Meet The Band

They became friends through playing together and eventually joined the doom group Choka. When Choka lost its guitarist, the remaining rhythm section became the entire band. Cowboy Hunters took form in 2022, swapping the slow weight of doom for shorter songs, faster tempos and a desire to get people moving. Now, both Pollock and Johnston have drums as their first instruments and it’s that commonality that gives their music a percussion led character.

For Cowboy Hunters Pollock and Johnston share bass, drums and vocals, changing instruments during their live performances. Electronic backing fills out the remaining space, allowing them to produce a sound capable of filling rooms far beyond their modest headcount. They maintain an elaborate mythology in which they literally hunt cowboys following some long-forgotten catastrophe. Their Bandcamp biography claims that “69 years have passed since the cowboys attacked”, while interviews have featured an elusive quarry named Slim Jim and tales of society facing ruin at cowboy hands. The joke has continued across interviews, lyrics, merchandise and performances, giving Cowboy Hunters their own peculiar folklore.

Their musical references are equally unpredictable. Johnston has explained that some Cowboy Hunters riffs began as doom ideas played at greater speed. Their stated influences have included Spite, Pitbull, dubstep, Luigi’s Mansion, ABBA and Avril Lavigne related internet culture. Kesha holds a particularly important place in their thinking. Johnston told The Skinny, “We’re more into Kesha than the Sex Pistols”, while Pollock described their sound as “if Kesha played drums”.

Meet The Music

The first Cowboy Hunters releases arrived in 2022 with ‘Hear Me Out’ and ‘Just My Luck’. ‘Losing My Grip’ and ‘Repeating’ followed during 2023, leading into a five-song release that confusingly appears as REPEATING on Bandcamp and From One Speck of Dust to Another on the evil streaming services. The following year brought ‘Body Parts’, ‘Sleep’, ‘Breathe (Then You Die)’ and ‘Gemma’, with producer Ed Meltzer of Pocket Sounds Studio becoming an important recurring collaborator.

Their activity increased throughout 2025. ‘Mating Calls’ arrived in March as the band prepared for the Cowboy Decimation Tour, their first documented UK headline run. Festival performances followed at Kelburn Garden Party, Left of the Dial in Rotterdam, Wild Paths and an Iceland Airwaves off venue event. They also appeared alongside Franz Ferdinand, English Teacher and Bob Vylan. ‘Perfect (Exceeder)’ appeared in July 2025, followed by ‘Money for Drugs’ in November. Early 2026 brought ‘Have A Pint’ and ‘Shag Slags Not Flags’, with both songs included on the five track EPeepee in March. The complete EP lasts a second under ten minutes. Inside that compact running time, Cowboy Hunters address economic anxiety, racism, nationalism, sex, drugs and impending disaster while keeping your feet moving and the jokes coming.

Three From Me

If this is you discovering the band for the first time, you’re probably wondering where to start. Let me give you three songs to enjoy that give you a real flavour of what Cowboy Hunters are all about. First up it’s ‘Gemma’.

Released in September 2024, ‘Gemma’ was the first Cowboy Hunters track I heard. It remains an ideal introduction because it contains humour, pop melody, spite and extreme doom within a couple of minutes. The song uses call and response vocals in a way that feels closer to an argument taking place in a pub. Gemma’s name keeps returning as the central accusation, with each vocal exchange adding another detail to this miniature revenge opus. The comedy element works because the band commit fully to the grievance. Pollock hopes Gemma has missed her chance, then offers the unforgettable wish, “I hope you shit your pants”. I crack up every time I hear it. The line is childish, cruel and beautifully direct, aiming for the exact level of indignity required by the song. Musically, ‘Gemma’ begins with a pop melody that bounces between the vocals and rhythm section. Its lightness makes the central interruption even more effective. Midway through, the tune vanishes and Cowboy Hunters plunge into a doom metal instrumental break. The rhythm becomes heavier; the mood turns ferocious and the song briefly appears to have transformed into another group’s recording. Then the original melody returns as though the interruption never happened. Cowboy Hunters simply resume the argument with Gemma. This song made me laugh, caught me completely off guard and sent me straight towards the rest of their catalogue.

Next up is ‘Mating Calls’ arriving in March 2025 and introduced me to the extent of Pollock’s vocal range. Her performance moves between punk directness, spoken mockery and extraordinary roars that seem to come from somewhere far larger than the person producing them. The group described ‘Mating Calls’ as “a diss track directed at predatory or obnoxious men in smoking areas”. Anyone who has spent time outside a pub, club or venue will recognise the type. These are the men who feel uniquely qualified to offer unsolicited opinions about women’s bodies, clothing and willingness to speak with them. Cowboy Hunters answer that behaviour with two fingers raised high. Pollock’s harsher vocals arrive with startling force, while the conversational passages make the lyrics feel immediate. At one point, she appears to forget what she planned to sing and heads off on a mad tangent instead. The funniest line begins with “You are not a peacock” before delivering a blunt assessment of the man’s anatomy. It is a glorious insult! Johnston keeps the rhythm moving with the same economy heard across the band’s catalogue. There is little excess in a Cowboy Hunters arrangement. Drums, bass and electronics each have a defined job, and the empty spaces give the vocals room to become theatrical. ‘Mating Calls’ uses that sparseness to make every roar, aside and insult feel larger. It is funny, furious and rooted in an experience that many women encounter with exhausting regularity.

My relationship with ‘Perfect (Exceeder)’ began with some confusion. Somebody had to explain to me that it was a cover. I then listened to the Mason vs Princess Superstar original, returned to Cowboy Hunters and reached a firm conclusion. Pollock and Johnston are geniuses. They heard the raw materials inside a familiar dance track and recognised exactly how much damage two drummers, a bass guitar and some screamo vocals could do to it. To my ears, the original now feels tepid beside their version. Cowboy Hunters turn it into a red hot, headbanging floor filler. The instrumentation remains remarkably sparse. Bass and drums carry most of the track, with small electronic signals bleeping through the gaps. The bass provides both riff and melody, while the drums hit with the authority you would expect from musicians who each began behind a kit. Those electronic details retain a connection with the song’s club origins, giving the heavier performance something synthetic to rub against. The scale of the recording fascinates me. Cowboy Hunters use very few components and make them sound huge. Like Mahoosive! Those vocals add another level of force while keeping the hook intact. You can dance to it, bang your head to it or attempt both and accept the consequences.

‘Perfect (Exceeder)’ had passed two million Spotify streams by August 2026, placing it well ahead of the rest of the Cowboy Hunters catalogue. That response makes sense. A familiar title gives new listeners an entry point, and the duo’s treatment tells you everything essential about them within seconds. Now you can too.

Start with these three songs, then head directly to EPeepee and work backwards through the singles. You may have come for the insults, the amazing socials or the threat of a cowboy apocalypse. but you’ll hang about because Cowboy Hunters write songs that make all of it feel entirely reasonable. This cowboy emergency has already produced a very real musical force, and these hunters are gaining ground quickly.

EPeepee is out now, with its long sold-out cassette edition issued via Sour Grapes Records. You can check it out over on the Cowboy Hunters Bandcamp page.

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Photo Credit

Ryan Segedi

Sixtine Cail