams.
Despite her youth, McCartney never seems intimidated by her position. ‘‘I have never had problems finding my own voice,” she says.
‘‘Some of my so-called friends would talk about this ‘album’ in inverted commas.
“But they’re not friends anymore.
“I don’t know why some people are against you doing things that are off the beaten track. Whatever makes you happy, you know? I’ll probably still be trying to do this when I’m 40.”
Though they’ve made vast strides, there are still plenty of hurdles for Cowboy X to overcome.
While on record they’re a fine proposition, smooth and appealingly quirky, on stage, though they have potential, they exhibit the second-guessing uneasiness typical of a studio act.
At their recent gig in the Crawdaddy, Dublin, they only truly shone when they covered someone else’s song: Dress by PJ Harvey. ‘‘When we first started, we weren’t going to play live, because [the guys] hated it so much,” McCartney says tellingly.
But - in true Cowboy X style - they’re beavering away, rehearsing heavily, to solve the problem. With another EP in gestation, they’d consider a record deal if it granted them sufficient amounts of control.
‘‘I’d love to get maybe three albums out,” Hanley says. ‘‘If a record company gets involved, that would be fantastic.
“A good record company that did a proper job. But there’s absolutely no point in just signing and sitting in a pub waiting for something to happen. I’d rather be out there working.”
Would they like to try their luck in America? God yeah, they chorus. Cowboy X believe in their album. They’d bring it anywhere.
‘‘With my old band, whenever I released a single and handed it to someone, I’d be cringing in embarrassment because I thought it was so bad,” Hanley finishes. ‘‘With this band, I love this album. I’ll hand this album to anyone, say: ‘That’s myself and my two friends. I think it’s brilliant and I’m really proud of it.’ It’s the first time I’ve ever been able to do that in my years of playing music.”
Who Are These People? is available from selected record shops and can be purchased online from
www.roadrecs.com