Cowboys From Hell

You've seen it before, the Job For a Cowboy logo. These guys are pretty damn good at marketing themselves, and have made a death metal (not deathcore!) career in no time. Here's a quickie with guitarist Bobby Thompson in order to further promote their sophomore effort "Ruination".

Bobby

Since the release of your debut album "Genesis" in 2007 your career has sky rocketed. What's the recipe?

Bobby: "Constant touring I think was the key for us after the release of 'Genesis.' It really helped us get our music out there, and play in front of a lot of different audiences."


When did you have to pinch yourselves to check that the success actually was real?

"We still feel like we're a shitty local band. I don't think it will ever feel like the success is actually real."


What would you say is your biggest achievement so far?

"For me personally playing Wacken was definitely one of our biggest achievements. It was an honor to be a part of that festival."


What do you want to achieve with "Ruination"?

"I don't know, I guess just to keep trying to get our music out to the public and grow as musicians."


Although it should be clear even to my half-deaf grandma by now that Job For a Cowboy has nothing to do with the "core" suffix whatsoever, evil voices saying you're a bunch of young trendfags surfing the metalcore wave can still be heard. What do you have to say about that?

"Well, creatively we wanted to move away from the 'core genre. Not out of any disrespect to the scene or anything just because that's what we wanted to do musically, and we're really happy with the outcome."


There are plenty of good death metal bands out there today, what can Job For a Cowboy add to the scene as a whole?

"I think we, like many other bands, just bring a different style and flavor to the death metal scene. We're still young and we're still growing as musicians and hope to be a part of the scene for a while."


By the way, what's up with the somewhat odd bandname? Is it just a way to stand out?

"It started as a joke and just stuck. There isn't really a story to it."

"Unfurling a Darkened Gospel" video